------ 2.2 From Capitalism to the Anticipated New Era ------
From now-on due to the information technological development, including both the internet and the artificial intelligence (AI), which has widen the market entrance of both the real-market (dealing with the goods and services) and the financial market (dealing with money and other forms of capital assets). It used to require a high volume of capital investment to open a new business so that those who were already wealthy to own enough capital had a much stronger advantage. By contrast, the current technology enables individuals to gather efficient tools and investment resources from a far bigger information resource than few decades ago.
This leads to the situation where it does not longer matter to seek a heavy volume of capital investment from banks and private investors for starting up a new business as long as any individual has an attractive idea of a new business. In another word, the cost of capital investment has become substantially low. This is one of the reason why the interest rate set by central banks in developed countries is close to zero or even minus. The supply of entrepreneurs will become far more abundant and the market competition among business owners will become far more competitive than it has been.
The traditional bourgeoisie such as the owners of big enterprises are going to face the severe difficulty in maintaining their dominance. These bourgeoisie owning huge enterprises with a high volume of capital are not flexible to change their policies and their organisational structure in comparison to the newly emerging entrepreneurs having started their business with a low volume of capital investment. These new entrepreneurs are far more flexible to adjust their business structure to the market demand and requirement even though their economies of scale is not big as much as the traditional capitalistic enterprises.
The economies of scale are also predicted to be smaller than they have been due to the technological development such as newly invented AI and 3D printers. Furthermore, the division of labour will be more emphasised in this coming era so that it seems to be the case that the industries had better include various independent small enterprises competing and often cooperated together instead of allowing one or few monopolistic big corporations controlling it.
The development of the cloud data base and the close-based administration system also devalue the importance of these big corporations because industries no longer need a big organisation constantly administrating and monitoring the business activities as well as their data-management. These administration tools will be organised by decentralised platforms such as a set of the remotely located hard-drive centres connected via online. The outsourcing will be more popular as there will be more small enterprises offering flexible services with good-quality. Therefore, companies no longer need to marge various departments and divisions inside their company, and these tasks can be easily outsourced.
This decentralisation process will also lead not only the previously mentioned traditional bourgeoisie owning private enterprises but also government-bureaucrats administrating public sectors and the market regulations, who can be called the new bourgeoisie, will also struggle to maintain their dominance. Not only the previously mentioned technological development and the market decentralisation but also the decline of nation-states caused by the globalisation are devaluing the necessity of the bureaucracy. Some of the public sector projects will be outsourced and the communication tool and the administration tools of public sectors will be so efficient that it will require less man-power.
In addition, both the already developed information technology and the newly developed AI will replace many tasks of these bureaucrats. Also, the diversification of this entire world will require anyone including the tasks of the bureaucracy to constantly change enough to frequently requires their skill sets to be always updated or even replaced by a completely new ones. Therefore, the structured static structure of the bureaucracy will be simply inefficient, and it will devalue the level of intelligence, wisdom, and hard-works of these elite bureaucrats.
At the same time, this transformation of the market structure will cause a hardship for the citizens who are already accustomed with their traditional way of living by being employed by a private company, public sector, or any structured organisation. The market becomes far more capital intensive owing to the technological development and the popularlised entrepreneurship owing to the information technology and networks. Then, the number of labour employed will become far smaller than it has been. Therefore, unless they find any new means of living such as starting their own business or any alternative way of sustaining their life, they will struggle to find their means of living. This may result in an increasing social problem of anomie (Normlessness or Meaninglessness) predicted by Emile Durkheim.
Overall, owing capital will become less important meanwhile people will be employed less and market competition becomes more competitive. Because owing (physical and financial capital) will become far less significant to become successful in the market competition, the name called capitalism may be going to be old fashioned. This newly emerging era should no longer be called capitalism although the market competition becomes much complex and intense and the social stratification still remains (It is far from the utopia for all individuals).
