Pope slams capitalism as 'new tyranny'

I hope this does not upset the Forum Rules, but it's a interesting read and maybe a light at the end of the tunnel...

From the article: "A recent IRS report shows that the wealth of the US’s richest 1 percent has grown by 31 percent, while the rest of the population experienced an income rise of only 1 percent.

The most recent Oxfam data shows that up to 146 million Europeans are at risk of falling into poverty by 2025 and 50 million Americans are currently suffering from severe financial hardship."

Pope slams capitalism as 'new tyranny'

 

SM, I hardly think this will upset anyone, Not even me, and I don't think it will be against rules, as long as it does not develop into a free for all, as another thread was heading, IMHO

The Contents of the Link are good and as you rightly said, Could be maybe, be the start of the Light, at the end of the tunnel.
Lets hope, it does not, become a bandwagon. It is not just about the Church but our Future and continued life expectancy

 

While the Pope may be the most influential person to make this statement, it is certainly not a specifically "religious" thought. Basically, it's just GOOD capitalism, GOOD business thinking.

Through a steady, but slow changing of corporate ideals and philosophies, the product or the customer is no longer #1. The shareholder is. Shareholders have demanded higher and higher ROI. This has caused the corporations to lessen expansion and return more profits to shareholders. A short-sighted view if there ever was one. Only by expansion, innovation and growth and a company survive. Adapting and changing, attending to the market and customer base WAS the mantra of corporations decades ago. Now, its all about innovation TODAY and market share TODAY.

While I do not believe that there is a single person on this planet worth being paid millions of dollars a year for their services, shareholders have demanded that profit/ROI above all else must be the priority and so corporations are forced into hiring the rainmakers and supermen of the business world and when that happens, its a bidding war for the best talent.

And getting a 10 cent per share dividend is more important than you having a job. This is mentality of today's investor.

Now we are where we are.

But look at other successful countries and whether or not they have a more equalized pay structure. Take Japan. Did you know that the CEO of most Japanese corporations only make about 1/6 of what a western counterpart makes in a comparable sized company.

In China, if you are making too much money too quickly, the government will TELL you to hire more people. Wealth is important in China, but EVERYONE working is more important. The government here will allow/help/persuade you to expand your business so that more jobs can be created.


At some point we (the world) needs to get to the point where chasing dollars is not the end goal, but change the thinking to realize that the more people that are making a decent living, the more customers they might potentially have. This will in turn create more wealth, more jobs, more wealth, more jobs. It is a cycle that can work. It does not have to be an philosophy of "I can only get more for me if there is less for you". I worked for a company when I was a teenager that their publicly acknowledged mission statement was "Create a new job everyday". We all did our best to grow the company so that it required hiring at least one new person everyday. This philosophy worked. The company grew like mad. When I joined it, there were 115 employees, After three years, we had over 1,400 employees and were still very profitable. The company continues today and has more than 7,000 employees. Believe it or not, this was a chain of gas stations in California. The owner believed that creating jobs was the best way to get more customers.

While this may be a bad example, if any of you read the books written by Gene Roddenbury about the civilization and society that was the type of society that the Star Trek TV shows touted, everyone had a job, everyone had a home, everyone had what they needed and most of what they wanted. Their society was about productively contributing to society. There were no bums, no unemployment, no welfare. Salary had nothing to do with it. Power had nothing to do with it. Responsibility was everything and the more responsible you were, the more talented you were, that is how you rose to higher positions. An impossible utopia for sure, but that doesn't mean that certain parts of that thinking are impossible.

Corporate thinking needs to change to not look for the cheapest place for labor, but the place that could benefit most from having jobs in the community. Corporate expansions need to flow like water, always seeking the lowest place and filling from there, then flowing to the next lowest place...this is how a global customer base is established and this is how communities are raised to enjoy higher standards of living. There are obvious obstacles that must be overcome, but it is doable over the long term. This is how a corporation can ensure its survival in pretty much any market. This is how every person that wants a job can have one.

There is currently 24,576,864,000 of U.S. currency (bills and coins) in circulation. 16% of that is held by 100 people. Why aren't they using that money to start new business, create more jobs, create more customers, create more wealth.

Personally, I believe that you should be able to make as much money as you can, to do with it as you please providing no one is getting hurt. BUT, the smart move is to use your money to make more money and the best way to do that is to create jobs so that you have more people making money for you. The only other thing I would say is that it is also always smart business to properly reward those that are making that money for you. Paying a living wage, providing benefits that keep your employees healthy and strong and in a good frame of mind.

 

I don't think that capitalism in and of itself is the problem. The problem is greed, pure and simple. When people care more about money than their fellow man, that is the problem. Capitalism doesn't have a monopoly on it.

