He said:
Regardless of why it happened, it's further evidence that the nation's and the world's capital markets have become a vast out-of-control casino in which fortunes can be made or lost in an instant -- which would be fine except for the fact that most of us have put our life savings there. Pension funds, mutual funds, school endowments -- the value of all of this depends on a mechanism that can lose a trillion dollars in minutes without anyone having a clear idea why.
This is quoted from the Huffington Post:The (Almost) Crash of Wall Street I wanted to write about it because this man has hung on to his belief in capitalism through thick and thin like so very many others. I have a different view. Read on below and I'll talk about both.
Reich's book on capitalism Supercapitalism was another trip much like this short article about the fiasco the other day. What is it about people that makes them cling to beliefs like this one? We make fun of the religious fanatics yet it seems at least as hard for me to stand in the shoes of a capitalist. I was in my 20s fifty or so years ago when I came to the conclusion that capitalism really is not a good system. Since then that view has been strengthened day by day and year by year.
Reich's statement is rather humorous when you look at it from the perspective of a non-believer like me. He say that the world's capital markets resemble a gambling casino. I can't help but laugh! I think this has been said before.
The thing that folks who are believers seem to have no trouble with is just highlighted by this notion. I actually did invest in the market for a short time. I felt sort of dirty. You see I was taught that if you got money that way it was sort of a special way of stealing. Honest money is money you work for and earn. Money earning money is a concept that is about as uncomfortable for me as the the notion that the land could be owned was to many Native Americans, the First People who we stole the land from. (There's a knotty one....how do we "steal" from people who don't own it?)
I watch all this as a spectator wondering why my mind and the minds of all these believers have this huge gap between them. I am especially puzzled every time I read someone lamenting about the environment, the demise of health care reform, etc. etc. This thing that these people do with money is a process. It is only effective if there is constant growth. This is inconsistent with any notion of balance I have ever been introduced to. Words like "sustainability" seem to be a joke and a bad one at that. Why is it so easy for believers to accept these contradictions? What am I missing? I was not able to get the answer from Robert Reich. Does someone here have it?