- 3. Diversified Education System
As the market becomes far more competitive as well as diverse, the skill sets required for succeeding in this market competition frequently change all the time. In this situation, there is no definitive skill guaranteeing individuals' job security. Then, the compulsory education will be more diversified unlike the current homogeneous plane style of education. As the change of the required skill sets becomes more frequent, individuals will rather prefer learning multiple skills in various methods to spending several years for obtaining one degree.
These organised educational institutes used to be valuable for children to gain an access to the basic educational information and the social skill with the others. By contrast, the primary education system is diversified nowadays and the remarkable development of the information technology enables anyone to gain the access to the education, the essential information required for life, and various diverse social networks. Therefore, compulsory education is no longer essential for individuals to obtain.
Nonetheless, education and nurturing will still be the key critical factors for succeeding to become the dominant class more than it has been. Those who can access to the flexible choice of education and nurturing and be brought up in an emotional stable environment while their childhood are more likely to succeed in the survival in this new era. Then, the family background, the chance to have a right mentor, the relationship with friends and acquaintances, and the living environment endowing individuals with innate abilities will become unavoidable variables to acquire the higher social status.
Thursday, January 05, 2017
Friday, December 30, 2016
2017 New Year Forecast (1 of 3): A Gradually Emerging Complex & Incomprehensive World & Society
These days, there are various economic and political downturns and catastrophes taking place. Many enterprises and financial markets are struggling in improving their business performance and securing their market dominance while various new business models and innovative technologies are created at a faster pace than it used to be. The life style of human-individuals is more diversified at a faster pace while suspicion and conflict among individuals belonging to each different social group are intense. Many individuals seem to have far more opportunities to choose their life path while many individuals seem to suffer from their anxiety about their near future, which tend to cause their mental-depression. There does not seem to be any antidote solving these problems, and these problems arise due to the inevitably occurring transition of the entire economic and political structure of this world.
- 1 Astrological Analysis
Firstly, the European astrology provides a useful forecast of what is happening nowadays and the near future. Pluto crosses the ascendant in Capricorn until 2023, and then Pluto is going to be crossing the ascendant in Aquarius from 2023 to 2043. From now onward, the already existing traditional norms and values are gradually replaced by the alternatives. Furthermore, the condition determining individuals' social status is gradually changing. The entire economic and social structure is becoming more complex and less comprehensible.
The time of Pluto crossing the ascendant in Capricorn is a transitional period of norms and values. This time period is gradually transform the vertical relationship of human-individuals. At this time period, various dominant corporations, governments, and military struggle to keep their power. This is why the entire world financial system has crashed in a big scale more than once, many major corporations are struggling to maintain their business performance and their market dominance, and the power balance of the world politics is drastically changing at the fast pace. From now on, the traditional institutes they have belong to no longer secure their life so that none will teach or command what each individual has to do in their life.
On the other hand, the time of Pluto crossing the ascendant in Aquarius is the transitional period of relationships. This time period will be gradually transforming the horizontal relationship of human-individuals. At this time period, there will be alternation and diversification of how individuals interact with each other. There will be a dramatic change in an already existing entire community individuals are living in. This community includes not only the traditional relationships like family, friends, and coworkers but also some abstract relationships such as the online social-networks. In the near future, the already existing communities where they have belong to will be difficult to remain permanently so that nothing will permanently maintain kinship, friendship, and any other relationship.
Overall, from now onward, more individuals will furthermore struggle to find out what they have to do in their life.
Both institutional structures and community-ties will be fragmented and less permanent to exist. However, this phenomenon does not dissolve the political/social stratification which polarises individuals' living standard between the ruling class and the subordinate class. Instead, the method and the nature of stratifying individuals (and their society) will simply become more complex and less comprehensible.
- 2 The transformation of the dominance
Secondly, this world social structure is gradually evolving into a new form based on a more complex and less comprehensible hierarchy. To analyse a complex and incomprehensible crime case and find the true criminal in this criminal case, it generally starts out from guessing who is benefited at most by committing this criminal act. Finding out who is benefited at most in a political/social stratification is quite effective to analyse and understand how human-individuals living in this world will be polarised between the privileged ruling class and the rest majority.