 

Nice comment and point of view, I agree with everything you wrote but prefer to look at some other angles as well, I am observing a general tendency towards a more aggressive attitude in many people, it's not the people on the street but the people behind the screens that are developing our cars, motorbikes, games, toys, gadgets and other things. If one looks at the way this things look nowadays, I can see very sick and disturbing trends, for example, if one wants to design a vehicle, one should have a versatile and logical design in mind (never-mind all the accessories) that is made with the best and safest features, no stupid pointed parts, no aggressive lights, no over-sized tires and rims, we don't need racing features on public roads, we don' need 200 miles per hour vehicles, I know that some people will tell me now that that is what the customer wants, but it's not logical that we today still should make this products...
And something else, anyone have a good look around in a large supermarket, electronic or appliances store and THINK and COMPREHEND the unbelievable amount of goods we manufacture, is this not totally out of control, do we really need it all?
And you want more workers making more goods, where would that lead, we are already wasting large amounts of our resources because of mismanagement, greed and carelessness, should we manufacture even more useless stuff the like one can see for example, displayed in Super Lee or Robinsons, more household ware, banana benders and asparagus slicers out of inferior materials that brake when you use them the second time...
If there is a way out of this circle of wrong doing I can only see it with a strong central leadership that nobody can ignore and where would that be found, nobody knows as of now...

 

You should have left out your last sentence "(which is what the Roman Catholic Church has always promoted)" it's a well know fact that they are not unwilling to do business rather well for their own benefit without any guilty feelings towards the needy...

 

I see your point, but however, the laws of supply and demand tells us that everything you said is wrong. Maybe it shouldn't be, but it is. There are levels of need ( Psychological, Safety, Companionship, Esteem, Self-Actualization). Each person has to decide what is a need for them. One person may need love and a sense of belonging, others may put independent thought above that. After needs, there are wants. Again, each person has to prioritize and categorize those wants into immediate, pressing, important, or just desirable. What you are talking about is trying to use logic and practicality to deny those wants. I don't imagine that ever happening.

As people satisfy their needs, then their attention turns to wants. What you want is most likely different than what I want. Capitalism is an economic system in which people and companies satisfy wants and needs in exchange for money or other goods or services.

Myself, I've wanted and owned many of those fast cars that you talk about. I've owned a racing team. fast cars and motorcycles have always been part of my life since I was young. To me, that need for speed was as much of a need to me as some other thing may be a need to you. I chose speed over marriage and family. I couldn't have both and manage both properly, so I made my choice. Can I live without it? Yes, but I chose not to. In fact, there are many things I would give up just to satisfy that need, although in the hierarchy of needs and wants, it is considered a want because it is on the top most level of needs. I would choose a small simple home and a super hot-rod and/or motorcycle over a large home and a standard boring car if I couldn't afford both. That's just me.

I'm sure you own many things you don't need. We all do. In fact, many people have their thought process and priorities mixed up and buy things they want and then just hope someone else provides them with what they need. They end up selling and losing money on that thing they bought and now they have less money to buy what they need. And, they even do it over and over again. How many people do you know that bought a smartphone, but have no food in the house or no savings in the bank? I know a few!

Does anyone need a banana bender? From your perspective, no they don't. From another person perspective, absolutely! This is what capitalism is all about..Satisfying everyone's needs and wants. Does it work perfectly? No

As was stated earlier, the problem is not really capitalism, it is greed. There are too many people that have excelled at capitalism, but then became hoarders of cash. Why does anyone need 70 billion dollars? Want, sure! But, if they were true capitalists, they would be constantly reinvesting that wealth into new business, bigger business. That in turn would create more jobs and create more wealth. One of the truly great entrepreneurial capitalist of America was Henry J. Kaiser. He never met a business that he didn't want to be a part of and he knew that job creation was a key component to a healthy society and economy. From Aerospace, automobiles, hospitals, cement, ship building, steel and aluminum mills. He reinvested and then thought of new needs and reinvested again.

Creating jobs in the key. When people have work to do that supports and satisfies them, they live better, they are healthier, they spend money which in turn stimulates the economy which in turn creates even more jobs.

The best way for any leadership to stimulate this kind of thinking and action is to make it easier to start a business, and to reward those that reinvest through tax breaks and other economic rewards and heavily tax those that only want to take and hoard and to do everything in its power to minimize corruption.

One major obstacle to this is that the takers and hoarders are the ones that influence the government.

The only economic systems that truly work are mixed economies, were some business is owned by private enterprise and some is owned by the government. Things that absolutely everyones uses, such as electricity, water, gas should be owned by the government so that greed cannot control the basic needs of life. All others should be controlled and owned by private enterprise.

Greed creates hoarding and hoarding kills growth.

If you want to know more about wants and needs, look up Abraham Maslow and read about why we dumbass humans do the things we do.

One other thing you brought up is wasting resources. I agree totally. We waste resources building products with a short life span when we could use the same or slightly more to build things that last a long time. The stupidest invention ever was plastic from a resource wasting perspective. Plastic is made from oil. Synthetic fibers are plastic. How much more oil would we have if all those items were made from some other material? Plastics have been the impetus for live saving items, but does everything need to be made from plastic? Some of those new industries that I think the super rich ought to be investing in are resource saving or alternative resource industries. Imagine the impact of educating, training and then building a hydro generator factory in Africa or setting up wind farms and solar panel farms in the Phils. Could this make an impact on the economics of the societies? Could this make an impact on resource conservation and development? What could Bill Gates do with his 72 billion dollars that could make an impact on millions of lives?

 

Who gives a "f" what the Pope says?