Predatory Capitalism: Chaining It?, Embracing It?, Controlling it?, Saving it?, Replacing It!

Terminology

• – Political systems: authoritarian/totalitarian or democratic/republic led by socialist or capitalist political parties.
• – Economic systems: predominantly authoritarian controlled by either the state or privately
• – Predatory Capitalism: a replacement/improvement of feudalism. Still an authoritarian (employer/employee) economic system that endeavors to maximize inequality even during periodic crashes
• – Socialism: a critical review of capitalism and over a hundred years of trying to control/replace predatory capitalism

Nation Building

Nations are an amalgamation of many elements. They all include some combination of specific political and economic systems.  History shows most fail with age or with intervention by others.  Some lead to world-wide economic disasters.  Most combinations have been authoritarian in one or more ways and have abused citizens to differing degrees.   Some nations have been more egalitarian and better at equally protecting and empowering their citizens.   By examining mankind’s historical attempts at nation building, we can see how to “build a new model that makes the existing model[s] obsolete.”

The dominant political systems reviewed below are either democratic/republic or totalitarian/authoritarian and are led by capitalist or socialist leaders.  The dominant economic systems are historically authoritarian: slavery (owner/slaves); feudalism (lords/surfs); capitalism (employer/employee).  

In many nations, the authoritarian and democratic political systems try to control/regulate predatory capitalism. The degree of regulation varies from total to almost none.  With the rise of the industrial age, regulation of predatory capitalism has been critical to nation building. A few political systems have experimented with democratic economic systems in place of regulation.

Totalitarian Socialist Control of 20th Century Predatory Capitalism

In the early 20th century, predatory capitalism was wreaking havoc around the world. In response, both socialist and communist parties became serious threats for ending captialism’s abuse. The Soviet Union opted for total political and economic control to stop the abuse.

The Soviet Union created one of the largest socialist-led authoritarian political systems ever known. Their political system totally controlled the economic system with the government as the employer. The Soviet Union was a full-blown authoritarian socialist state.  They effectively banned predatory captialism.  They forbade private ownership and kept workers and consumers out of the decision process.  Eventually, this completely totalitarian empire failed.  

Total Embracement of 20th Century Predatory Capitalism

On the other hand, some countries responded to the threat of 20th century socialist and communist efforts to control predatory capitalism by doubling down with predatory capitalism.

Nazi Germany combined a capitalist-run authoritarian political system, fascism, with predatory capitalism, to fund, maintain and build their malevolent war machine.  Nazi Germany was a full-blown authoritarian capitalist state.   However, a group of more democratic, capitalism-limited, nations defeated this completely authoritarian empire and ended WWII.

Similarly, Italy and Spain attempted this authoritarian, predatory capitalist combination and also failed.

21st Century Democratic Socialist Regulation of Capitalism

Decades later, modern day Germany has a newly elected, socialist-led democratic political system.  This socialist led government is using/regulating a slightly more democratic, but still capitalist-owned, economic system.  Union reps are members of corporate boards of directors. The socialist government maintains and protects public services for citizens like national health care.  

Portugal is much like Germany – a socialist-led democratic political system that provides national public services. It also maintains strong control over their authoritarian, capitalistic economy to minimize its predadory nature.

Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom also used socialist-democratic governments to regulate of their capitalist authoritarian (employer/employee) economic system. They also had a greater focus on equally protecting and empowering all their citizens.  These nations limit the power and influence of capitalist billionaires.

Other nations, like Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia and Chile have governments run by socialist parties. These nations strive to protect their natural resources from capitalist ownership. They use their resources for supporting their people.  The socialist nature of these nations is used to distract us from learning and reevaluating our struggling nation and its failing systems.

Hybridized Authoritarian Socialist Control of Predatory Capitalism

China’s socialist led authoritarian political system has learned from the failure of the USSR. They implemented a hybrid authoritarian economic system.  Some of China’s economic segments are privately run yet government-regulated like European socialist led nations.  On the other hand, some segments are totally government-run for their public nature as was done in the USSR.   The Chinese auhoritarian socialist government runs the political system and totally controls their hybrid economic systems.