- 2.1 From Capitalism to the New Capitalism
Someone has said that everyone in an advanced country is the middle class citizen because an advanced country provides a citizen with the equality of opportunity to be a skilled professional as an owner of an enterprise as long as this citizen has a merit for it. However, these middle class individuals are often exhausted by their workloads and desperate to opportunities of increasing their income and social-status. They do not seem to have enough freedom to spare their time for leisure. They do not seem to have their wage bargaining power enough to determine their own reward for their contribution to the market.
Karl Marx and his followers blame capitalism for impoverishing majority individuals under the harsh free market competition. However, the form of capitalism itself has been transformed from the early stage of the industrialisation when Karl Marx was alive. The entire condition to determine who can secure their position to maintain their dominance as the ruling class has changed. When Marx was alive, owning capital was the fundamental factor enabling individuals to maintain their privilege of both economic and social status. By contrast, both owning capital and the free market competition no longer secure their dominance.
The skilled professional occupations such as doctors, lawyers, managers of major companies, and scientists, and even some entrepreneurs (mainly owners of small-medium sized enterprises) used to be called the petite-bourgeoisie (which literally means the middle-class) because these occupations did not require the hard physical labour like the proletariat. Their professional skill used to be considered as the capital owned by these skilled professionals so that they were considered to have their own means of production which provides them with the stable income source without their hard physical labour.
By contrast, nowadays, these skilled professionals are busy enough to sacrifice their health condition and time as much as the traditional working-class occupations of the proletariat. These skilled professionals and owners of small-medium sized enterprises may earn relatively more income than the other working class occupations. However, they are far more likely to sacrifice their income and time invested for their higher education and be required to have a strong responsibility over their tasks. Furthermore, they do not look like owning their capital emancipating from the hard physical labour, and they rather look like they are required to put their hard physical labour as much as the traditional proletariat works.
This phenomenon is called the proletarisation of the middle class. When the national economy was developed enough to provide majority of citizens with the equal opportunity to acquire these middle class job with a high social status, the supply of those who have become the middle class dramatically increased. Then, the competition among these skilled professionals has become more intense enough to lower their income level and increase their energy and time invested for their productive activities. They are required to work hard enough to gain their means of living as same as the traditional proletariat. Therefore, these middle class individuals are under the pressure of producing the surplus value with their hard labour as same as the traditional working class so that they should be called the the new working class, or the proletariat-nouveau instead of the petite-bourgeoisie.
The traditional bourgeoisie such as owners of a big enterprise still keep their market dominance. Nonetheless, there are new variables enabling them to maintain and expand their dominance. The management of a big enterprise has become so complicated that it requires a huge volume of bureaucracy as same as the public sector management of a nation state government. Not so many competitors are able to be equip with such a huge complex bureaucratic structure so that those corporations which are already big enough can thrive with little fear from the market competition.
The other variables are the taxation and the excess market regulation which has become far more complex than the old capitalism. Government of a modern nation state imposes various forms of taxation and various regulations instructing entrepreneurs in order to adjust their action to government policies. Furthermore, in order to implement these policies which government force enterprises to follow, it requires a humongous public sector bureaucracy constantly monitoring this complex system regardless of any government elected at each time period. This bureaucracy has become an unavoidable tool of governing a modern nation state and its economy due to the complex nature of modern economy and politics. Then, these bureaucrats in this bureaucracy have their strong influence enough to control the market situation for their own interests, and they are the new ruling class that can be called the bourgeoisie-nouveau.
This new capitalism has transformed the social-stratification, and replaced the old ruling class with the new alternative. Nowadays, there is a new wave of transforming the social-stratification which replace the new capitalist economic political model to another. Due to the rapid development of the information technology and the individuals' network based on it, both owning capital and maintaining the big organisations like big corporations and public-bureaucracies will be less significant to maintain wealth and the dominance in both market and politics.
.............. To be continued.
- 1 Astrological Analysis
Firstly, the European astrology provides a useful forecast of what is happening nowadays and the near future. Pluto crosses the ascendant in Capricorn until 2023, and then Pluto is going to be crossing the ascendant in Aquarius from 2023 to 2043. From now onward, the already existing traditional norms and values are gradually replaced by the alternatives. Furthermore, the condition determining individuals' social status is gradually changing. The entire economic and social structure is becoming more complex and less comprehensible.
