Is a capitalist-socialist economy inevitable? | Big Think

Is a capitalist-sociality economy inevitable?
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What will the economy of the future look like? To answer that we must first consider the current trajectory and the ways in which modern capitalism operates, who it benefits, and if it is sustainable.

In this video, historians, economists, and authors discuss income and wealth inequality, how the American economy grew into the machine that it is today, the pillars of capitalism and how the concept has changed over time, and ways in which the status quo can, and maybe even should, change.

"It's not that hierarchy is bad," says John Fullerton, founder of Capital Institute, "it's that hierarchy where the top extracts from below is definitely bad and unsustainable." He says that the modern capitalist system works this way, and that it perpetuates the cycle of growing inequality.
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TRANSCRIPT:

ANAND GIRIDHARADAS: Wealthy corporations and people love to ask the question: What can I do? What should we do? What can we start? What program could we launch? I would say to the billionaire change agents and corporate social responsibility departments of our country: Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what you've already done to your country.

TIMOTHY SNYDER: The United States is a country which is among the least equal in the world. According to Credit Suisse, which is a Swiss bank and not some kind of crazy left-wing organization, we are second in the world in wealth inequality after the Russian Federation. In the United States since the 1980s, basically 90 percent of the American population has seen no improvement in either wealth or income. Almost all of the improvement in wealth and income has been in the top ten percent and most of that's been in the top one percent and most of that has been in the top 0.1 percent and most of that has been in the top 0.01 percent, which means that not only are people not moving forward objectively, but the way they experience the world—and this is very powerful—is that other people are on top.

JOHN FULLERTON: Living systems have what are called healthy hierarchies—so it's not that hierarchy is bad. It's that hierarchy where the top extracts from below is definitely bad and unsustainable. So, take the lion in the forest or in the jungle. The lion is at the top of the food chain, but the lion sits around sleeping most of the day rather than eating and killing all day. And the lion, therefore, serves a very healthy hierarchical purpose in the food chain keeping the herd, keeping the balance between smaller animals and larger animals. But when the king of the jungle decides to extract as much as possible for its own benefit, you have a very unhealthy system. And unfortunately, that pretty well describes how the modern capitalist system works, where there are benefits of scale; the bigger get bigger, they get more powerful, they get more political influence. But their intention is to maximize shareholder value because that's what we do. So, the cycle of growing inequality is sort of locked into the system design.

GIRIDHARADAS: Before you want to start something of your own—a little private, unaccountable venture—do an audit. What do you pay people? Do you pay people enough? Do you use subcontractors to avoid responsibility for those workers? Do you pay benefits? When do your benefits kick in? What do you lobby for in Washington? Do you lobby for things that make everybody have a better life in America, or do you lobby against social policies that would cost you something? What's your tax avoidance situation? Do you happen to be this earnest company that wants to change the world? I mean, is this company paying its full measure of taxes? Does it use tax havens? Does it do the double Dutch with an Irish sandwich tax maneuver? Does it send money to the Cayman Islands and then back and do all this complex routing?

ALISSA QUART: Now to be middle class, you might not be able to have a summer holiday. You might not be able to own your home. You certainly wouldn't have two cars. What interests me is also we had this idea of the middle class as a solid thing and now it's a shaky thing. We also had this idea in the middle of the twentieth century of it as a humdrum, boring thing that we wanted to escape, kind of like Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates. And now it's like everyone just wants to get into it, into the dream, the American Dream of the middle class that's now so unstable. One of the things that happened was unions weakened. It used to be that 30 percent of employees were in unions in the '60s and now it's...

[bigthink]

Do you think that a capitalist-socialist economy inevitable?

[Adrian-whmk]

I find it telling that public discourse used to refer to the population as “citizens”, but at some point the language changed to “consumers”, it was such a subtle change that few noticed. But language matters, particularly language that’s repeated again and again over time.

