I like to say that capitalism is modernity's iteration of the imperial mind, that is rule by practitioners of the I/me/mine/might makes right worldview. Exploiting its material circumstances for its private pleasure, profit, and power is the only freedom it comprehends or cares about. 🌼
I am writing to demand immediate action and accountability for the ongoing crimes against humanity perpetrated by federal, state, and corporate entities. It is no longer acceptable to allow government and corporate employees, including those in public health sectors, to continue functioning while widespread poisoning and mutation of our environment and people is occurring daily.
The use of harmful chemicals, pesticides, pollutants, and various contaminants has been sanctioned, overlooked, and approved by those in power, resulting in immeasurable harm to human lives.
The negligence and complicity of the government and corporations in allowing these toxic substances to infiltrate our communities is nothing short of a violation of basic human rights.
I demand the following actions immediately:
1. Resignation of All Federal, State, and Corporate Officials Complicit in Environmental Harm: This includes any entity that has contributed to or approved the widespread poisoning of the population through chemicals and pollutants. Those responsible must be held accountable for their role in these crimes.
2. Immediate Investigations into Corporate Malfeasance and Government Negligence: The NIH must use its platform to call for urgent investigations into how regulatory failures allowed such extensive contamination, affecting millions of lives.
3. Public Acknowledgment of the Damage Done: The public deserves a full admission of the harm caused by years of unchecked pollution. Transparency is crucial to prevent further atrocities and begin the process of justice and healing.
4. Reparation and Justice for Affected Populations: All communities affected by toxic exposure must receive compensation and support.
This includes medical care, financial reparations, and ongoing monitoring of health conditions directly caused by environmental contamination.
I demand that the NIH stand with the people and take immediate steps to dismantle the systems responsible for the suffering we see today.
This is no longer a matter of research or gradual reform—action must be swift, decisive, and rooted in justice.
Failure to act will only further erode the trust and legitimacy of your institution and the government at large.
The people are watching, and we will not allow these crimes to continue unaddressed.
And *what* did not happen in previous experiments of socialism?
I know that Soviet and Chinese 'State Capitalist' experiments exhibited many of the same negative characteristics of 'private' Capitalism. Is that what you are referring to?
Might I humbly point out that the word socialism did to my knowledge not originate in France. It was invented by Robert Owen in Scotland more than twohundred years ago. Owen was the owner of a textile factory striving for the highest quality of his products. He spent a lot of time on the shop floor, where he controlled the maintenance of his machinery to the highest standards. Then he began to ask the question why do we not offer the same maintenance to our human machinery? Wherefrom he developed his "social experiment" which he then called *socialism*, and whereby he created decent living and working conditions as well as medical care for his workers, abolished child labour, created a school and the first consumer cooperative of the world etc. But in fact his line of thought was a sort of enlightened and responsible capitalism. He was against revolutions and being a capitalist he is despised and forgotten by todays socialists and communists. .
I'm glad you pointed this out, I was going to briefly cover Robert Owen in my next article, so skipped him until then, and focused on the earlier French equivalent of the word Socialism (Socialisme). However, I like to think that Owen is very much remembered here in the U.K. for his reforms and ideals - which did include the idea of ultimately replacing capitalism, which he was trying to subvert with his co-operative and later his commune.
what says you of anarcho capitalism? i dont think defining anarchy and capitolism against one another is necessary. Of course there are crony and corporatist versions of capitolism but if you read murray rothbard, a father of anarcho capitolism, corporations where started for shipping companies to insure against losses. I like private property, capitol, and the price signaling as incentive structures but i believe that the government structures can be liberated from monopolies of force based on coercion. Nonetheless i liked your anarchism article and will read these as well. I may publish my own articles one day as im reading quite a lot.
I’m glad you liked it. I’ll be writing more including covering some of the concepts you bring up.
Personally I’m not convinced you can have Anarchy and Capitalism, because substantial wealth inequality always inevitably leads to unequal power dynamics.
Capitalism requires the value and reliability of currency to be guaranteed, and whoever does that has a hierarchy over the means of exchange.
Capitalism requires privatised property to be protected, and those with the power to protect it have a hierarchy over enforcement and (potential) violence.
Capitalism is literally the private ownership of capital, which excludes some to maintain its value and power. This creates little fiefdoms, with the one having capital having hierarchy with those who need access to it.