The time of Pluto crossing the ascendant in Capricorn is a transitional period of norms and values. This time period is gradually transform the vertical relationship of human-individuals. At this time period, various dominant corporations, governments, and military struggle to keep their power. This is why the entire world financial system has crashed in a big scale more than once, many major corporations are struggling to maintain their business performance and their market dominance, and the power balance of the world politics is drastically changing at the fast pace. From now on, the traditional institutes they have belong to no longer secure their life so that none will teach or command what each individual has to do in their life.
On the other hand, the time of Pluto crossing the ascendant in Aquarius is the transitional period of relationships. This time period will be gradually transforming the horizontal relationship of human-individuals. At this time period, there will be alternation and diversification of how individuals interact with each other. There will be a dramatic change in an already existing entire community individuals are living in. This community includes not only the traditional relationships like family, friends, and coworkers but also some abstract relationships such as the online social-networks. In the near future, the already existing communities where they have belong to will be difficult to remain permanently so that nothing will permanently maintain kinship, friendship, and any other relationship.
Overall, from now onward, more individuals will furthermore struggle to find out what they have to do in their life.
Both institutional structures and community-ties will be fragmented and less permanent to exist. However, this phenomenon does not dissolve the political/social stratification which polarises individuals' living standard between the ruling class and the subordinate class. Instead, the method and the nature of stratifying individuals (and their society) will simply become more complex and less comprehensible.
- 2 The transformation of the dominance
Secondly, this world social structure is gradually evolving into a new form based on a more complex and less comprehensible hierarchy. To analyse a complex and incomprehensible crime case and find the true criminal in this criminal case, it generally starts out from guessing who is benefited at most by committing this criminal act. Finding out who is benefited at most in a political/social stratification is quite effective to analyse and understand how human-individuals living in this world will be polarised between the privileged ruling class and the rest majority.
- 2.1 From Capitalism to the New Capitalism
Someone has said that everyone in an advanced country is the middle class citizen because an advanced country provides a citizen with the equality of opportunity to be a skilled professional as an owner of an enterprise as long as this citizen has a merit for it. However, these middle class individuals are often exhausted by their workloads and desperate to opportunities of increasing their income and social-status. They do not seem to have enough freedom to spare their time for leisure. They do not seem to have their wage bargaining power enough to determine their own reward for their contribution to the market.
Karl Marx and his followers blame capitalism for impoverishing majority individuals under the harsh free market competition. However, the form of capitalism itself has been transformed from the early stage of the industrialisation when Karl Marx was alive. The entire condition to determine who can secure their position to maintain their dominance as the ruling class has changed. When Marx was alive, owning capital was the fundamental factor enabling individuals to maintain their privilege of both economic and social status. By contrast, both owning capital and the free market competition no longer secure their dominance.
The skilled professional occupations such as doctors, lawyers, managers of major companies, and scientists, and even some entrepreneurs (mainly owners of small-medium sized enterprises) used to be called the petite-bourgeoisie (which literally means the middle-class) because these occupations did not require the hard physical labour like the proletariat. Their professional skill used to be considered as the capital owned by these skilled professionals so that they were considered to have their own means of production which provides them with the stable income source without their hard physical labour.
By contrast, nowadays, these skilled professionals are busy enough to sacrifice their health condition and time as much as the traditional working-class occupations of the proletariat. These skilled professionals and owners of small-medium sized enterprises may earn relatively more income than the other working class occupations. However, they are far more likely to sacrifice their income and time invested for their higher education and be required to have a strong responsibility over their tasks. Furthermore, they do not look like owning their capital emancipating from the hard physical labour, and they rather look like they are required to put their hard physical labour as much as the traditional proletariat works.
