I read a lot of posts on here from what might be called capitalist reformers. They admit that actually existing capitalism has serious problems but propose to solve them by modifying various aspects. Maybe we need more regulation, or a better social safety net, or some such things. I saw one recently who thinks corporate shareholders are the root of all capitalist evil and wants to reinvent corporations to eliminate them.

Setting aside the serious issue that none of these theorists seem to understand what capitalism actually is, two other things they have in common are an unbelievable naivete about the mechanics of political change and a complete inability to see the unspeakable violence required on a daily basis to maintain capitalism.

Listen to this brilliant idea! Everyone's been thinking about things wrong since capitalism started! We all want to do the right thing but powerful people are just confused about what it is! All we have to do is convince enough people of the right way to do capitalism and blammo! Utopia!

For the sake of argument assume that all these capitalist reform ideas are actually reasonable. It doesn't matter. If you have any practical experience with the American legislative process at any level you'll know that good ideas have fuck-all to do with which laws are enacted. Legislators legislate to promote the needs of the powerful people whose interests they represent. There are people in every jurisdiction who can get custom-made laws written and enacted within weeks. For these oligarchs, and I don't use the word metaphorically, bespoke legislation is a frictionless part of their daily business. The quality of the ideas behind it are less than irrelevant. There are no ideas behind it. This is how laws are made in America.

Now think about the laws these oligarchs enact. They don't sit around thinking about what ordinary people want or need. They don't worry about implementing abstractly beneficial reforms of capitalism or anything else for that matter. They increase police powers. They make police weaponry more deadly. They continually ramp up oppression and exploitation. They build more prisons and criminalize more and more normal human activities to keep them full. Think about the laws they could very easily enact but they don't. Universal health care, free housing, free food, free education, public transportation, environmental protection. The list of non-existent good laws is endless. Legislators do whatever the hell oligarchs tell them to do and this is what gets done.

And oligarchs have to use their power this way. They aren't fooling around trying to improve anyone's lives but their own. Without violent control of everyone else, without police to implement it, capitalism would collapse immediately. Why would anyone pay landlords or let bosses keep most of the money they earn without police violence forcing them to do it? With public housing, free food, free medical care, why would anyone choose to work for a boss? How would the bosses make money if people had the realistic choice not to work for them?

So, dear capitalist reformers, even if your brilliant ideas would really do what you think they'd do, so what? Look at the people you're asking to implement them, look at the violence they choose every day, the violence they must to choose if their entire way of life isn't to collapse. These vampires are the people you hope to convince to change everything just because it's a good idea. Maybe your theories really are the right thing to do, maybe your ideas really are good, but it doesn't matter. No one with the power to do things within the system wants to do the right thing. They want to drink your blood and have the cops kill you if you fight back. Until your brilliant ideas take that evident fact into account I for one don't see any reason to take them seriously

#Capitalism #Anarchism #Anarchy