USA Capitalism is no Longer working

https://fee.org/articles/how-to-return-to-the-gold-standard/

"Certainly if the United States went on a gold standard, it would have to carry out many reforms. The federal government would really have to stop inflating, balance its budget, and abandon welfare state programs. Most voters are not ready for such reforms. And politicians, pressured by voters and special interest groups for favors, hesitate to pass them. Thus the major stumbling block to monetary reform is ideological. If this basic obstacle could be overcome, however, a return to gold money would become a realistic possibility"

... I get the picture, you have to "abandon welfare state programs".

and revert to the inequality of unregulated capitalism 1920's style...which will produce the same results as post 1970's neoliberalism - still based on capitalism - namely, another inequality disaster.

 

You don't get any picture, you're a MMT er...you are so far removed from capitalism there's no possible way for you to comprehend

 

Wrong again. (Forget MMT for the moment; your lack of ability to discuss the relevant points is beginning to show, as expected ....)

Goal: harnessing the creativity of self-interested profit-seeking capitalist competition (according to individual ability) in "invisible hand" markets, while ensuring fair (= above poverty) participation for all working age citizens.

It's impossible for capitalism to create full employment AND counter a developing inequality disaster, either with unregulated capitalism with gold standard as in the 1920's, or neoliberal capitalism without gold standard, as in the post 70's era. History proves that much.

That's why the authors of the 'return to the gold standard' article quoted previously observed "the federal government must stop inflating, balance its budget, and abandon welfare state programs." Anything else is "ideological'...well blow me down, eliminating unemployment is "ideological"....

We've been there before; you are flogging a dead horse, as shown in the 20's unregulated gold standard era of capitalism.

Btw, external trade would be impossible since not every nation can be in surplus/balance at the same time.

 

The economic system that offers solutions to our problems instead of creating them, as capitalism does, is geoism, not socialism. The right is inherently elitist, so it will never give up capitalism. So it's up to the left to give up the failed ideal of socialism and advocate the real alternative to capitalism: geoism.

 

What nonsense. The gold standard has nothing to do with private ownership of the means of production.

 

Injustice, instability, stagnation, injustice, plutocracy, immobility and injustice.

 

That is anti-economic nonsense.

Only privilege can cause massive inequality, and fiat money is not privilege.

Socialism is a reaction against capitalist excesses, which have nothing to do with the gold standard.

That is anti-economic blather. Neither will have any effect on private ownership of the means of production.

If we want total economic collapse. $#!+coin and gold are both inherently deflationary.

 

All well and good to debate theory, but we have a national choice to make. Either we can preserve the wealth of the rich, or we can avoid the total collapse of society, but we can't have both if COVID continues as it is going for the next 6 months or a year. People are losing their homes, their retirement savings, and more just trying to survive.

 

The first step is to understand that the special vulnerability of modern finance capitalism to a shock like COVID-19 is its addiction to debt, which is caused by using private-bank-issued debt money. If we can't take the private banksters' money issuance privilege away from them when it has caused such obvious damage to the economy and innocent people, what hope is there for any other real reform?

 

so capitalism is restricted to private ownership and production... no it's not, it encapsulates society and if you have fiat currency that causes massive inequality, all you have is social unrest.... this means it doesn't work. Thus the current push by the Democrats for socialism... they want to keep the fiat system and implement socialism.... this way they keep their assets while everyone else loses theirs.

Besides the Federal Reserve is socialist so effectively the US had a socialist monetary system since 1913...exacerbated by dropping the gold standard in 1971. Toss in the secret evolution of the eurodollar in the 1950's and you have a right socialist mess on your hands

 

btw you do realise private ownership and inequality caused by printing fiat currency go hand in hand...

here's a glass of water to wash your foot down..

 

it also affects production as those at the top of the pyramid receiving free money don't have to be productive... only those down the bottom.

so in essence the gold standard HAVE EVERYTHING TO DO WITH PRIVATE OWNERSHIP AND PRODUCTION.