This phenomenon is called the proletarisation of the middle class. When the national economy was developed enough to provide majority of citizens with the equal opportunity to acquire these middle class job with a high social status, the supply of those who have become the middle class dramatically increased. Then, the competition among these skilled professionals has become more intense enough to lower their income level and increase their energy and time invested for their productive activities. They are required to work hard enough to gain their means of living as same as the traditional proletariat. Therefore, these middle class individuals are under the pressure of producing the surplus value with their hard labour as same as the traditional working class so that they should be called the the new working class, or the proletariat-nouveau instead of the petite-bourgeoisie.
The traditional bourgeoisie such as owners of a big enterprise still keep their market dominance. Nonetheless, there are new variables enabling them to maintain and expand their dominance. The management of a big enterprise has become so complicated that it requires a huge volume of bureaucracy as same as the public sector management of a nation state government. Not so many competitors are able to be equip with such a huge complex bureaucratic structure so that those corporations which are already big enough can thrive with little fear from the market competition.
The other variables are the taxation and the excess market regulation which has become far more complex than the old capitalism. Government of a modern nation state imposes various forms of taxation and various regulations instructing entrepreneurs in order to adjust their action to government policies. Furthermore, in order to implement these policies which government force enterprises to follow, it requires a humongous public sector bureaucracy constantly monitoring this complex system regardless of any government elected at each time period. This bureaucracy has become an unavoidable tool of governing a modern nation state and its economy due to the complex nature of modern economy and politics. Then, these bureaucrats in this bureaucracy have their strong influence enough to control the market situation for their own interests, and they are the new ruling class that can be called the bourgeoisie-nouveau.
This new capitalism has transformed the social-stratification, and replaced the old ruling class with the new alternative. Nowadays, there is a new wave of transforming the social-stratification which replace the new capitalist economic political model to another. Due to the rapid development of the information technology and the individuals' network based on it, both owning capital and maintaining the big organisations like big corporations and public-bureaucracies will be less significant to maintain wealth and the dominance in both market and politics.
.............. To be continued.
Friday, November 04, 2016
Where East meets West: Belgrade, Serbia
This is a pencil drawing of the fortress in Belgrade, Serbia.
The gate shown on the left hand side of this picture is a Turkish style architecture whilst the Orthodox church attached to this fortress is an European style. This whole architectural design represents the history of Balkans where the long history of various conflicts between the Eastern Europe (Serbia and surroundings) and the Islamic empires (Such as Osman Turkish empire), and the West Europe (such as with Austria-Hungary empire under Hapsburg dynasty) although Hapsburg armies could hardly reach this fortress due to the tremendous difficulty to conquer this fortified fortress located on the top of hill.
Saturday, April 09, 2016
The End of Nation States: Index
- Preface
- Chapter 1. The further growth of the global capitalism is inevitable
- Chapter 2. The case study of the European Union (EU) and the other possibilities
- Chapter 3. Public Sector Administration and Urbanisation
- Chapter 4. Right and Wrong about Marxist prediction
- Chapter 5. Is it the road to Anarch-Capitalism?
- Chapter 1. The further growth of the global capitalism is inevitable
- Chapter 2. The case study of the European Union (EU) and the other possibilities
- Chapter 3. Public Sector Administration and Urbanisation
- Chapter 4. Right and Wrong about Marxist prediction
- Chapter 5. Is it the road to Anarch-Capitalism?
The End of Nation States: Preface
The End of Nation States: Preface
This political economic essay was written not for favouring and support an economic policy: This was written for the prediction of how the world economy becomes like. This project claims that our world is heading toward the end of the political idealism and speculative manifesto like "It will be like so if something is done." is no longer useful for both explaining about the current world situations and predicting the future world outcomes.
Economic analyses helped to create this prediction. Economics explains various outcomes by using the fact based objective analyses so that economics has an advantage of logically explaining the connection between various past events and the future possible events. By contrast, modern political theories are excessively relying on the subjective normative statement such as what ought to be instead of what will happen. These modern political theories are over-speculative about the future outcomes and they are hardly based on logical inferences like economics as they heavily rely on their fundamental principle of what they dream to accomplish.
