Human Capitalism .

Human Capitalism .
Andre Willers
1 Oct 2008

Definition :
Capitalism is owning the sources for sustaining life .
Women , air , water , food , shelter , energy , knowledge .
Ownership means the power of denial . You own it if you can deny it to any group you choose .

Why are Women first ?
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Artificial Intelligence” .
Humans in a cultural matrix are artificial intelligences , using language and writing(culture) as external databases . This is inherently time-binding .
None of the other life-sustaining elements like air , food , etc are worth anything without children .

Women can always say no (extreme = suicide) , and thus have control .

This is the basis of the Matriarchos Mythos .
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Myths , Memes and Boredom”

The biology plays a major role as well . The female conserves resources to create an ovum , chooses a superior sperm out of millions , then brings up the children while hubbie gads about .

Women are natural Capitalists . They conserve and maintain .
The men take risks . The successful ones better everybody in the society .
This is a variant of the Random Walk .
They are supported by the women unless the men make too big a mess (endangers the children on a massive scale) .
Then the women lower the boom .

This is a very successful model , not just for humans but for most mammalian species.
It combines a steady , conservative base with high-risk , high-gain disposable investments .

What has this to do with the present financial crisis ?
First ask , who owns the USA ?
Two factors combined to give women ownership : the Trust structures of inheritance , and female longevity . Massive family capital amounts ended up under the ownership of the longest-living .

Example : Nixon was nixed by Mrs Marshall , the owner of the Washington Post .

Housewife Capitalists .
Housewives in charge of household finances have been quietly pooling capital and knowledge using Internet tools . They have had a major effect on markets .
They like low-risk , sure things . Like the carry-trade .

Japan .
The South African rand has been shored up by the carry trade from Japanese housewife capital pools . They club together via the Internet , borrow from the Japanese bank at 0.5% and invest in SA at 12% . Really large amounts . They control the household savings of a large percentage of the Japanese population . At the first sign of trouble , they are off . Really , really risk averse . Perfect capitalists .

US.
The failure of Capitalism .
As previously discussed , unfettered capitalistic systems evolved systems of checks and balances to prevent drawdowns below survival levels .

In the US these were things like anti-trust laws , etc .
But these were abrogated during the 1980’s and 1990’s . The owners allowed (even encouraged this) , being too incompetent to realize that this is against their own long-term interests . Marx was right ,after all !

The US model has been the divorce of owner and manager . The owners hired managers to get the maximum return on their capital . The managers bribed the legislature to relax or ignore controls . Now that the resultant cock-up threatens significant capital losses , the woman owners are incompetent to handle it . But they will pass control to the politicians , and monitor them .
Expect heavy oversight by women in the political process .

Not as wealth-creating as the old set-up , but at least the horse won’t die under you .

It will be interesting to see how those mossy-horned old bulls will take to being lassoed by these sweet old things .

Analogue : the British East India Company .
This had to be rescued by the British Government after a totally incompetent mess resulting in the Indian Mutiny . They were replaced by the Royal Indian Civil Service , one of the truly effective governments in history . If only we could expect their equivalent , but don’t hold your breath .
Actually , a civil service much more competent than the political controllers is not stable either without a heavy religious underpinning (ref Mandarin China , Roman Catholic Europe) . This is the penalty for separating the religious and secular authorities .
But do we want a stable system ?
Yes , at the center , but with unstable peripheries with freedom of movement .
A bit like the world now . A citizen of US , EU , Russia ,China , India can stay at home and be cosseted , or move to the peripheries of third world countries and try their luck .


Intriguing speculation :
Does the US government face an equivalent of the Indian Mutiny ?

The US Expeditionary forces in the Middle East are about half reservists (with a small permanent force stiffening) and half contractors ( basically , mercenaries) . If the money dries up , the contractors vanish with it . The reservists’ situation become untenable , especially if their families are starving at home .
(This is what happened to the Portuguese Empire in the 1970’s .
The Army Generals were forced to take over a failed state (against their will).)