Decades of Democratized Capitalism under Fascist and Socialist Political Systems

In the Mondragon region of Spain, they established the best example of a democratic economic system. It has been in use since the end of WWII. This region is a large coalition of worker-run co-ops.  They have eliminated the authoritarian employer from the employer/employee capitalist model and democratized the workplace.   Workers in Mondragon own and manage the means of production. They democratically determine the distributions of their profit among the other profit makers and the business.  

Mondragon workers won’t send their jobs to other countries.   The workers of Mondragon won’t pollute their own communities.   Mondragon workers refuse to pay slave wages to themselves.   The workers of Mondragon don’t let profits accumulate with oligarchs. Oligarchs who would destroy their democratic economy for the sake of maximizing economic inequality.   

Mondragon has operated under both a facist and now a parliamentary constitutional monarchy government.  

FDR’s Legislative Control of 20th Century Predatory Capitalism

In the early 20th century, while Italy, Germany and Spain sought to save predatory capitalism by embracing it and the USSR took total control, FDR limited the predatory nature of capitalism by passing significant legislation that protected and empowered citizens. The New Deal successfully restrained capitalism such that it created the largest and wealthiest middle class of the 20th century.

Oligarchs Endeavor to Preserve US Predatory Capitalism

America has its own capitalist effort to totally embrace predatory capitalism like Germany. In the 20th century, it was led by The Liberty League. The League attempted to recruit retired Marine General Smedley Butler to lead a military coup in 1934. The coup would remove FDR and demolish his New Deal. The oligarchs funding the coup embraced predatory capitalism that concentrated wealth in their pockets. To hell with the middle class.

Like most nations, USofA has been struggling with a 400 year old authoritarian economic system – predatory capitalism.     Each time its oligarchs have gained the upper hand, the nation has suffered.  The slave-owner oligarchs started a Civil War.  The Industrial Revolution oligarchs gave us the Great Depression.  Today’s oligarchs gave us the Tech Bubble, The Great Recession and have become unimaginably wealthier during the COVID pandemic.

Our democratic political system struggles to prevent our authoritarian economic system from maximizing inequality. The authoritarian economic system enables the oligarchs to buy/privatize/co-opt our democratic political system and its public resources.   The oligarchs goal is to replace our democracy. They want an authoritarian plutocracy that will protect and further empower predatory capitalism and increase their excessive wealth.  

Since the failed coup of FDR, oligarchs have gained more power and undone most of FDR’s New Deal. They are closer to ending Social Security and Medicare than ever before.  They have returned us to a struggling democratic political system that is again threatened by unchained, predatory capitalism.  

A Nation Optimized For All of Us – Replacing Authoritarian Political/Economic Systems with Complimentary Democratic Ones

The key element that adversely impacts the political/economic combinations above is authoritarianism. Either or both of the systems are authoritarian in nature. What we have not seen is a combination where both systems are optimized for democratic operation. We have democratic political systems controlled by citizens through socialist factions like in Europe to maintain public services. But we’ve never combined that with a democratic economic system controlled by the workers to maintain private services.

Let’s create a more democratic political system where all voting age citizens can freely vote. One where we aren’t limited to two capitalist political parties. Where even if oligarchs still exist, they can’t bribe our democratic representaitives. Where tools abused by abusive political minorities, like the filibuster, are controlled or eliminated. To that add a democratic economic system where workers decide how their profits are distributed. Where oligarchs can’t exist to use their wealth to destroy our democratic systems.

This combination would provide an optimized political/economic combination that focuses on equally protecting and empowering all citizens and workers.  It eliminates the threat of authoritarianism in both our political and economic systems.  It would prevent predatory capitalism and the protection and empowerment of the excessively wealthy. The combined democratic systems would empower citizens and workers to fairly distribute political equality and economic wealth.

We can create “a more perfect union.” A hybrid version of democratic political and economic systems that is the inverse of China’s hybrid, all-authoritarian, experiment.  We’d have a more democratic  political system, where voting is protected and empowered for all breathing citizens. We’d have a more democratic economic system than 21st century Germany.   Both democratic political and economic systems would protect and empower each other.  

Stop fighting what doesn’t work.  Build something new.