RSA Animate – Crisis of Capitalism

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  • Social enterprise
  • Behaviour change

In this short RSA Animate, radical sociologist David Harvey asks if it is time to look beyond capitalism, towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that could be responsible, just and humane. View his full lecture at the RSA. Download a transcript of this video (pdf).

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  • This planet of ours has become a 'for-profit-world' in which the highest
    principle is the nature of profit. Unfortunately there seems to be no
    real dissent about that, as people still believe that if profits are
    made, they will get a job and be able to make a living.

    Truth is, any economy must be able to sustain itself, a balance of goods and services within national boundaries will ensure prosperity. Unfortunately though, capitalists only care about 'CAPITAL'. If they would care about humans, they would be called 'Humanists' or even more so Philanthropists. "Philanthropy etymologically means "the love of humanity", in the
    sense of "what it is to be human", the essence of our humanity. In
    modern practical terms, it is "private initiatives for public good,
    focusing on quality of life"—balancing the social-scientific aspect
    emphasized in the twentieth century, with the long-traditional and
    original humanistic core of the word's ancient coinage." From Wiki.
    So Capitalism is a dead end. It will kill humanity, unless humanity rids itself from this collective chemical imbalance of the brains of the majority.
    You don't need to be 'Communist' to see that 'Capitalism' is poisonous. Capitalism always has this stench of illegal wars, outsourcing of jobs, cutting of social services, deterioration of common wealth and subsequent shifting of equity towards those who already have everything you can possibly own.
    It is a Fantasy world - Disney for grown ups. The eternal capitalist lie.
    But hang in there! Soon there will be tons of job openings in the military/mercenary/security sector of countries all over the planet. Because Capitalism needs to be defended against 'Communists', 'Terrorists', LGBT-folk, and any form of restrictions or regulations.
    Imagine two Grave Stones. One says "Communism  1917 - 1989", the other one reads "Capitalism  0 - 2012". Capitalism would only be a winner in terms of longevity, but that longevity was artificially enforced by executive powers - police, military and the judiciary.

  • I looked and you may have a point: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, AIG, Spain, Ireland, Northern Rock, RBS, LLoyds/HBoS and Lehman Brothers - they should have weighted their risks with more credit card debt instead of all those CDOs and mortgage back securities. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. But now we have the under 30s to kick-start and bolster the property and wider free market, everything will be tickety-boo again before you know it.