Capitalism is biased in favor of capital. That’s why it is called Capitalism. Those who support it avoid using that word because it makes the bias obvious. They prefer instead to call it “free enterprise.” Everyone favors freedom, so the use of that word throws anyone who would object to it back on their heels. Observers easily think, “Oh, that person must be a socialist!” Socialism is not an advance, it is a step backward – although in the absence of an alternative sometimes a necessary one.
The eighteenth century German philosopher Friedrich Hegel made the point that we need words to communicate but those words become barriers to our own understanding. The substitution of free enterprise for capitalism is an example of a barrier to our own understanding erected by capitalists to subdue criticism of them.
Another way to make the point is that capitalism is all about hoarding, hoard money, hoard ownership of everything, factories, newspapers, water, land, etc.. Government is the obstacle when it taxes the rich to help the poor. Government is great when it takes taxes from the middle class to pay exorbitant amounts of money to private companies for weapons, drugs, and borrowed money.
At first, capitalism promotes expansion of production because the private capitalist does not need permission to start a new business. Government would require getting a lot of people to agree to a new project. However, the hoarding by capitalists leaves more and more people in poverty. We see that today with the protests against it that are occurring all over the world.
The question those protests are raising is, what do we do next? Many hope and others fear that socialism, that is, government take-over of everything, is the only option. The better option is cooperation.
We know cooperation today as cooperatives. They are an example of trying to adjust for a defect in money that allows capitalists to hoard, namely, the lack of a definition for “dollar.” A basic rule of a cooperative is that profits are returned to customers based on patronage. That is, cooperatives keep records of how much customers spend at their stores. Then, at the end of a year, the profits are returned to them based on how much they spent. The theory is that profits represent overcharges, which they are.
Profit exists only after everything is paid for. This includes wages and salaries of all people who work there, and whatever equipment and supplies the company bought. If everything is paid for, any charge above that is an overcharge. A capitalist would never agree; a capitalist prefers to call it profit. Profit is a good word because it implies that the capitalist deserves it. Overcharge is a bad word from the capitalist’s point of view because it implies that it belongs to the customer, not the capitalist.
Cooperatives are a step in the right direction – that is, toward cooperation, but only a step. The problem with cooperatives is record-keeping and deciding who should get the refund. Customers and the cooperatives must keep records of purchases and who made them in order to return the overcharges. Only a relatively small store can do that. I cannot imagine a store like Walmart being able and willing to do that. There is also the problem of what is due to suppliers. What looks like an overcharge to customers may be too little paid to suppliers. In short, cooperatives run up against a huge bookkeeping and judgment problem, tracking purchases and deciding who should get the overcharges returned to them.
The kind of cooperation that can correct the hoarding of capitalists with the least paperwork is cooperation using Hour Money. Hour money promotes accurate pricing at the point of sale and purchase. Both seller and buyer have the “yardstick” in time to decide more accurately than with dollars what is a fair price. That is why I link Time Money to peace. Peace happens locally when both seller and buyer believe that they have made a fair and equitable exchange. Unrest begins when one of the other believes that they have been treated unfairly. War happens when unrest if widespread. People everywhere are screaming that they are mad as hell and will not take it anymore.
You can help bring us local and world peace by promoting the use of an hour of work as the base unit of money everywhere so that we can each make fair exchanges with each other right at the time we sell or buy. Send me your address and I will send you Hour Money examples to give to your family and friends. Help plant the seeds of economic justice, democracy, and world peace.
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