There is no plan. Capitalism is not a cohesive scheme deliberately engineered and steered by the bourgeoisie. It’s an engine that was set into motion at one point and has been trucking on by itself ever since. It preserves itself by rewarding those who uphold it and punishing those who dissent.
Let’s say Jeff Bezos got the Ebenezer Scrooge treatment tonight and woke up a changed man who genuinely cares about his workers. If he tried to improve labor conditions at Amazon and it cut into profits, Amazon shareholders would sue into oblivion and some board of directors would appoint a new guy who’s willing to do whatever it takes to make number go up. Every politician who tries to change the system gets drowned out by corporate donors simply protecting their short-term interests and every corrupt politician who works to maintain it gets rewarded.
There’s nobody at the steering wheel here. The bourgeoisie is along for the ride just like you and me, they just have nicer seats. Capitalism sustains itself through the immediate short-term incentives it creates. If you sell out, you can have a nice life right now. If you don’t, someone else will.
To prevent possible misunderstandings, let me say this: I don’t paint the figures of the capitalist and landlord in rosy colors—far from it. But individual persons play a role here only insofar as they are the personifications of economic categories, or the bearers of particular class relations and interests. My approach treats the development of society’s economic formation as part of natural history, as that type of process, and no other approach does less to make the individual responsible for conditions that he remains a creature of socially, however much he manages to transcend them subjectively.
— Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Preface to the 1867 Edition (Paul Reitter translation)
Correct analysis, and why systemic change is necessary and reformist movements are doomed to fail. Reformers necessarily disempower themselves under capitalism but keep the fundamental systemic incentives that ultimately lead to their efforts being undermined and themselves supplanted.
But to add to this, I think there could be, and sometimes even were, someone at the wheel of the capitalist system. This is the purpose of the US government. At some points in its history, it had people who were willing to moderate the tragedy of the commons enough for the bourgeoisie to benefit long-term by being forced to make short-term concessions (think FDR).
However, this is one of those cases where the base eventually overpowered the superstructure. The underlying law of capitalism (namely that of exponential capital accumulation) selects and/or bribes politicians to allow capitalists unlimited short-term profit maximization; after all, capitalists who don’t bribe their way are eventually outcompeted, stripped of their capital, and replaced by those who do.
Ironically, this short-term maximization of profits lowers the long-term stability of the system itself, and gives us a path to destroy the system eventually.
There is no plan. Capitalism is not a cohesive scheme deliberately engineered and steered by the bourgeoisie. It’s an engine that was set into motion at one point and has been trucking on by itself ever since. It preserves itself by rewarding those who uphold it and punishing those who dissent.
Let’s say Jeff Bezos got the Ebenezer Scrooge treatment tonight and woke up a changed man who genuinely cares about his workers. If he tried to improve labor conditions at Amazon and it cut into profits, Amazon shareholders would sue into oblivion and some board of directors would appoint a new guy who’s willing to do whatever it takes to make number go up. Every politician who tries to change the system gets drowned out by corporate donors simply protecting their short-term interests and every corrupt politician who works to maintain it gets rewarded.
There’s nobody at the steering wheel here. The bourgeoisie is along for the ride just like you and me, they just have nicer seats. Capitalism sustains itself through the immediate short-term incentives it creates. If you sell out, you can have a nice life right now. If you don’t, someone else will.
— Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Preface to the 1867 Edition (Paul Reitter translation)
Correct analysis, and why systemic change is necessary and reformist movements are doomed to fail. Reformers necessarily disempower themselves under capitalism but keep the fundamental systemic incentives that ultimately lead to their efforts being undermined and themselves supplanted.
Order of Lenin post. Really well put.
Your leaders were lying. NOBODY’S DRIVING buh-dugududa-buh-dugudusa-buh-beeneenowneeeow
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Great comment!
But to add to this, I think there could be, and sometimes even were, someone at the wheel of the capitalist system. This is the purpose of the US government. At some points in its history, it had people who were willing to moderate the tragedy of the commons enough for the bourgeoisie to benefit long-term by being forced to make short-term concessions (think FDR).
However, this is one of those cases where the base eventually overpowered the superstructure. The underlying law of capitalism (namely that of exponential capital accumulation) selects and/or bribes politicians to allow capitalists unlimited short-term profit maximization; after all, capitalists who don’t bribe their way are eventually outcompeted, stripped of their capital, and replaced by those who do.
Ironically, this short-term maximization of profits lowers the long-term stability of the system itself, and gives us a path to destroy the system eventually.
It has a level of tacit cohesion because its all underpinned by white supremacist logic. That’s what makes western empires effective.