OIL AND VINEGAR

OXY-MORON a combination of contradictory or incongruous words (as cruel kindness); broadly : something (as a concept) that is made up of contradictory or incongruous elements

OIL AND VINEGAR

Johann Wagener 3-7-13

There have been serious debates over the years about whether capitalism is compatible with democracy. If we keep to really existing capitalist democracy – RECD for short – the question is effectively answered:

They are radically incompatible. Read it here: Will Capitalism Destroy Civilization?

Here are the reasons why: AMERICA'S UNSTUSTAINABLE INEQULAITY

In a word, we have witnessed a steady concentration of wealth – income inequality – in this country that has reached levels no market economy can long endure.  Without all sorts of artificial props – from credit-card debt and no-doc or "interest-only" loans to dodgy financial assets nobody understands (try wrapping your mind around a collateralized debt obligation or credit default swap) – is would have become impossible to camouflage what was (and is) happening.

   

To see just how unequal the distribution of wealth in the US has become, click here: Wealth Inequality in America

Karl Marx and James Madison saw it coming; read it here; INEQUALITY OR SUSTAINABILITY

Marx famously said that the bourgeoisie unwittingly produces its own gravediggers. A market economy – capitalism, that is – inexorably gives rise to an elite social class whose members create an economy that contains the seeds of its own destruction.

   

 Marx was right in his analysis of what was wrong with capitalism and the kind of representative democracy James Madison enshrined in the Federalist Papers (especially #10). In focusing on the tendency of capitalism to reproduce the extreme inequality associated with feudalism, Marx had an insight that deserves far more attention than it has gotten in the United States, especially since it's now clear that Madison's "cure" for factions isn't working.

Here’s a look at the state of our union; 20 Facts About U.S. Inequality that Everyone Should Know