by Fletch » Tue Aug 13, 2019 2:27 pm
Good article Jack. It does paint a rather rosy picture of Europe, which compared to the US it is, but it's not quite as rosy as he thinks. There may be healthcare and education but it's not immune to capitalism with private providers and insurance giants in control of a lot. It's the same for many formerly publicly owned public services such as utilities and infrastructure. It is true that we are far, far better than the US but it's not as good or hopeful as it once was.
The NHS is a good example of what was once owned by the many providing service for the many. It's now carved up in to smaller competing entities even within the NHS thanks to Thatchers internal market. That, or course, made it far easier to sell bits off until it has ended up with us not even owning the Hospitals, let alone the service provided in many cases. Water, electric, gas, rail, buses and whole host of other 'necessities' for living are also now private with high costs.
I never understand why people use predatory capitalism. There's no such thing canny. It's simply capitalism. People only describe it as predatory because they can't admit that, that is what capitalism is by nature. The ones with the largest amount of capital can call the shots and do what they want. When it extends to something some people don't agree with, it gets a new title. It shouldn't. It's all the same one thing, capitalism.
Let's not forget the ultimate capitalists. Banking. They can create and delete capital at the stroke of a pen key. Central banks can do it unlimited, commercial banks up to a certain level but it amounts to huge power. Countries are dependent on private banks for their money supply, there is no sovereign money (save for a few Middle East/Cuba/NK) That is the real problem for the world but not one that will change until total collapse.
Good article Jack. It does paint a rather rosy picture of Europe, which compared to the US it is, but it's not quite as rosy as he thinks. There may be healthcare and education but it's not immune to capitalism with private providers and insurance giants in control of a lot. It's the same for many formerly publicly owned public services such as utilities and infrastructure. It is true that we are far, far better than the US but it's not as good or hopeful as it once was.
The NHS is a good example of what was once owned by the many providing service for the many. It's now carved up in to smaller competing entities even within the NHS thanks to Thatchers internal market. That, or course, made it far easier to sell bits off until it has ended up with us not even owning the Hospitals, let alone the service provided in many cases. Water, electric, gas, rail, buses and whole host of other 'necessities' for living are also now private with high costs.
I never understand why people use predatory capitalism. There's no such thing canny. It's simply capitalism. People only describe it as predatory because they can't admit that, that is what capitalism is by nature. The ones with the largest amount of capital can call the shots and do what they want. When it extends to something some people don't agree with, it gets a new title. It shouldn't. It's all the same one thing, capitalism.
Let's not forget the ultimate capitalists. Banking. They can create and delete capital at the stroke of a [strike]pen[/strike] key. Central banks can do it unlimited, commercial banks up to a certain level but it amounts to huge power. Countries are dependent on private banks for their money supply, there is no sovereign money (save for a few Middle East/Cuba/NK) That is the real problem for the world but not one that will change until total collapse.