And each of these perspectives comes to the same conclusion, which is that our global economy is out of control and performing contrary to basic principles of market economics.
More humane societies are usually smaller, like the Scandinavian countries and Holland, where it is much easier to reach consensus and cooperation.
Money is a mechanism for control.
So, there is enormous instability in the global economy with a shift of winners and losers.
The first principle of the market economy is that it is comprised of many small buyers and sellers, which implies a substantial degree of equity. Another fundamental market principle is that costs are internalized in the producer's price.
The EU will face problems similar to the US: an increasing gap between the citizens and decision makers in Brussels and a perceived or even real lack of democracy.
Capitalism is not about free competitive choices among people who are reasonably equal in their buying and selling of economic power, it is about concentrating capital, concentrating economic power in very few hands using that power to trash everyone who gets in their way.
In the US, most progressives start to see the differences between internationalism and economic globalization.
In a world of increasing inequality, the legitimacy of institutions that give precedence to the property rights of 'the Haves' over the human rights of 'the Have Nots' is inevitably called into serious question.
My claim is that we do not have a market economy, but a capitalist economy.
Capitalism and the market are presented as synonymous, but they are not. Capitalism is both the enemy of the market and democracy.
It is interesting to note that the 200 richest people have more assets than the 2 billion poorest.
Global competition is about winners and losers.
If you look internationally over the last 50 years there have been improvements in the third world, but in the last 20 years the reverse has happened, with debt crises and increased poverty.
Moreover, statistics can be deceiving: the growth of jobs in the US in the 90s was due to many part-time jobs, with no benefits and generally low pay.
If you look at the US economy over the last 15-20 years wages have been stagnating or even declining.
My own experience in the third world was that even if people started to make more money, the cost of living and housing increased often faster than the wages.
Money flows into the US, and inflates US assets, and allows the US to have a monstrous trade deficit. That means we are consuming more than we are producing.
But in the past, US companies have been able to increase their profits through downsizing in the US, through colonizing other people's resources, and through the increase of globalization.
Money is not wealth. Money is a claim on wealth.
