Vote!

Is capitalism finished?

35% are saying yes
65% are saying no

comments from readers

Carl Jones
01 October 2008

Its a good, if over simple question. It should be the end of capitalism, but I fear its not. The markets might be crashing and banks going bust. But in reallity, this is the elite (NWO) consolidating their power. The public have been mugged, their pension funds raided and their tax burden has gone through the roof. Plenty of people have lost their lush jobs in the City and on Wall Street. This is just a rapid restructuring and this was achieved by hacking into the trading systems and flagging up false values in targetted banks. Once traders reacted, the real value fell to that indicated on traders screens, then another lower false value was flagged and so it went on.

This last weekend, US Congressmen were denied access to meetings in Washington. One Congessman said the US was in a state of marshal law and that there had been a coup.....I am sure he was refering to the criminality that was going on behind closed doors.LOL

It might take capitalism 5 to 10 years before it can leave its hospital bed. But plenty can happen in that time.

One thing is for sure, globalization has stopped.....have they done this because the globalization scam no longer benefits the NWO.....or could it be that Earth simply can`t be plundered (oil) at the current rate, just for false profit?

I don`t care about capitalism, because I believe its really communism with incentives. However, I do believe we are entering a new dark age, a very sinister period in human history....the government claims the tax take has dropped, the public are up their eyes in debt.....so will Ms Smith drop ID cards?LOL Will the government drop its expensive DNA master race data base?LOL

The events of last year and the last week and a half should be set in context.

The breakup of the Eastern Bloc. The sham war on terror, NWO imperialsm in Iraq, Afghanistan and South Ossetia and now a RIGGED financial meltdown.....

....BTW, there is much more to follow and its all pretty dark stuff.LOL

chaim
01 October 2008

capitalism is changing, adapting, evolving.
It's up to us to make it ethical, compassionate and spiritual as soon as possible ...

peter jones
02 October 2008

I wish it was but until we overcome human greed, the alternatives based on sustainability and equity won't catch on

swatantra nandanwar
02 October 2008

yes

Yes, for the time being anyway. It will be replaced by socially responsible enterprises, for the time being anyway.

Alan J Carter
02 October 2008

In a free and democratic society capitalism in some form is inevitable. If capitalism is finished so is freedom.

npgdavies
02 October 2008

Don't be daft. Markets go up and down. This is a bad downturn, but capitalism will go on.

Cybertiger
02 October 2008

Rich and thick, George Bush is the cream of American democracy: the fat cat capitalist loves his cream and will always flourish.

mrandyc
02 October 2008

I wish it was true but governments will never let it fail.

gnuneo
02 October 2008

absolutely not. What has happened is the grotesque plundering of the People's productivity has hit the edge yet again (as it did in the 1920s), far too much money has been stolen away from people's incomes into the accounts of the ultra-wealthy, and this inevitably eventually crashes the system. (People cannot afford to buy the goods and services they themselves provide).

but this is NOT "Capitalism" - it is Feudal Capitalism, a precursor to proper Capitalism.

Capitalism began with the end of slavery/serfdom, instead of the people/workers being literally owned by the few, instead they owned their own capital. This kick-starts the consumer/mass production cycle, and liberates the economy from a few decision makers.

unfortunately (and in fact the American Founding Fathers argued this out), we entered not into Capitalism, where all the workers own the companies equally themselves, but into Feudal Capitalism, where a worker's labour is not owned by themselves, but is owned by others, and they get a small % of the productivity back as "wages", and the profit once again goes to the plantation owners, the mill owners, the bank owners. This wage slavery is better than direct slavery, but it does not meet the requirements of full Capitalism, and leaves the possibility the few will consolidate control of the economy, and plunge us all into recession/depression.

Capitalism is certainly not dead, and there is a fair chance that this crisis will actually strengthen it again, after the neo-liberal attack upon its precepts for the last few decades.

http://www.newstatesman.com/200708300023

Frank Amies
02 October 2008

Regrettably no. The greed of the people in The City together with the need of the Tory Party to keep the rich sweet means the capitalists will survive. Shame

suell
02 October 2008

no, that would be wishful thinking, but, hopefully, this is the time to reframe the concept ,and control shareholders' profits and stranglehold on the economy.
Sue lloyd

scientific earthling
03 October 2008

The rich will continue to dominate the world. As world population heads for 7 billion, a larger proportion of people will be forced to live in dire poverty, including in first world nations. Human life becomes cheaper, suicide becomes an attractive alternative for the more rational. Stalinist laws passed to prevent terrorism will be used to control population behaviour.

Londonschild
03 October 2008

Its a flexible beast but we need to move back to trading and making capitalism not toxic finance capitalism.

sean.hm
03 October 2008

The day capitalism ends will be the day we run out of oil or renewable energy. We will then have to think of better ways to trade and run our economies which may change the social structure of the world.

Mahler
03 October 2008

Sadly not. And I fear that unless a democratic left worth the name puts forward some alternatives then it'll be the poor around the world who will have to pay for the latest crisis.

Nilsey105
03 October 2008

we wish

Oh Dear
03 October 2008

Don't get excited guys. It is not going to follow Socialism into history!

lemmy
04 October 2008

capitalism is a human invention abstracted from double entry bookkeeping and the telegraph wire to order fossil fuel distribution. whe fuel goes the so will capitalism as we know it but unfortunately exploitation of the weak will continue.

Gerishnakov
04 October 2008

It's not and probably never will be, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. This crisis should show the world however that unbridled capitalism is not a good thing, and only a highly regulated, mixed economy can deliver what society needs.

