Abolishing Capitalism

Abolishing Capitalism

2017, Economics  -   37 Comments
7.78
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Ratings: 7.78/10 from 172 users.

Is capitalism destroying the fabric of our society? Peter Joseph, the founder of the Zeitgeist Movement, argues that it is. His philosophy is at the center of Abolishing Capitalism, an Empire Files documentary hosted by acclaimed journalist Abby Martin.

The film is essentially a long form interview with Joseph as he sounds off on a variety of topics, including banks, the stock market, debt, and class division. In his view, capitalism is a scourge that has eroded our capacity for empathy. It promotes the irrational consumption of goods and services, shamelessly appeals to our primal need for social inclusion, and corrupts in its ability to reshape our priorities. In the process, it sets the stage for bringing out our worst misogynistic, racist and exclusionary instincts. Advertising is the means by which the system is able to perpetuate itself.

The average person often fails to recognize the cancer of capitalism. By design, the process is covert and muddied in complexity. The movers and shakers of the financial industry in the United States - the Wall Street traders and tycoons - create nothing. They merely make money from money. The elite line their pockets with increasing bundles of wealth while the lower and middle classes continue to struggle. Corporations are equally ruthless in their attempts to exploit the vulnerable masses. In one such scenario, Joseph exposes a major company that takes out life insurance policies on its employees. Every aspect of the financial sector is driven by profit, including the sanctity of life and death itself.

Joseph extends these grievances to the state of the world's underdeveloped countries, global starvation and poverty, and the degradation of the environment.

It's not all doom and gloom, however. His message is also aspirational. Collectively, our best and brightest have the power to transcend the capitalistic model, fully commit to the promise of renewable energy, conserve our precious resources, dismantle class divides and cure societal ills.

Abolishing Capitalism offers no counter argument to Joseph's assertions. But it does provide viewers with concepts that are worthy of careful thought and debate, and which might inspire activism for change.

Directed by: Abby Martin

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David Dieni
David Dieni
2 years ago

You key words and phrases parroted by those who understand nothing about economics are "crony capitalism, collectivism" big government, small government, I am not for capitalism, I am for free markets,

Free markets have never existed. The industrialized military powers created the 3rd world and continue rape and force their peoples into sweat shop slave labor...and if they dare to use the resources for the people, they will find US death stars (AKA air craft carries) off their coast ready to obliterate them.

Pro capitalist s live in la, la land, where a magic hand takes care of everything, unless you do something altruistic of course, then it turns the worlds to sh*t, because you hurt its feelings.

That is not in the least bit psychotic....white people are not insane , they are are just a bit stupid

Smoochie
Smoochie
2 years ago

The rich and powerful are the most comfortable... before and now and they and theirs will be the ones who disappear into the places they have prepared / are still preparing. On the other side of the coming bottleneck only green will survive. All the other colors and their people, no matter what color they started life as, unless they turn green or have something the greens need will perish. The species will survive, just not 99.999% of the currently living families. How does that make you feel? Rhetorical.

David
David
2 years ago

I have been an activist for 25 years and here is the crux of the problem is stupid white people.

Average global GDP growth per annum since WW2 is about 3%
At 3% our economies and demand for energy doubles every 23 years, while 57 of the 65 oil producing nations of the world have used more than half their oil reserves, and as of 2008 oil production went into a permanent 9% decline per annum.

We use 1 billion barrels of oil every 11 days, and for every 6 to 8 barrels of oil we consume, we are producing just one. This is what triggered the war in the middle east and America's reckless attempts to manufacture reasons to attack both Iran and Venezuela, as the USA uses 27% of the world's oil. The remaining oil is sour crude that is far more expensive to mine and refine. This means we cannot meet current economic demands, much less furture demands and as a result, the UN World food organization is now warning of imminent famines of "biblical proportions"

The worst growth figures on record of -0.1% occurred during the great depression and also in 2008. According to the IMF negative growth for 2020 stands at -4.7%.....in other words the world economy is collapsing, it is in free fall, exacerbated by COViD 19.

It is the unparalleled energy density of oil that has fueled the machines that has allowed for
the explosion in human population from a relatively steady 2 billion since the (supposed) birth of Christ to what it is today. As no infrastructure is in place to transfer to renewables, and we do not have the oil reserves to build all the required turbines etc...............

In retrospect, our response as sentient human beings to our government's genocidal invasion of Iraq was the litmus test in our commitment in standing up for the right of all people to live free of oppression and the threat of war. Instead of holding mass murdering genocidal war criminals to account, and preserving our democracy and our own rights at home, we turned our backs on our fellow man and each other, as we have continually sanctioned genocide at the ballot box.

As the chickens now come home to roost, we have no one to blame but ourselves, and our continued failure to act rationally to the threat posed by our insane leaders can only have one outcome.