[sagesingh]

6:20 politicians create an enemy for you with language to blame instead of a POLICY to create the necessary change

[maybepriyansh]

Students who acquire large debts putting themselves through school are unlikely to think about changing society. When you trap people in a system of debt . they can’t afford the time to think. Tuition fee increases are a “disciplinary technique, ” and, by the time students graduate, they are not only loaded with debt, but have also internalized the “disciplinarian culture.” This makes them efficient components of the consumer economy-Noam Chomsky

[glowwurm]

“We have a joyless economy” spot on, we’ve created a society on which few are genuinely happy, we’ve become nothing but consumers.

[claudermiller]

I'm a month away from 65. I remember Reagan firing the air traffic controllers and I remember arguing with friends who supported him that he was turning worker against worker and that we needed to stand together. I've watched the collapse of the middle class. I'm sitting here wondering how different my life would have been if it hadn't happened. Not financially, I've never really been someone who desired wealth, I mean emotionally. How would I be different today if I hadn't seen so many people hurt by this economy? I can deal with having less things it's the loss of happiness that really bothers me.

[jedics]

'The joyless economy' is so poetic, one phrase to encompass why Iv'e avoided full time jobs my whole life while I watch people give their whole life away to be old men who didn't enjoy the majority of their waking life.

[jasonwaltman]

It always amazes me that when you look to the products of humanity (the arts, music, film, literature, etc.) there is a a recurring message of "the little guy" fighting for justice and freedom from the big bad oppressive force. People love that stuff. Yet, when they turn around and argue politics and economics they forget about it all and fall in line with what they've been told. They will go along with an idea that they see with their own eyes "DOES NOT WORK" and feel ashamed if they even think to question, let alone reject, what they know to be lie. It's quite an excellent brainwashing.

[MedRider]

We already have a capitalist-socialist system, it's called corporate welfare. Profits are privatized, losses are paid for by everyone else.

[erinm]

A lot of people I know who drive for Uber or any number of "low-skill" jobs... they are highly intelligent and skilled people who don't have a niche in this economy. The vast majority of humans never get to realize their potential because of the way the economy expects people to have limited roles, be scripted, show absolute conformity to the boss, and relegate their talents to outside of office hours when people have spent most of their energy at work and have to give whatever they have left to raising the kids.

[ajayskumar]

Q: Why does the TRICKLE DOWN theory always fail?
A: Coz it was never destined to succeed... The working apparatus is designed to SUCK UP.

[daggerthree]

The title of this video really should be: "Income inequality is happening and its terrible"

[ericklein]

harm in the billions and good in the millions, i absolutely love that quote, i will have to use this

[sionemafi]

More people should know about this. All through school I was taught about how evil socialism and communism was. Anything can be bad when employed wrong. Capitalism can be bad when done wrong. Doesn't mean that it can't work. I believe a capitalistic-socialistic mix is what we're headed towards. There should be a bare minimum for a countrys citizens that we could all expect. It used to be that way. Now a full time job gets you 2 roommates in California. My apartment in SACRAMENTO requires you to make $6050 a month for a 2 bedroom 1 bath to ensure you could afford the rent before moving in. Thats a lot of money for most. And most starting jobs here won't pay you anywhere near that much starting off. $15 an hour minimum wage/40 hrs a week. $2400 a month GROSS. It's sad. So many are without and are struggling.

[billygauthier]

I believe we need to make education free for all. An intelligent democratic society is a society that is able to make intelligent decisions.

[vasilisk]

Exactly, they blame the others instead of providing a policy in which people can thrive again to close the ever growing gap of classes

[warhol]

The question is “Who controls the surplus”, Varoufakis bullseye!

[YiannisANO]

We are so good at analyzing and talking but im tired of all this. I want change. Lets move on from discussion and start taking action. For the sake of the world

[banksofbarcelona]

Its called the american dream cos you have to be asleep to believe it - the late great George Carlin!

[CharlieRogers]

The problem is most people think of wealth as a limited resource: if they have it, I don't. They don't realize that only in a capitalistic society do people have the opportunity to CREATE their own wealth. This is a fundamental difference in philosophy on wealth, and needs to be one of the pillars of financial literacy in our young people. It really starts with parenting, which has been completely undermined and devalued in today's society. The book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" is a good one to learn more about it.

Don't worry about how much money others make. Worry about learning how to create opportunity and wealth for yourself and those you care about.