Fears of the erosion of democracy pervade the headlines. The rise of authoritarian populists around the world, with Donald Trump being the most emblematic, has mobilized centrist pundits and politicians to claim, and rally around, the flag of democracy as a mobilizing tool.
Yeah, capital is fundamentally opposed to democracy because democracy means people without capital can get more power in society than those that hold more capital. What could possibly be the result of a system that removes the brakes from capital exercising its power other than the erosion of the power people without significant capital have. Which then results in further capital accumulation, which results in further disempowerment of regular people, in a feedback loop. Hell we even shoveled important public property into private capital’s hands… And here we are at near historic level of income and wealth inequality.
And it isn’t just me saying this. If you examine some of neoliberalism icons’ musings, you’d discover they see democracy as a hindrance to the full realization of an absolute free market economy, for this exact reason. People tend to vote against the privatization of public services they depend on, and against stripping labour rights to name a couple of things that tend to rain on neoliberalism’s parade.
Yeah, capital is fundamentally opposed to democracy because democracy means people without capital can get more power in society than those that hold more capital. What could possibly be the result of a system that removes the brakes from capital exercising its power other than the erosion of the power people without significant capital have. Which then results in further capital accumulation, which results in further disempowerment of regular people, in a feedback loop. Hell we even shoveled important public property into private capital’s hands… And here we are at near historic level of income and wealth inequality.
And it isn’t just me saying this. If you examine some of neoliberalism icons’ musings, you’d discover they see democracy as a hindrance to the full realization of an absolute free market economy, for this exact reason. People tend to vote against the privatization of public services they depend on, and against stripping labour rights to name a couple of things that tend to rain on neoliberalism’s parade.