The 4 Hour Work Week Fraud and No Understanding of Capitalism

Capitalism is not a political force or ideology it is an operating system that is adopted by political systems and then used as required by the political system to achieve its aims.

Durban, South Africa - April 3, 2018 /PressCable/ —

In the article The Fraud and the Four-Hour Workweek Meagan Day writes that people “need free time and discretionary income to properly enjoy these simple luxuries”. And the reason these things are denied is “capitalism — or more specifically, the absence of an oppositional political force dedicated to stopping capitalists from arranging society to their benefit and contrary to others; in other words, one dedicated to class struggle.”

But this is not true. The problem is not capitalism but how it is manipulated within an ideology.

Capitalism is not a political force it is an operating system that is adopted by political systems and then used as required by the political system to achieve its aims. Either to manipulate certain groups or for certain groups to manipulate it.

In an excellent TED talk “Capitalism isn’t an ideology it’s an operating system” Bhu Srinivasan suggests that instead of thinking about capitalism as a firm, unchanging ideology, that it should be thought of as an operating system — one that needs upgrades to keep up with innovation. As new technologies are introduced like, for example, the internet, drones, automated driving and mobile phones the operating system needs to be updated.

If it is thought about it in this way then it becomes clear that any ideology can adopt capitalism. Democracy has adopted capitalism and then packaged its ideology into the operating system. Communism has adopted capitalism and packaged it in a different ideology.

It is far easier to demonise capitalism, the operating system, than to demonise the real culprits – the ideologies that have adopted capitalism and poluted it to fit their aims.

Critics of capitalism refer to the class divisions – the owners of the capital (capitalists) and those that work for the owners (the working class). This distinction becomes very blurred when trying to define “owners” with many publicly owned companies and many industries heavily regulated by the political ideology.

Another criticism is the profit motive without fully understanding reward for risk and where profits are distributed. For example many company’s shares are owned by pension funds and the profit is indirectly distributed back to the contributors – the working class!

Another assumption is that capitalism is only possible in a free market. However this is obviously incorrect as capitalism has been adopted very successfully in many countries with different political ideologies. China and Vietnam are good examples. In many countries there is a mixture of private and state ownership with the exact mixture dictated by the ideology.

It may be contended that communism without capitalism fails. With examples like Russia and Cuba. And socialism without capitalism fails – with examples like Venezuela

The bogey man is not capitalism. It is the way that the operating system is manipulated and exploited by individuals and groups for their own benefit. Whether it is political or personal power or accumulation of wealth.

Many so called democracies like the United States have been manipulated and polluted to create an Illusion of “personal freedom” and “personal rights” and “personal power”. Serious thought about any one of these would make it clear that they are illusions.

The fallacy is thinking that capitalism is a political ideology. That one country, because it has a democracy, is a capitalist country and another because it is communist or socialist is not capitalist.

Any political system can usurp “ownership” through regulations, direct ownership or indirect control. Making it impossible to define ownership boundaries.

It is more rational to separate the political ideology from the operating system and then evaluate where the problems really are. The reason that freedom is denied in the democratic world is democracy itself.

Contact Info:
Name: Patrick Millerd
Email: patrick@rovingretirement.com
Organization: Roving Retirement
Address: 27 Riverside Park Estate, Durban, Kwa Zulu Natal 4051, South Africa

For more information, please visit http://www.rovingretirement.com

Source: PressCable

Release ID: 322867