Garreth Byrne
04 October 2008

It will keep adapting. People are always on the lookout for new opportunities to make money. Governments, right- and left-leaning, will have to intervene from time to time to regulate new crises and scams. The middle classes will continue to expand, while the underdogs will continue to come largely from nonwhite ethnic backgrounds. Sections of the middle classes will continue to have a social conscience and work for gradual change. Only a total depletion of the earth's finite resources could end capitalism. It could end human civilization as we know it too.

AfricanSnowman
04 October 2008

yes

The truth is that "classical" capitalism died several decades ago when "cronyism" was disguided, with considerable assistance form the media, as capitalism.

Recent events show that western nations, and therefore the rest of the world, are just moving to a new phase of "ultra cronyism". The majority of the world's population, including those living in the so called western liberal democracies are just being screwed, AGAIN!!

proxmire
05 October 2008

yes

What has ended is the economic basis of opportunism. The shift in the world economic center of gravity has ended the need of the capitalist state for this political trend. This is the real meaning of the New Labour project and why it is indistinguishable from Toryism. What the bourgeoisie needs now is naked fascism, already making inroads in Europe.

Of course since the Labour Party is oblivious to its own history it is incapable of understanding this. Tragically, the working class can only learn it through the bitter experience that lies ahead of it in the coming whirlwind. Inexorably, in time we will see the Labour Party voting war credits in the impending world conflagration, just as its predecessors did in WW1.

Titos Christodoulou
05 October 2008

Rumours about its demise are premature. Capitalism is still here, only that its learning curve took a steeper slope. The winners in the game are now learning, and have just discovered the luxuries of slow and productive, i.e. socially usefull life. The are going into teaching, so soon after they were grounded in learning their lesson...

dl8326
05 October 2008

Financial panics have existed as long as there has been such a thing as finance. They are ultimately the result of two ineffaceable aspects of human nature: the herd mentality and the desire for greater wealth and comfort. Attempts to eradicate them are doomed to fail, akin to trying to pass laws against bad weather. For individual people, prudence and wisdom are the only inoculants against them; and if the bankruptcies and impoverishment of a few, are required to teach a necessary lesson to the many, we should not be too quick to shield a panic's victims from the consequences of their recklessness. Indeed, what we may have witnessed these last few months, is the result of 70 years of attempting to do precisely that.

Stephethgeth
05 October 2008

I think, unfortunately, it is the residual global 'bad smell', however much politicians purport to condemn it.

alexgleith
05 October 2008

silly question. Is evolution over?

chukkiegg
06 October 2008

yes

If it isn't, then most of the NS readership ought to be.

jason from weymouth
06 October 2008

I wish beyond life itself that it was but alas the malignant tumour of our socio-economic existance is here for a while yet.

William
06 October 2008

this is the Brave New World with Internet visability, the opening preamble from the New World Order quidProQuo.

mla
07 October 2008

yes

Capitalism needs to REFORM. There need to be checks and balances. The present collapse is indicative what has gone wrong with capitalism over the past ????? years. At the present time big corporations rule the existing "democracies" and get away with murder and all their greed. The population needs to resume some control.

nawawimohamad
07 October 2008

No, on what basis? People have to do business and continue making money. The financial fiasco in the US is insignificant in terms of numbers compared to the amount of world trade, just a drop in the ocean to have any effect on the world's economy. Bad speculation is more detrimental. Capitalism is here to stay.

ScottBronstein
07 October 2008

No. Without a properly organised and radicalised work force capitalism will continue to keep its iron grip on the masses. It passes through inevitable crisis after crisis, jumping backwards and forwards between liberalisation and regulation. It has survived before and the unrelenting greed of its masters will allow it to survive again.

clintoncallahan
07 October 2008

yes

Capitalism is immature child's play being replaced by the far more satisfying game of serving the well-being of every individual developing to a fully mature consciousness.
Capitalism? www.just-stop.org!

OzTones
07 October 2008

...though it should be in its current form. Unfortunately it's even unlikely that this opportunity to remodel it in the interests of the many will be taken to good effect. We can see this already - all governments' actions and mainstream commentary continue to be within the parameters of the existing system. It is likely that even the UK government's buy-in to the banks will carefully avoid any suggestion of a real (though partial) nationalisation. The Banksters who have created the problem will continue to hold the reins, and our money system will sadly remain debt-based. See Money as Debt 5-part doco on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVkFb26u9g8

rogshar
07 October 2008

There is no better alternative

writeon
08 October 2008

yes

'Capitalism' was finished a long time ago. What we've got now is something unrecognizable from the myth and the rhetoric. It's really a form of corporate state, where the 'free market' has merged with the power of the state into a new whole. What even a conservative, a liberal Republican, like Eisenhower called the 'military, industrial, complex. He was going to add 'state' to the list, but was was talked out of it at the last moment.

The really important question is; will 'capitalism' finish the rest of us off or not? By 'us' I mean the flaura and fauna and eventually mankind along the way. If around 25% of the species on the planet are on the verge of exstinction, how long have we got before it comes to our turn. Endless consumption and boundless greed, played out on a planet with finite resources, is a recipe for disaster in the long run: but then 'captitalism' is all about the here and now profit, leave the externalized costs to future generations.

john frost
08 October 2008

yes

The UK's greatest export has been it's jobs to China.
This is just an adjustment for the lie that we can survive on dining out and having our haircut. It will take some time to reimport our industrial base. Capitalism thanks to the G8 is in intensive care and will never be the same,