How to explain geopolitics to your kids Question: If on your vacation you arrive in a new country and do not know which economic system rules there, how can you find out whether it is capitalism or socialism? Answer: Go to the best beach on a warm summer day - enjoy the swim and relax in the sun. After a while, when the need of an ice cream arises, look around to see where the ice cream sellers are located....
In China humanoid robots are now outperforming humans in marathons. Why should not the same happen to dancing? Class Robots It takes two for capitalism to dance - capitalists and workers. In the 1980s capitalists were nearly eradicated, but neoliberalism rescued them from extinction. From that time wages gave up following productivity - workers were held on the subsistence minimum of modern society and capitalism blossomed once more. Since then automation and robotics have arrived from the wonderful world of technology....
It takes two for a tango. And it takes two classes for capitalism to dance - capitalists and workers. Much focus has been put on the fact that wages have to be above subsistence for the working class - and thus capitalism - to function. Less attention has been given to the critical level of capitalist consumption for the capitalist class to survive. Untill now. What happened around 1980? In an intriguing new article Nicolas Villarreal demonstrates that the capitalist class experienced a near-death event around 1980 and was only saved by the neoliberal turn....
Simplicity as Enemy When things are simple and works well people are happy with what they have. Happy people don’t want ‘Change’ - they want to go on with what they have. Then ‘Development’ isn’t neccesary, that’s a problem - for ‘Capital’. Capital needs ‘Growth’ - and don’t get it! So ‘Simplicity’ and ‘Capital’ don’t go together. As ‘Capital’ is (in) ‘Power’, ‘Simplicity’ will loose. Simple things thats works well are pulled from the market....
Each morning or afternoon I go to the nearby beach for swimming. Here in Spain the beach zone (100m) is declared public land. However, corrupt local politicians have managed to let in hotel businesses and allowed them to enclose their gardens and pools by fences or walls. After a while the hotel owners think they own the land as well - and put up signs and lock the doors to keep the public out of ’their’ part of the public zone....