But I’ll cover this in more detail later, using specific examples.
there is no society without unequal dynamics due to the tragic view of life. Some countries are resource poor and some are rich. commerce tends to equalize this on the grand scale to the point that 100s of millions today have luxuries like ac and indoor plumbing few kings had access to.
on the contary, the austrians adovocated for multiple competing currencies and were against money without backing and artificial high inflation. Floating exchange rates and consumer choice would tend to favor good money.
yes the whole anarchocapitalism exposed by david friedman is that voluntary private agencies much like how insurance is done could be subscribed to enforce property rights. in some cases low crime or in an area might make them unecessary but just like insurance you could choose to buy when and how much you needed.
you either have lawlessness or communism either way someone is not free to keep the fruit of thier own labor. Marx thought the the worker doesnt keep 100% doesnt make sense because the worker produces in one dimension but consumes in many. If the worker is paid 100% instead of 10% then the hand made clothing costs 10xs as much and he has no savings do to specialization.
The whole genius of a market economy is its voluntarism and uncentralisation yet its order.
But fixing the money, not protecting monopolies, and removing coercive violence and downsizing government so that negative rights not positive are emphasized would be an immese recovery of both wealth and personal liberty.
Aaron, is there anything specifically in the article on Capitalism that you think is inacurate or disagree with?
I think we may be approaching this subject in fundamentally different ways. I just don’t share your ‘tragic’ view that such inequality of hierarchy and power is inevitable or necessary, or that it can’t be avoided or its power removed.
Hierarchy has been resisted and mitigated in the past by more cooperative societies, some of which lasted longer than our current one, such as the Indus Valley civilisation in which the common people had indoor plumbing long before capitalism.
However, if you believe in hierarchy of wealth or power then I don’t think that you are an anarchist, because anarchy literally means anti-hierarchy (no one over anyone else). If you believe in capitalism I don’t see how you are an anarchist either, because capitalism literally means a few private individuals having capital which generates wealth & resources, which others have to pay to access. That is a fundamentally hierarchal (anti-anarchist) power relationship.
You might feel that you could place confidence in private insurance agencies, but I would be willing to to bet they will end up protecting those who pay them more, and ultimately give little to no protection to those who can’t afford to pay them. This is because money warps true value and enforces those who have it having power over those who have less, by means of paywalls or paid force.
I’m not a Marxist so I won’t defend Marx’s views, but anarcho-communism (which existed before him) is a system without money, so you can’t apply the same concepts of prices or wages calculated as they are under capitalism. There are no consumer prices, nor wage labour, nor economic / commodity markets at all within anarcho-communism, nor have such concepts existed for most of human history. I would encourage you to study more about traditional Anarchism so you can have a better understanding of it.
I don’t believe you can have negative rights without positive ones (or vice versa) - you cannot allow what you cannot enable & you cannot enable what you do not allow. A right without a way to exercise it is just a hope unlikely to be realised.
These are bigger subjects than this kind of forum allows room for, so I’d encourage you to pick a specific question / claim to write an article on, sharing the link so I can give a proper response. I’ll look forward to reading it.
i think a key point of austrain economists is that competition creates then breaks up monopolies if the government does not grant monopolies protection.
I don’t believe that is what would happen. Monopolies have existed in the absence of government before. That is what Feudalism was - a monarch or lords having a monopoly on land, goods and trade. Here is an article which touches upon Rothbard’s philosophy and shows some of the defects in it - https://open.substack.com/pub/judgesabo/p/property-is-despotism
[Daniel posted a list of right-wing propagandists and called it a list of unbiased sources, after making many claims he failed to back up in other comments.]
You say that your list of authors you suggest others read is unbiased? These men are highly biased towards right-wing economics, and even some right-wing dictators. Friedman’s biases led to the deaths of tens and thousands of people in Chile (and led to the misery of millions more).
You’d be better off reading:
‘23 things they don’t tell you about Capitalism’ by Ha-Joon Chang (Cambridge U.)
‘Capital in the Twenty First Century’ by Thomas Piketty (Paris & London schools of economics)
‘Talking to My Daughter About the Economy’ by Yanis Varoufakis (Greek Minister Of Finance)
You have no interest in answering my questions honestly or with any evidence (and have left dozens of my questions unanswered and repeated points that have been challenged). You have been wasting my time and that of others who have been reading your comments on my posts.
I hope that you learn to extend your compassion more broadly, as well as your reading choices more widely, and exercise your critical faculties more judiciously.
I like to say that capitalism is modernity's iteration of the imperial mind, that is rule by practitioners of the I/me/mine/might makes right worldview. Exploiting its material circumstances for its private pleasure, profit, and power is the only freedom it comprehends or cares about. 🌼
Excellent. An extremely informative and insightful article, and I can’t wait for the next instalment!