But the US has shown great resilience in the past . It has survived numerous boom-busts exactly like this one . The memes are there .
For example , there have been at least four occasions (Civil war , WWI , WWII , 9/11) when civil liberties had been wiped out , yet reinstated later via a democratic process . This is unique in history .

If the US Union is not preserved , they will be eaten alive by Russia , China ,EU and India .

If the US preserves the Union , Social-Capitalism is inevitable just to dig themselves out of the present mess and to compete with a Social-Capitalist China .

Social Capitalism and the Russian Union .
They have had their collapse . The state has no holy cows about intervening where necessary. (Notice the suspensions of the Russian stock exchange ) .

Capitalism or Socialism are good servants , but bad masters .

The Civil Service .
You can see where this leads .
The “Social” bit means some sort of civil service supervision that does not stifle the Capitalist enfant terrible .

We know of at least three such systems in history : Mandarin class in China , Indian Civil Service in India under the British Raj and Roman Civil service in the early Empire .

Both involved extremely rigorous exams .
The equivalent of a doctorate in Civil Service Administration , but with a limit on the number of graduates every year (ie the standard varies upward from a floor level) . Ethics and Humanities were a major part in both .

Any society that does the equivalent now will have big advantage .

The EU seems to be leading . How many divisions does Brussels have ?
They certainly seem to be churning out civil servants .
As Stalin said , quantity has a quality of its own .
But each state has its own elected chief .
Sadly , the collective backbone resembles a jellyfish having a massage .

The British could easily reinstate the Indian Civil Service exams for local consumption . They have gotten rid of their top-heavy aristocracy .
They are also smarting under the humiliation of being stripped of all their assets by the US under Roosevelt during WW II . The Civil Service really resents this . It will suit them just fine if the US Union is not preserved , since they now have a protector in the EU (a rather frail reed , I am afraid)

The Chinese have mandarins , but they have a political problem in giving them any power . This will change under competition .

The Russians will have to institute a crash program , but they have the Akademgorsk’s to draw on . To a certain extent , old KGB personnel fill in .

The Indians are already doing it , as far as I can see . I see no negative ripple effects . They are using the British template . The reason for their unwarranted pushiness .

The US has some catching-up to do .
There is insufficient continuity .
The Civil Service is supposed to act as a flywheel to the impetuosity of the political chiefs . “Advisor” is the highest post , with no real power . They are now plucking the fruits of this with the runaway credit problems .
For the administration to appoint the inspectors simply does not work .

FLASH!
I just heard on the radio that the US Senate has approved the bailout bill by a convincing margin (03h25 , Oct 2 2008 SA time) .
There are penalty and supervision clauses .

It is seldom that one can pinpoint the time of a really major social change.

“I listened to the collapse of capitalism !”

We are entering new , uncharted waters .

How ironic .
Marx , Lenin , Stalin , Mao all hoped for this day when capitalism collapses under it’s own contradictions .

Alas!
Too late for them . Communism collapsed before Capitalism since it was even more rotten .

Now , as discussed , it will be Social-Capitalism .

Political parties like National Social Capitalism (NSC) or International Social Capitalism(ISC) or Planetary Social Capitalism(PSC) or Terran Social Capitalism(TSC) will be formed .

Stick “Green” in front of any of them to get some more variants .

It also changes the whole Politically Correct mindset .
Capitalism is about short-term gains .
Socialism is about long-term gains .
Futures connect them .

This change in attitude will reverberate through the world .

Militant Green is in .
SUV’s will be treated like fur-coats .

Don’t be surprised at the Green Futures Socialist Capitalist Fund .

Can anybody still remember the youthful passions of the 1960’s ?
Well , we are in for a recap .


All that money and expertise has not gone away .
There are at this moment about 300 000 unemployed smart entrepreneurs grasping for
The Next Big Thing . And it is the Big Green Social Responsible Thing .

Oh well . It could be worse .

Have fun

Andre