The age of Hypercapitalism | All | ThisisDiversity

I was asked by Davis Fleetwood to write up a brief summary of what I believe to be the “most important story of the past decade.” Picking just one story is a pretty daunting task considering the list of possible choices: the ongoing Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan assaults, torture, poverty, and global warming. However, I chose to write about Hypercapitalism.

Money tends to be the source of most conflicts, and Hypercapitalism, in my opinion, is the most destructive economic force the world has ever encountered.

The Age of Hypercapitalism

No other economic system in the history of the world has inflicted so much damage to the environment, society, culture, and the lives of billions of human beings as Hypercapitalism.

While Capitalism has been with us ever since humans first determined labor should be compensated with pay, Hypercapitalism is a fairly new phenomenon that involves massive overleveraging by financial firms and widespread deregulation by the government. Hypercapitalism is also known by another name: Corporatism, or Fascism, which simply means the combination of a radical and authoritarian nationalism with a corporatist economic system.

Put more simply: Hypercapitalism, Corporatism, and Fascism, all share the trait of promoting the interests of private business corporations in government over the interests of the public.

Such reckless acts like overleveraging and deregulation alone would be irresponsible – at worst, temporarily dangerous. However, the Cult of Hypercapitalism infests not only Wall Street, but also the US government with revolving door appointments (Paulson, Geithner, Rubin, etc.) who invaded D.C. in order to uphold the very broken system they worked to expand.

For decades, Hypercapitalism has been taught as a virtue in our country’s “finest” educational institutions. The cream of the crop from Harvard and Yale are trained not only to bolster Hypercapitalism, but to make as much money as quickly as possible. These graduates go on to lead some of the largest financial firms in the world.

So when the whole system collapsed before the bailout crisis, there were no fresh minds to hypothesize a solution outside of the current system. The solution to a problem has never come from the set of mistakes that caused the problem in the first place, and yet the same Hypercapitalist Sentinels were employed – again – to brainstorm solutions to arguably the worst financial disaster since the Great Depression.

Except, this isn’t the only time since the GD that the economy has tanked. There has been a multitude of failures, on average, once every three years, according to Larry Summers. Such a woeful track record might give smart economists pause. What kind of system fails every three years?

The obvious answer is: a broken system. At the very least: an under-regulated one that has encourages and breeds reckless, immoral behavior.

Wealth disparity is increasing in America and in the world. The bottom half of the world’s adult population owns barely 1% of global wealth. People are starving and dying from preventable diseases, while the CEOs of taxpayer bailed-out institutions reward themselves with lavish bonuses. For what? Failing?

And that’s the crux of Hypercapitalism: failure. It’s an economic system that fails every three years and fails to provide for 99% of the planet’s population. It’s fueled by the bottom line – a never-ending quest to slash expenses and maximize profits – no matter what the human toll. If the race to the bottom entails destroying the planet, union busting, exploiting cheap labor, and destroying indigenous cultures, so be it. At least a few CEOs get to buy another summerhouse – or a yacht.

Source: Unreported

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