Post by urgeintheicebox on Nov 7, 2007 11:23:20 GMT -5
Capitalism is not Corporatism.
Major Record Industries subsist off of grand sums of tax dollars, designated to them by the United States Federal Government, in the form of subsidies. This is not merely inherent to the United States Major Record Industry but virtually any and everything you find in the nearest general store, supermarket, vending machine, newstand, etc. Capitalism, laissez-faire capitalism, is not what is practiced by the United States. We must make this clear above all else when discussing the current state of American economics. We are not a capitalist nation, we are a fascist state in the strictest sense of the word: the combining of government and corporations. This term, "fascist" of course, is not meant to imply Nazism, but rather, Italian Fascism, what Mussolini found favorable as a means of the general welfare, the collusion between government and business.
The "invisible hand" is also a poor analogy to use when referencing laissez-faire economics, this is because: 1) The "invisible hand" is a moral construct, created by Adam Smith, used in the Theory on Moral Sentiment and only once referenced in An Inquiry into the Wealth of Nations, as a moral qualifier, not an economic qualifier. 2) Adam Smith's use-value theorum, which Karl Marx concurs with, that being the belief that there is an inherent worth to a commodity, assessed through labor, is incorrect through the comprehension of a free-market advocate. Value, according to the economic libertarian, is subjective, in all instances. There is no inherent worth to any commodity or thing present in this existence. Worth stems only from the moment in which an individual feels the item might allieviate the unease he/she feels by not yet having acquired the item in question, cds, t-shirts, food, healthcare, oil, etc.
This is why it is poor taste to call Major Record Industries in the United States the epitome of capitalism. Being that they: a) recieve stolen wages from the United States Federal Government and as a result b) do not embrace capitalism. The true capitalists of today (in the United States) are libertarians. Be they members of the Libertarian Party or simply individuals who see government as strictly a device to protect their Constitutional rights and not intervene in the economy of the United States, they are the current breed of laissez-faire capitalists who see it far more practical and efficient that business and governmental entities have nothing to do with one another. In the instance of the internet, the libertarian seeks the ability of consumers to purchase the commodities they wish, while observing the right of the business to sale their goods. There is nothing "red" about law being upheld, insofar as it is the property of the individual being violated by another i.e. peer-to-peer filesharing that is the issue at hand and not the money of the consumer being placed into the coporatist tie with business.
To imply a socialistic aspect of the internet would be more along the lines of the RIAA becoming a governmental organ or perhaps, to reminese, the PMRC regulating the content of records. Nonetheless, as long as Major Record Companies persist off the subsidizing of the music industry, there is no place in which to speak of capitalism being upheld, or the presence of a paradox between free-market capitalism and regulatory measures taken against peer-to-peer filesharing networks. This is because, as stated, the government acts as a pedistal for the record industry, much like the thousands upon thousand of other products subsidized. For as long as the citizenry of the United States fail to recognize this, further problems will arise from the coporatist actions by the United States Federal Government.
Anarcho-capitalism is but one alternative in terms of anarchy. The word 'anarchy' itself makes (more often than not) most people think of either violence or communism. However, even capitalism can take form within anarchy. Anarcho-capitalism is, in fact, what several laissez-faire economists of the 20th Century advocated in their writings (see Murray Rothbard). The specific nominclature of "anarchy" means a world of different for the issue of a "paradox".
Major Record Industries subsist off of grand sums of tax dollars, designated to them by the United States Federal Government, in the form of subsidies. This is not merely inherent to the United States Major Record Industry but virtually any and everything you find in the nearest general store, supermarket, vending machine, newstand, etc. Capitalism, laissez-faire capitalism, is not what is practiced by the United States. We must make this clear above all else when discussing the current state of American economics. We are not a capitalist nation, we are a fascist state in the strictest sense of the word: the combining of government and corporations. This term, "fascist" of course, is not meant to imply Nazism, but rather, Italian Fascism, what Mussolini found favorable as a means of the general welfare, the collusion between government and business.
The "invisible hand" is also a poor analogy to use when referencing laissez-faire economics, this is because: 1) The "invisible hand" is a moral construct, created by Adam Smith, used in the Theory on Moral Sentiment and only once referenced in An Inquiry into the Wealth of Nations, as a moral qualifier, not an economic qualifier. 2) Adam Smith's use-value theorum, which Karl Marx concurs with, that being the belief that there is an inherent worth to a commodity, assessed through labor, is incorrect through the comprehension of a free-market advocate. Value, according to the economic libertarian, is subjective, in all instances. There is no inherent worth to any commodity or thing present in this existence. Worth stems only from the moment in which an individual feels the item might allieviate the unease he/she feels by not yet having acquired the item in question, cds, t-shirts, food, healthcare, oil, etc.
This is why it is poor taste to call Major Record Industries in the United States the epitome of capitalism. Being that they: a) recieve stolen wages from the United States Federal Government and as a result b) do not embrace capitalism. The true capitalists of today (in the United States) are libertarians. Be they members of the Libertarian Party or simply individuals who see government as strictly a device to protect their Constitutional rights and not intervene in the economy of the United States, they are the current breed of laissez-faire capitalists who see it far more practical and efficient that business and governmental entities have nothing to do with one another. In the instance of the internet, the libertarian seeks the ability of consumers to purchase the commodities they wish, while observing the right of the business to sale their goods. There is nothing "red" about law being upheld, insofar as it is the property of the individual being violated by another i.e. peer-to-peer filesharing that is the issue at hand and not the money of the consumer being placed into the coporatist tie with business.
To imply a socialistic aspect of the internet would be more along the lines of the RIAA becoming a governmental organ or perhaps, to reminese, the PMRC regulating the content of records. Nonetheless, as long as Major Record Companies persist off the subsidizing of the music industry, there is no place in which to speak of capitalism being upheld, or the presence of a paradox between free-market capitalism and regulatory measures taken against peer-to-peer filesharing networks. This is because, as stated, the government acts as a pedistal for the record industry, much like the thousands upon thousand of other products subsidized. For as long as the citizenry of the United States fail to recognize this, further problems will arise from the coporatist actions by the United States Federal Government.
Anarcho-capitalism is but one alternative in terms of anarchy. The word 'anarchy' itself makes (more often than not) most people think of either violence or communism. However, even capitalism can take form within anarchy. Anarcho-capitalism is, in fact, what several laissez-faire economists of the 20th Century advocated in their writings (see Murray Rothbard). The specific nominclature of "anarchy" means a world of different for the issue of a "paradox".