What it suggests is adapting to the inevitable change gradually happening now. This prediction is neither an optimistic one such as "Communist manifesto" by Karl Marl and "Capitalism - The Unknown ideal" by Ayn Rand nor a pessimistic one such as "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley and "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell. It simply predicts the change in paradigm which will have both advantage and disadvantage. What some political philosophers said were partially wrong meanwhile they were partially correct to explain about the future world.
Back to Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Continue reading
This political economic essay was written not for favouring and support an economic policy: This was written for the prediction of how the world economy becomes like. This project claims that our world is heading toward the end of the political idealism and speculative manifesto like "It will be like so if something is done." is no longer useful for both explaining about the current world situations and predicting the future world outcomes.
Economic analyses helped to create this prediction. Economics explains various outcomes by using the fact based objective analyses so that economics has an advantage of logically explaining the connection between various past events and the future possible events. By contrast, modern political theories are excessively relying on the subjective normative statement such as what ought to be instead of what will happen. These modern political theories are over-speculative about the future outcomes and they are hardly based on logical inferences like economics as they heavily rely on their fundamental principle of what they dream to accomplish.
What it suggests is adapting to the inevitable change gradually happening now. This prediction is neither an optimistic one such as "Communist manifesto" by Karl Marl and "Capitalism - The Unknown ideal" by Ayn Rand nor a pessimistic one such as "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley and "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell. It simply predicts the change in paradigm which will have both advantage and disadvantage. What some political philosophers said were partially wrong meanwhile they were partially correct to explain about the future world.
Back to Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Continue reading
The End of Nation States: Chapter 1. The further growth of the global capitalism is inevitable
The End of Nation States: Chapter 1. The further growth of the global capitalism is inevitable
The world in the last century was dominated by the economic and political conflict of national capitalism and international socialism. By means of the political historical analysis based on Hegelian dialectic, it can be explained that the synthesis of this conflict has created the synthesis called the global capitalism combining the capitalism of the former and the internationalism of the latter. Nevertheless, unlike Hegelian political philosophers believe, the characteristics of both the former and the latter were not chosen by means of their virtue: They are chosen and combined by means of their pragmatic interests of unstoppable desires of human individuals as Napoleon Bonaparte said "Men are more easily governed through their vices than their virtues."
The international socialism was the political attempt to unify not only the people of two different classes, bourgeoisie and proletariat, in inside a nation but also all people of the world with an altruistic philanthropy promoting an unconditional share of properties together with all the human individuals. However, this system neglected about the method motivating individuals' competence and productivity and the possibility that some wicked individual may hijack this political system for her/his own good. This political system overestimated individuals' capability to care others all the times and underestimated its weakness of the centralised planned economic system which was easy to be taken over and manipulated by those who are not philanthropic.
On the other hand, the expansion of capitalism based on the division of labour and maximising pleasures was unstoppable. Most of all the modern nation-states have used capitalism for accumulating their wealth which secures their military and political strength. Then, the growth of capitalism has now expanded enough to control, rather than be controlled by, nation-states. The market mechanism of capitalism allowed individuals to doing favours for the others in exchange for their own needs and wants. As this political system has provided individuals with the opportunity to gain their ultimate desires, it has encouraged individuals to be competent. Furthermore, it is difficult for some few political factions to take over capitalism because this political-economic system is decentralised and its market mechanism is complex. Therefore, this system is kept preserved and growing further.
The reason why altruism with philanthropy, such as socialism promotes, is difficult to be a dominant stimulus of individuals' action because of their psychological effect in their mind set. The painful memories tend to remain in individuals' mind far stronger and longer than the pleasant memories. Then, hatred of individuals toward other individuals tends to easily dominate in their mind, and they tend to become deeply suspicious about the others, and those who have a stronger hatred than the others tend to have stronger motivation than those who have less hatred. Therefore, although socialism was originally created for a virtuous aim, it has been violated since its centralised structure was hijacked competent haters oppressing the others.
