Human Nature & Group Dynamics
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CapitalismCapitalism is about, making money and hoarding money. It is about investing money to make more money without working. Capitalism is about controlling resources including the human resources needed to make and sell goods so that capitalists have more money to make more money and grow wealthy. Idealist versions of capitalism still persist among people who are both wealthy and content and among people who have aspirations but little understanding of the realities of capitalist economies. A capitalist might argue that every newborn has the opportunity to become rich, even if his or her parents are poor. The trick is to master the techniques of using money to make money, leaving behind any quaint notions of trading time, effort and skill for money. One basic strategy is to buy for less and sell for more. Another is to purchase property and services that others will rent or consume on a continuing basis, so that you make money while you sleep. Another strategy is to use some money or capital assets as leverage to borrow and invest more money, increasing your net worth. Borrowing money or credit is perhaps the greatest strength and the greatness weakness of capitalism. Credit promotes spending, construction and expansion. Individuals enjoy assets such as a cars and homes that they do not own. Corporations buy supplies and build new factories on credit. The credit aspect of capitalism only works if the borrower can earn money and payback the lender. In the US, Adam Smith declared the virtues of capitalism in the “The Wealth of Nations,” which established a new economic theory in 1776. Sloan suggested: “Smith’s treatise was as transformational as the American Revolution and established the intellectual foundation of capitalism, free markets and individual choice. Smith’s thesis is that setting people free to pursue their own self-interest produces a collective result far superior to what you get if you try to impose political or religious dictates: “Free people allowed to make free choices in free markets will satisfy their needs (and society’s) far better than any government can. Smith believed passionately in free trade, both within countries and between them. He felt that allowing people and countries to specialize and to trade freely would produce enormous wealth, because freeing people and nations to do what they do best will produce vastly more wealth than if everyone strives for self-sufficiency.” Smith’s vision is idealistic and, if you consider the US as a great experiment in his theory of free markets, then you have all a lot of data to prove or disprove his thesis. To advocate capitalism, you have to believe in the regulatory magic of a “free market.” Supply and demand determine the price of goods and services. Consumers become the regulators of corporate behavior by rewarding companies that provide good service and good products at a reasonable price. It does sound reasonable, but in practice there are complications. Capitalism is a good system if you are rich and a bad system if you are poor. The economics of capitalism has become attached to democracy, although the connection is neither inevitable, nor even workable. In capitalistic theory, every newborn has the opportunity to become rich, even if his or her parents are poor. The trick is to master the techniques of using money to make money, leaving behind any quaint notions of trading time, effort and skill for money. One basic strategy is to buy for less and sell for more. Another is to purchase property and services that others will rent or consume on a continuing basis, so that you make money while you sleep. Another strategy is to use some money or capital assets as leverage to borrow and invest more money, increasing your net worth. The 2008 collapse of financial institutions in the US and elsewhere could be attributed to many layers of “leverage” that concealed the basic fact that loans could not be repaid and assets were often imaginary. I write from a perspective of a comfortable, safe citizen of a country that combines capitalism and socialism with relatively good results. While Canada is not perfect, it is a country that looks viable in the long term, given stability of its neighbor, the USA. The US in contrast is in recession a failing infrastructure and out of control government spending. Futile "wars" in Iraq and Afghanistan were was based on lies, paranoid versions of national security and and promises of security that could not be realized. Corporations fail as they grow too large and inefficient. Corporations also fail because their executive officers are greedy, incompetent and sometimes resort to criminal behavior to get more than their share of the corporate wealth. The benefits and vices of a “capitalist” economy are most clearly manifest in the USA. Different economic systems have evolved with the expanding human population. Different economic ideas in the best case compete to influence government policies. In the worst case, economic ideas conflict with disastrous consequences. The battle between the communist Soviet Union and the capitalist USA dominated world events in the latter half of the 20th century. The soviet, communist system collapsed, leaving the impression that capitalistic democracies were the best way to run countries, but there are serious problems that produce chronic if not fatal economic illnesses. It is likely that capitalistic economies have gone past peak performance, heading for a continuing decline. While these economies have had cyclic behaviors during the 20th century and have recovered after recessions, times are changing. The big problems of the 21st century have never been seen before. Anderson summarized the analysis of several deep thinkers in his book, Democratic Capitalism and Its Discontents. He stated:” liberal democracy had set loose an egalitarian spirit that it could never fully tame. The notion of the universal equality of man, which liberal democracy claims as its foundation, easily becomes subject to egalitarian overbidding. Equality constantly finds itself undermined by the freedoms that the liberal order secures. The liberty to pursue wealth, to seek to better one's condition, to create, to strive for power or achievement-all these freedoms unceasingly generate inequality, since not all people are equally gifted, equally nurtured, equally hardworking, equally lucky. Equality works in democratic capitalist societies like an imaginary horizon, forever retreating as one approaches it.”
Human Nature & Group Dynamics is a 21st century description of anthropology, sociology and psychology - disciplines that need to be integrated as they are in this book. The topics are essential to understanding human nature, its origins and its problems. You could treat each topic as module of a larger system that develops emergent properties as the modules interact. Each reader discovers the features of human nature in himself or herself and then discovers similar features in others. After you understand more about the dynamics of close relationships, you can look at larger groups. You can continue by applying your insights into human dynamics to governments, countries and international affairs. Other Persona Digital books describe the same dynamics but emphasize different vantage points and concerns. Click the download button on the right to
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Human Nature & Group Dynamics is one volume in the Psychology & Philosophy series, developed by Persona Digital Books. We encourage readers to quote and paraphrase topics from Group Dynamics published online and expect proper citations to accompany all derivative writings. The author is Stephen Gislason and the publisher is Persona Digital Books. The most recent date of publication is 2011 rev 4/10/2011. The URL to the book description is http://www.personadigital.net/Persona/groupdynamics/
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