Kent Allard
Kent Allard
3 years ago

Another Utopian pontificating the need to control all life under a Communitarian Order.

It is crap.....all you have to do is go to 42:22 where he sums up the steps to his Utopian dream.

And please note.....Abby is suggesting buying his book.

I for one am not for Capitalism.....I am for Free Enterprise. Please learn the difference. A very brief understanding is a child setting up a lemonade stand, this is free enterprise. The city of health inspector or Tax collector that comes along and shuts down the business for various reasons - that is Capitalism. It is the centralization of wealth. When the Government participates you wind up with a Corporate State - when they pick the winner and losers, and generally it is always the citizen the flips the cost and bear the liabilities.

This man is preaching Communitarianism....look it up and learn. This is trash. Communitarianism is defined as the "Third Way". It is more like Third Reich. As Hegel defined..... Thesis, (Capitalism is Good); Antithesis (Capitalism is Bad); Synthesis (Communitarianism is the solution). This is a lie.

Type in Google "Communitarianism"......also attach other keyword like Presidents, universities, UN, Davos.....

You probably never heard the term, Communitarianism.......time to learn the truth of the goal of the mega-wealthy.

steve
steve
4 years ago

This guy thinks going back into the jungle and caves makes us somehow sustainable noble savages. This planet wont be here forever no matter how sustainable it is, Technology and material progress is what we have to do to survive. Material progress gives us control over our fate.

Mik hoch
Mik hoch
4 years ago

I’d sure let Abby polish my capital stick.

Jamie
Jamie
5 years ago

Great interview. I especially appreciate the message of abolishing animal agriculture. We are enslaving and killing other living creatures which is immoral, and this in turn destroys the planet and destroys human health.

XenaC
XenaC
5 years ago

He must be working for those 1% who own 83% of the stocks; since it is they, the banksters who desire to abolish Capitalism. You simply are not under their thumb enough. They are the globalists who want to fool you into Socialism which will become Communism so they can enjoy total control.

If you disagree with their plans for you, they'll just delete all your accounts and their "caring" bureaucracy will delay until you see their light and be a good little Maoist ant sacrificing for the good of all... the banksters.

Not my problem
Not my problem
5 years ago

He raises some good points but he's naive if he thinks humans can overcome these great evils that will ultimately lead to our distruction

James
James
5 years ago

73% of all tax revenue is paid by the top 10% of the country's wage earners.

Gil
Gil
5 years ago

@ussr: Go shop at your empty grocery stores in the days of the old Soviet empire.

It is the incrementally increasing Socialism that has caused much of the problem in the once great usa. And the corruption that fosters.

The larger more centralized power the govt is, the more problems for the people.

the ussr
the ussr
5 years ago

we NEED to abolish capitalism. i told yall it would destroy us all.

DustUp
DustUp
6 years ago

What to do about the Corporations and Corporatism? They broke up AT&T didn't they? Better yet if you stop buying what they are selling and buy from a smaller sweeter nicer company, more of those will be created.

If you stop voting for the corrupt and corruptible and see to it the swamp is drained, then the polluters (including govt) and bankster scams will be stopped.

What they don't tell you is that Corruption is inherently ingrained and far worse in Socialism-Communism than with Capitalism. You just don't get to hear much about it because along with Central control they must control the media for it to continue. Obviously they have owned the major media in the usa for a long time. That is Not compatible with The Constitution since they seek to undermine it and have. Need to require all those major medias from calling any shows a "News" segment or "the news". That very title does the majority of the damage. They should be entitled "the Marxist propaganda segment" or similar. That would be truth in advertising, which was required years ago. Companies had to prove what they were going to say in a TV ad in the 1980s, at least in some cases, such as one company saying their product was better than another company's similar product.

Politicians need to be put in jail. Judges need to be put in jail. As Martin Armstrong, the subject of the Movie/Documentary "The Forecaster" has said, govt should not be allowed to file charges on anyone, it must only be brought by people lest we have a tyrannical govt getting rid of the opposition or bending those to its nefarious will. Grand juries are mainly used as a rubber stamp these days.

Again the problem is us. We are too lazy to stand up and fix the actual root problem. Clean out govt, prevent its corruption, stop corporations from having as many or more rights than an individual. Make it so psychopaths cannot hide behind them. No immunity for Judges. They allow fraud at every turn.

Or sit on your backside and watch it all transform into a living hell with no incentive to work and therefore no food available to buy. Brilliant. Just like the old Soviet Union

There is a reason Russia and China had to include a large dose of Capitalism in order to make headway into solving several of their problems.