Of course, individuals are virtuous and philanthropic enough to think of spending their time and energy for establishing the good world for all. But, the motivation power of being attracted to vices and short-term egoistic desires tend to be significantly stronger than trying to be virtuous all the time. In order to become altruistic enough to help others and keep being virtuous, individuals need to be materially and spiritually rich enough not to be worried about losing their personal fortune by spending sufficient amount of time and energies. Such individuals who can spare their energies, resources, and time to accomplish such virtuous actions like being altruism and philanthropy are minority.
Naturally, the first priority of living creatures including individual humans is to firstly fulfilling their primary desires. It takes a lot of resources to fulfil their desires until their marginal utility gained from their action fulfilling their primary desires. So, they start conflicting each others to take the resource pie from the other. Vices are usually motivated by the lack of fulfilling their ultimate needs and wants. By contrast meanwhile virtuous acts like being altruism and philanthropy demand enough resources split from individuals, and majority of individuals eventually need to sacrifice their desires to accomplish these virtuous actions. As individual humans' primary desire is innately endowed by nature, it is unstoppable so that vice tends to be a superior motive than virtue. In the primitive stage of civilisation, pillages and wars were used for this purpose. But, human-individuals gradually developed their peaceful, but yet controversial, political mechanism called the market economy which is also called capitalism.
The moral judgement often tends to be biased by the subjective assumption, and it is not sure whether the current moral justification is right or wrong. So, individuals test and evaluate their judgements all the time to select the feasible morality fitting in with what they need and want under the current circumstances. Even Thomas Aquinas, the remarkable priest as well as political-moral philosopher, admitted it.
In addition, a remarkable classical economist Alfred Marshall claimed that the spiritual well-being is more likely to be born after material well-being is satisfied. Capitalism perpetuates the inequality between those have and have not but increases the aggregate material well-beings so that it provides more opportunities for more individuals to feel materially fulfilled enough to start pursuing their spiritual well-being. So, Marshal claimed for capitalism should be preserved and politics should be led by these materially well-off individuals who have become successful in capitalism rather than poor majority mobs.
The expansion of capitalism is based on the division of labour where individuals share their advantageous characteristics by specialising their work in what they are better at than the others. As explained by Adam Smith, when one manufacturer can produce one hundred nails a day, ten persons of the same skill together can produce thousands nails a day. So, the bigger economies of scale multiply the overall productivity level. The currently notable development of information technology and the transportation has enabled capitalism to expand beyond national borders, and this opportunity has enabled the economies of scale to expand furthermore.
This has not been not initially planned by someone: This has spontaneously happened by letting capitalism grow further after easing the international trade since the end of the Cold War in the last century. The innate desires of individuals combined by the development of the information technology and transportation method has perpetuated capitalism enough to transform it from national to global (international). In another word, the pure desire for pleasures gained from the growing productivity level becomes superior to the love of nation or politics. This implies the twilight of nation-states, as well as all the modern political ideologies basing their national politics. The raison d'etre of these nation states is gradually declining.
Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Continue reading
The world in the last century was dominated by the economic and political conflict of national capitalism and international socialism. By means of the political historical analysis based on Hegelian dialectic, it can be explained that the synthesis of this conflict has created the synthesis called the global capitalism combining the capitalism of the former and the internationalism of the latter. Nevertheless, unlike Hegelian political philosophers believe, the characteristics of both the former and the latter were not chosen by means of their virtue: They are chosen and combined by means of their pragmatic interests of unstoppable desires of human individuals as Napoleon Bonaparte said "Men are more easily governed through their vices than their virtues."
The international socialism was the political attempt to unify not only the people of two different classes, bourgeoisie and proletariat, in inside a nation but also all people of the world with an altruistic philanthropy promoting an unconditional share of properties together with all the human individuals. However, this system neglected about the method motivating individuals' competence and productivity and the possibility that some wicked individual may hijack this political system for her/his own good. This political system overestimated individuals' capability to care others all the times and underestimated its weakness of the centralised planned economic system which was easy to be taken over and manipulated by those who are not philanthropic.