Really useful to trace the history of the terminology like this, thank you.
To all it concerns,
I am writing to demand immediate action and accountability for the ongoing crimes against humanity perpetrated by federal, state, and corporate entities. It is no longer acceptable to allow government and corporate employees, including those in public health sectors, to continue functioning while widespread poisoning and mutation of our environment and people is occurring daily.
The use of harmful chemicals, pesticides, pollutants, and various contaminants has been sanctioned, overlooked, and approved by those in power, resulting in immeasurable harm to human lives.
The negligence and complicity of the government and corporations in allowing these toxic substances to infiltrate our communities is nothing short of a violation of basic human rights.
I demand the following actions immediately:
1. Resignation of All Federal, State, and Corporate Officials Complicit in Environmental Harm: This includes any entity that has contributed to or approved the widespread poisoning of the population through chemicals and pollutants. Those responsible must be held accountable for their role in these crimes.
2. Immediate Investigations into Corporate Malfeasance and Government Negligence: The NIH must use its platform to call for urgent investigations into how regulatory failures allowed such extensive contamination, affecting millions of lives.
3. Public Acknowledgment of the Damage Done: The public deserves a full admission of the harm caused by years of unchecked pollution. Transparency is crucial to prevent further atrocities and begin the process of justice and healing.
4. Reparation and Justice for Affected Populations: All communities affected by toxic exposure must receive compensation and support.
This includes medical care, financial reparations, and ongoing monitoring of health conditions directly caused by environmental contamination.
I demand that the NIH stand with the people and take immediate steps to dismantle the systems responsible for the suffering we see today.
This is no longer a matter of research or gradual reform—action must be swift, decisive, and rooted in justice.
Failure to act will only further erode the trust and legitimacy of your institution and the government at large.
The people are watching, and we will not allow these crimes to continue unaddressed.
Sincerely,
Miechelle Michaelis
816 533 2852
To me capitalism began when someone looked down at the ground they were standing on and said "I own this"
Excellent, looking forward for the next chapter. That image of the cake with the rich at the top is interesting, Do you know where it’s from?
Glad you liked it! It is from The "Pyramid of Capitalist System" cartoon made by the Industrial Workers of the World (1911).
And this did not happen in previous experiments of socialism?
And *what* did not happen in previous experiments of socialism?
I know that Soviet and Chinese 'State Capitalist' experiments exhibited many of the same negative characteristics of 'private' Capitalism. Is that what you are referring to?
Might I humbly point out that the word socialism did to my knowledge not originate in France. It was invented by Robert Owen in Scotland more than twohundred years ago. Owen was the owner of a textile factory striving for the highest quality of his products. He spent a lot of time on the shop floor, where he controlled the maintenance of his machinery to the highest standards. Then he began to ask the question why do we not offer the same maintenance to our human machinery? Wherefrom he developed his "social experiment" which he then called *socialism*, and whereby he created decent living and working conditions as well as medical care for his workers, abolished child labour, created a school and the first consumer cooperative of the world etc. But in fact his line of thought was a sort of enlightened and responsible capitalism. He was against revolutions and being a capitalist he is despised and forgotten by todays socialists and communists. .
I'm glad you pointed this out, I was going to briefly cover Robert Owen in my next article, so skipped him until then, and focused on the earlier French equivalent of the word Socialism (Socialisme). However, I like to think that Owen is very much remembered here in the U.K. for his reforms and ideals - which did include the idea of ultimately replacing capitalism, which he was trying to subvert with his co-operative and later his commune.
what says you of anarcho capitalism? i dont think defining anarchy and capitolism against one another is necessary. Of course there are crony and corporatist versions of capitolism but if you read murray rothbard, a father of anarcho capitolism, corporations where started for shipping companies to insure against losses. I like private property, capitol, and the price signaling as incentive structures but i believe that the government structures can be liberated from monopolies of force based on coercion. Nonetheless i liked your anarchism article and will read these as well. I may publish my own articles one day as im reading quite a lot.
I’m glad you liked it. I’ll be writing more including covering some of the concepts you bring up.
Personally I’m not convinced you can have Anarchy and Capitalism, because substantial wealth inequality always inevitably leads to unequal power dynamics.
Capitalism requires the value and reliability of currency to be guaranteed, and whoever does that has a hierarchy over the means of exchange.
Capitalism requires privatised property to be protected, and those with the power to protect it have a hierarchy over enforcement and (potential) violence.
Capitalism is literally the private ownership of capital, which excludes some to maintain its value and power. This creates little fiefdoms, with the one having capital having hierarchy with those who need access to it.