DustUp
DustUp
6 years ago

Nice to have @Nemo's confirmation. I was going to state that it is clear the fast talker is a Marxist i.e. Socialist-Communist. Abbey Martin is a Socialist-Progressive liberal as well. Different flavors of the same I-scream. They both like to pretend they are intellectual, especially this Peter Joseph guy, but really, if you don't understand the reality of much of what you are blathering about, then how intelligent are you? Neither do. Citing ultra liberal university studies? Gee that carries a lot of weight with me too, cough cough.

@DGG The reason Soros isn't mentioned is because he is a Marxist fellow traveler. It has always been the method of the left to blame Capitalism for all the problems of the ever increasing Socialism-Communism has caused. The extra big laugh is that Trump could have easily ran on the Democrat ticket but that wouldn't have set well with the Clintons, who he called beforehand to let them know he was running. Bill didn't have a problem with it since he was going to run on the Republican side. So now that he has an "R" in front of his name he is automatically evil. Such a joke, since if he would have run on the Democrat ticket he would have been praised and whomever the "R" guy was would be the evil one, probably Ted Cruz or Ben Carson or such. If Trump would have been a true Republican, he would have done a clean sweep of the Administration and not have all the Marxist insiders still there lying their hineys off trying to take him out. Live and learn, and he is learning the hard way.

It wouldn't surprise me to find that the majority of stocks are owned by the upper 1%. I believe the largest majority are owned by the banks. This is how the banksters, the owners of the robber baron banks, put an information shield between themselves and the public. The banks are probably held by holding companies, etc. Whether it is 83% as claimed, I have no idea. All I do know is to never believe anything a Marxist says. Their more recent playbook, more recent than Karl Marx's book anyway, "Rules For Radicals" by Alinsky instructs to lie, lie, lie; because they would never go for it if you told them the truth. And that is exactly what Obama and Hillary did. Hillary being a disciple of Alinsky and Obama clearly having studied his work following it play by play.

What they clearly avoided saying is that the huge Corporations or Corporatism is at the root of most of the problems since they buy govt. Yet these Corporations are also for Socialism-Communism because that WILL eliminate most all of their competition. Then there will be no collaboration, just dictation.

I do agree that much of the financial sector does nothing useful, especially the stuff most retail traders don't or cannot trade, such as derivative swaps. Mutual funds were one the reasons the big 1929 crash took so many down with it. People couldn't get out right away. They had to contact their Mutual Fund and that Fund would decide when to get out. Even in more recent times the mid 1990's or so, a friend wanted to get out, sent in the required notification, a week later they sent back a letter asking him why he wanted to liquidate. Luckily a crash wasn't happening at that time. However, it was when my Grandparents suffered through the 1929 crash. They weren't too keen on Mutual Funds. Did you know they were outlawed for many years after?

These people want to "transform" society. Yet they don't say to exactly what, just allude to it being better. That is the same BS Obama fooled way too many people with.

Much of Peter Joseph comments are based on false premise. Does the super Abbey Martin even question any of these premises? No. Pollution is a problem. Govt causes most of it because govt is bought by the Corporations = Corporatism or Fascism. Mussolini later stated that a better term for his coined Fascism would be Corporatism.

Imagine NO govt at all. No Kings, dictators, warlords, etc. Just people. What would develop? Joe with chickens would trade eggs for some of Jim's sausage. And there would be NO taxes. THAT is Capitalism. To make those exchanges easier Money would be invented. To create a Tractor manufacturing company Stock would be sold to raise the capital needed. Voila after a couple hundred years here we are today. Except we haven't been smart enough to keep govt out of our wallets and the Marxists off the boob tube and out of the universities, propagandizing the world into hell on earth.

What Peter Joseph fails to mention is this: They want to be just like the Soviet Union was ..."only this time it will be better!" Abbey Martin is just a useful idiot who wants to throw the baby out with the bath water rather than clean house. Trump is on the right track. If he actually could drain the swamp, that would go a long way to fixing a lot of things. These weasels want open borders because they know they can dupe many of them into voting for free stuff (buy their votes). Yet all any sane person wants is LEGAL immigrants who are a benefit. We cannot afford to cure everyone of everything. Why can't Mexico help its own people? It could but for corruption. Same reason we have poor people.

In other words ...or using Peter Joseph mentality, if we could force the system to prevent vote buying, stealing from one group to give to another group, MUCH of the problems Socialists-Communists create would be eliminated. Because by FAR the largest recipient from the stolen, is the govt class. That is why it has grown immensely in the 2000s. Bush was no conservative. In actuality he was a progressive trying to march us toward a new world order NWO = Communism, just like his daddy who was great friends with Bill Clinton back from their black budget drug running days when Bush Sr. was CIA director and Bill was gov of Arkansas.

Question everything. Do your homework.