On the other hand, the expansion of capitalism based on the division of labour and maximising pleasures was unstoppable. Most of all the modern nation-states have used capitalism for accumulating their wealth which secures their military and political strength. Then, the growth of capitalism has now expanded enough to control, rather than be controlled by, nation-states. The market mechanism of capitalism allowed individuals to doing favours for the others in exchange for their own needs and wants. As this political system has provided individuals with the opportunity to gain their ultimate desires, it has encouraged individuals to be competent. Furthermore, it is difficult for some few political factions to take over capitalism because this political-economic system is decentralised and its market mechanism is complex. Therefore, this system is kept preserved and growing further.
The reason why altruism with philanthropy, such as socialism promotes, is difficult to be a dominant stimulus of individuals' action because of their psychological effect in their mind set. The painful memories tend to remain in individuals' mind far stronger and longer than the pleasant memories. Then, hatred of individuals toward other individuals tends to easily dominate in their mind, and they tend to become deeply suspicious about the others, and those who have a stronger hatred than the others tend to have stronger motivation than those who have less hatred. Therefore, although socialism was originally created for a virtuous aim, it has been violated since its centralised structure was hijacked competent haters oppressing the others.
Of course, individuals are virtuous and philanthropic enough to think of spending their time and energy for establishing the good world for all. But, the motivation power of being attracted to vices and short-term egoistic desires tend to be significantly stronger than trying to be virtuous all the time. In order to become altruistic enough to help others and keep being virtuous, individuals need to be materially and spiritually rich enough not to be worried about losing their personal fortune by spending sufficient amount of time and energies. Such individuals who can spare their energies, resources, and time to accomplish such virtuous actions like being altruism and philanthropy are minority.
Naturally, the first priority of living creatures including individual humans is to firstly fulfilling their primary desires. It takes a lot of resources to fulfil their desires until their marginal utility gained from their action fulfilling their primary desires. So, they start conflicting each others to take the resource pie from the other. Vices are usually motivated by the lack of fulfilling their ultimate needs and wants. By contrast meanwhile virtuous acts like being altruism and philanthropy demand enough resources split from individuals, and majority of individuals eventually need to sacrifice their desires to accomplish these virtuous actions. As individual humans' primary desire is innately endowed by nature, it is unstoppable so that vice tends to be a superior motive than virtue. In the primitive stage of civilisation, pillages and wars were used for this purpose. But, human-individuals gradually developed their peaceful, but yet controversial, political mechanism called the market economy which is also called capitalism.
The moral judgement often tends to be biased by the subjective assumption, and it is not sure whether the current moral justification is right or wrong. So, individuals test and evaluate their judgements all the time to select the feasible morality fitting in with what they need and want under the current circumstances. Even Thomas Aquinas, the remarkable priest as well as political-moral philosopher, admitted it.
In addition, a remarkable classical economist Alfred Marshall claimed that the spiritual well-being is more likely to be born after material well-being is satisfied. Capitalism perpetuates the inequality between those have and have not but increases the aggregate material well-beings so that it provides more opportunities for more individuals to feel materially fulfilled enough to start pursuing their spiritual well-being. So, Marshal claimed for capitalism should be preserved and politics should be led by these materially well-off individuals who have become successful in capitalism rather than poor majority mobs.
The expansion of capitalism is based on the division of labour where individuals share their advantageous characteristics by specialising their work in what they are better at than the others. As explained by Adam Smith, when one manufacturer can produce one hundred nails a day, ten persons of the same skill together can produce thousands nails a day. So, the bigger economies of scale multiply the overall productivity level. The currently notable development of information technology and the transportation has enabled capitalism to expand beyond national borders, and this opportunity has enabled the economies of scale to expand furthermore.
This has not been not initially planned by someone: This has spontaneously happened by letting capitalism grow further after easing the international trade since the end of the Cold War in the last century. The innate desires of individuals combined by the development of the information technology and transportation method has perpetuated capitalism enough to transform it from national to global (international). In another word, the pure desire for pleasures gained from the growing productivity level becomes superior to the love of nation or politics. This implies the twilight of nation-states, as well as all the modern political ideologies basing their national politics. The raison d'etre of these nation states is gradually declining.
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