But I’ll cover this in more detail later, using specific examples.
there is no society without unequal dynamics due to the tragic view of life. Some countries are resource poor and some are rich. commerce tends to equalize this on the grand scale to the point that 100s of millions today have luxuries like ac and indoor plumbing few kings had access to.
on the contary, the austrians adovocated for multiple competing currencies and were against money without backing and artificial high inflation. Floating exchange rates and consumer choice would tend to favor good money.
yes the whole anarchocapitalism exposed by david friedman is that voluntary private agencies much like how insurance is done could be subscribed to enforce property rights. in some cases low crime or in an area might make them unecessary but just like insurance you could choose to buy when and how much you needed.
you either have lawlessness or communism either way someone is not free to keep the fruit of thier own labor. Marx thought the the worker doesnt keep 100% doesnt make sense because the worker produces in one dimension but consumes in many. If the worker is paid 100% instead of 10% then the hand made clothing costs 10xs as much and he has no savings do to specialization.
The whole genius of a market economy is its voluntarism and uncentralisation yet its order.
But fixing the money, not protecting monopolies, and removing coercive violence and downsizing government so that negative rights not positive are emphasized would be an immese recovery of both wealth and personal liberty.
Aaron, is there anything specifically in the article on Capitalism that you think is inacurate or disagree with?
I think we may be approaching this subject in fundamentally different ways. I just don’t share your ‘tragic’ view that such inequality of hierarchy and power is inevitable or necessary, or that it can’t be avoided or its power removed.
Hierarchy has been resisted and mitigated in the past by more cooperative societies, some of which lasted longer than our current one, such as the Indus Valley civilisation in which the common people had indoor plumbing long before capitalism.
However, if you believe in hierarchy of wealth or power then I don’t think that you are an anarchist, because anarchy literally means anti-hierarchy (no one over anyone else). If you believe in capitalism I don’t see how you are an anarchist either, because capitalism literally means a few private individuals having capital which generates wealth & resources, which others have to pay to access. That is a fundamentally hierarchal (anti-anarchist) power relationship.
You might feel that you could place confidence in private insurance agencies, but I would be willing to to bet they will end up protecting those who pay them more, and ultimately give little to no protection to those who can’t afford to pay them. This is because money warps true value and enforces those who have it having power over those who have less, by means of paywalls or paid force.
I’m not a Marxist so I won’t defend Marx’s views, but anarcho-communism (which existed before him) is a system without money, so you can’t apply the same concepts of prices or wages calculated as they are under capitalism. There are no consumer prices, nor wage labour, nor economic / commodity markets at all within anarcho-communism, nor have such concepts existed for most of human history. I would encourage you to study more about traditional Anarchism so you can have a better understanding of it.
I don’t believe you can have negative rights without positive ones (or vice versa) - you cannot allow what you cannot enable & you cannot enable what you do not allow. A right without a way to exercise it is just a hope unlikely to be realised.
These are bigger subjects than this kind of forum allows room for, so I’d encourage you to pick a specific question / claim to write an article on, sharing the link so I can give a proper response. I’ll look forward to reading it.
that sounds wise i will definitely read up and further find out how to go about it. thanks for your detailed replies
i think a key point of austrain economists is that competition creates then breaks up monopolies if the government does not grant monopolies protection.
I don’t believe that is what would happen. Monopolies have existed in the absence of government before. That is what Feudalism was - a monarch or lords having a monopoly on land, goods and trade. Here is an article which touches upon Rothbard’s philosophy and shows some of the defects in it - https://open.substack.com/pub/judgesabo/p/property-is-despotism
[Daniel posted a list of right-wing propagandists and called it a list of unbiased sources, after making many claims he failed to back up in other comments.]
You say that your list of authors you suggest others read is unbiased? These men are highly biased towards right-wing economics, and even some right-wing dictators. Friedman’s biases led to the deaths of tens and thousands of people in Chile (and led to the misery of millions more).
You’d be better off reading:
‘23 things they don’t tell you about Capitalism’ by Ha-Joon Chang (Cambridge U.)
‘Capital in the Twenty First Century’ by Thomas Piketty (Paris & London schools of economics)
‘Talking to My Daughter About the Economy’ by Yanis Varoufakis (Greek Minister Of Finance)
You have no interest in answering my questions honestly or with any evidence (and have left dozens of my questions unanswered and repeated points that have been challenged). You have been wasting my time and that of others who have been reading your comments on my posts.
I hope that you learn to extend your compassion more broadly, as well as your reading choices more widely, and exercise your critical faculties more judiciously.
(edited for clarity)