Nemo
Nemo
6 years ago

I've met and spoken with Peter and his Mother in Winston (where she lives)

Long story short: Peter is wrong/Communist, Communism is evil and kills and does not work, and a quick watch of his debate with stefan molyneux will leave you a serious skeptic of his premise. Otherwise, smart guy.

normroussy
normroussy
6 years ago

The book, The Web of Debt explains the problem.The book , The Public Bank Solution, explains the best possible solutions.Both books are written by Ellen Hodgson Brown, who is brillant.

poorboy
poorboy
6 years ago

Purchase voucher concept of money creation, if a car manufacter produces ahundred cars at a ten thousand purchase price.it may produce purchase vouchers correspondingly.100x10,000.If the manufacter produces purchase vouchers of greater value that would consitute fraud.

James
James
6 years ago

I applaud Peter Joseph and his economic insights. One major element within our society not discussed or acknowledged to any degree is that of religion. There will continue to be religious warfare I think regardless of whatever economic revelations. I could be wrong but history says otherwise.

Jay
Jay
6 years ago

I like how after 10 + years of talking about how bad all these problems are this "movement" is still content to only point to lofty solutions while offering absolutely no detailed plan or framework on how to get there from where we are. Absolutely worthless, please cite me more Harvard studies on the problem, thanks. Please write another book rehashing problems we all know.

Irwen
Irwen
6 years ago

Peter Joseph has good insights on the societal effects of oppression and exploitation. He talks rather quickly though, and uses some acronyms that he doesn't define (QE = quantitative easing, I assume). I'm not too sure about vertical farms being the final answer to the world's food supply issues, because from what I've seen they can mostly be used only for growing leafy greens like lettuce, and not staple crops like rice or wheat. My take on some of these issues:

Stefan
Stefan
6 years ago

@DGG: your tiny stock pile probably accounts for those 15% that are not owned by the 1%. Remember, it's the sum, it's not about how many actually one just one stock. But it shows how easily people play along with keeping this system alive. I'd rather say that this system makes the worst out of people. Hence the theft, deception etc. And this just being "human", is as wrong as the "jealousy towards the rich" argument for people wanting another way in life and society.

DGG
DGG
6 years ago

It is human nature to want more than the other guy. It's called ego, and out of that comes competition, theft, deception, and everything else he is blaming on a capitalist system. And his claim that 85% of stocks are owned by 1% of the people which he calls "the elite" is nonsense. I own stock and I am FAR from the elite as he describes it.

DGG
DGG
6 years ago

How come they don't show pictures of George Soros? He has as much money as President Trump.

Shane
Shane
6 years ago

Sharon,
Try subscribing to TZMOfficialChannel on Youtube. Seaching 'Peter Joseph' on Youtube will also give you loads of hits. I also suggest TeleSUR English with Abby Martin.

Sharon
Sharon
6 years ago

I can't find anything online more recent than about 2013 for the Zeitgeist Movement. I live in LA, where Peter is based. How to find out more and plug into this group?

Shane
Shane
6 years ago

“In a way, the world−view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird.” - George Orwell, 1984

Chris
Chris
6 years ago

We need a real revolution in this country, but unfortunately it probably won't happen in my lifetime, only when the masses really get desperate and fed up will we see the population of the world stand up but it might be to late.

Titus
Titus
6 years ago

A main problem is that you can't just try to inform people about the problems and issues and expect the masses of sheep to do anything about it. People are ignorant. That is a fact. And it isn't just that the information isn't out there, or that it's hard to understand, it's that the majority of people refuse to change their minds, won't except facts that don't fall in line with their cliques(political parties usually) or are simply incapable of fathoming the drastic problems our society faces(or outright causes).

The only way we are going to change things like stopping our freedoms from continuing to disappear, gaining back the freedoms that have already been taken by greedy and oppressive governments, and preventing the earth from being irreversibly damaged (although to some extent it already is) is for those who actually can use logic properly and are disgusted by the path we are on now, to FORCE change. Belief in our joke of a democracy, by those who know change must occur, can very well be our downfall.

- The logic and Common Sense Guild

Greg
Greg
6 years ago

The only REAL starting point for any radical transformation in the current world order must be a reformation of the monetary system. Currently all new wealth is generated by the process of fractional reserve banking. All NEW money and therefore new wealth (money that never existed before) is created through fractional reserve banking. This is a wholly immoral system for introducing NEW money into the world because that NEW money then must be paid back to the banker once it has been spent. This makes the bankers the REAL owners of ALL NEW money being created in the world. NEW money should only be allowed to be created through a Universal Basic Income. This is the only moral way to create NEW money and therefore the only logical way to have a sustainable monetary system.

Most world economists agree the current method for introducing NEW money in the world is inefficient and becoming more and more ineffective at spreading wealth to developing countries. If they would just open their eyes a little wider they would realize just how immoral it is for bankers to be the sole owners of all NEW money being created.