 

btw for those of you who don't understand why the Fed is basically socialism that benefits those close to the top of the pyramid while everyone else have to be productive to support the pyramid...the 1% at the top of the pyramid who now own almost 2/3rds of everything

This is NOT CAPITALISM

https://modernsurvivalblog.com/systemic-risk/the-bank-pyramid-scheme/


YOU CAN'T DO THIS WITH A GOLD STANDARD

YES I'M YELLING AT YOU

 

That's the case with all forms of capitalist privilege, not just private bank money issuance.

No, and especially not with private ownership of the MEANS of production.

 

Certainly private banks' money issuance privilege transfers wealth to private banksters (that is its purpose), including some portion of the means of production. But that is a defining characteristic of modern finance capitalism, and the notion that it somehow makes modern finance capitalism something other than capitalism is absurd.

here's a glass of water to wash your foot down.

 

No, private ownership of the MEANS of production: natural resources (which classical economics called, "land") and producer goods ("capital").

Fiat currency does not cause massive inequality, though privately issued debt money does increase the naturally massive inequality caused by capitalist privilege.

It works for the banksters.

What on earth do you incorrectly imagine you think you might be talking about?

The Fed is privately owned.

 

I honestly don't know what to say to someone that cannot comprehend the basics of money printing.

 

We've not seen true Capitalism for over 100 years due to the Federal reserve socialist monetary system implemented 1913, the move away from the Gold standard in 1971 and the eurodollar system since 1950's

 

"Money printing" need not be confined to private banks. The issue is the available resources and the productive capacity of the nation which determines the limit of money creation,

The 1913 Federal reserve act was designed to overcome the frequent crashes of the US banking system which lacked a central bank up to that time, regardless of the existence (or lack) of 'true' capitalism'.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/about_14986.htm

In November 1910, six men – Nelson Aldrich, A. Piatt Andrew, Henry Davison, Arthur Shelton, Frank Vanderlip and Paul Warburg – met at the Jekyll Island Club, off the coast of Georgia, to write a plan to reform the nation’s banking system. The meeting and its purpose were closely guarded secrets, and participants did not admit that the meeting occurred until the 1930s. But the plan written on Jekyll Island laid a foundation for what would eventually be the Federal Reserve System.

.... and it certainly wasn't 'socialist' which implies a banking system like that in China. Nor did it save the nation's capitalist system from the Great Depression 1929-1939, during the Gold standard era.

Still sure you want to go back to the gold standard?

 

Yeah, but you are talking about paying things with borrowed money.

Or paying things by just printing money. Which comes back to the argument about inflation. And round and round the argument goes.
We've already gone there. We're not going back in this thread.

 

You want to talk about just printing more money to pay for things, you'll have to take it back to this thread:
Can government print more money without causing inflation?

 

Topic: capitalism isn't working in the US

Which - with its egregious poverty, high black incarceration rates, homelessness, and soaring inequality - is why the US is on the verge of a civil war, and bringing democracy into disrepute around the globe.

Now scarlet claims all that is required to fix that social disaster is to bring back the gold standard, and run balanced budgets (a fantasy which I have debunked). And you agree with her, judging from your nonsense about "paying for things with borrowed money".

In fact we can have eg, free education up to the level of students' individual abilities, either by raising taxes on the 10% who own 90% of the nations wealth (!), or the national treasury can pay for it since it is the currency-issuer, if the required spare labour and resources are available for purchase by the treasury.

So....you might contribute something useful to this topic, by looking past your neoliberal monetarist orthodoxy. .

 

If your posts are any guide, I know far more about it than you.

 

The fact is that the media is perceived as reality spreader and it's owned by someone who sees his/her profit in spreading what they see fit.
The problem is the production of this much billionaires. The money is getting dusted in their bank accounts, the money that should circulate in the country and grow the economy.

 

Then the argument here between us ultimately boils down to the other topic of whether things can truly be paid for in the way you describe.
That was my point.

That means it's the end of the argument in this particular thread.