This is a quote from Plato's A Republic chapter 6 Democracy Part 9 Imperfect Societies Book Eight, "Our next subject, I suppose is democracy. When we know how it originates, and it is like, we can again identify and pass judgement on the corresponding individual", Plato said. "That would be consistent with the procedures we've been following", Socrates said. "Then doesn't an oligarchy change into democracy in the following way, as a result of lack of restraint in the pursuit of its objective of getting as rich as possible", Plato said. "Tell me how", Socrates said. '"Because the ruler, owing their power to wealth as they do, are unwilling to curtail the extravagance of the young, and prevent them from squandering their money and running themselves; for it is by loans such spend thrifts or by buying up their property that they hope to increase their own wealth and influence", Plato said. "That's just what they want", Socrates said. "It should be clear that the love of money and adequate self discipline of its citizens are two things that can't coexist in any society; one or the other must be neglected.', Plato said. "That's pretty clear". "This neglect and the encouragement of extravagance in an oligarchy is often reduces to poverty men born for better things", Plato said. "Yes, often" Socrates said. "Some of them are in debt, some disenfranchised, some both, and they settle down, armed with their stings, and with hatred in their hearts, to plot against those who have deprived them of their property and against the rest of society, and to long for revolution." Plato said. "Yes, they do", Socrates said. Meanwhile the money-makers, bent on their business, don't appear to notice them, but continue to inject their poisoned loans wherever they can find a victim, and to demand high rates of interest on the sum lent,with the result that the drone and beggars multiply.", Plato said. Yes, a result that's bound to follow.", Socrates said.
It is evident that in the 2008 financial crises hundreds of billions of dollars worth of property was destroyed or even stolen. The bailouts to the banks and auto industry was a solidifying of the elites control over the United States. This is socialism. This is not free market capitalism. This is removed from anything Adam Smith or Fredick Heyek would have advocated for. This is clearly the result of monopolistic capitalism. I highly suspect that these actions are being taken intentionally in order to strike outrage in the people, so that eventually when this economy fails to mend they can replace monopolistic capitalism with facism. This would be similiar to Italy under Mussolini. Also, the financialization of the economy is ruining our culture and our society. This means that as the financial industry (commercial banking, investment banking etc) grows as the percentage of the overall economy productive activity (manufacturing, physical output) will decrease. The real economy that includes physical production and middle class workers needs to thrive in order for our society to flourish. Unfortunately, the economy has been organized around high frequency trading, and lending money to corporations to buy back shares of the company. Meaning, less money is utilized productively and the elites have no incentive to invest in human capital.
Now your probably thinking that this a bleak picture. The middle class is dispearing, the culture is under attack, and we do not have a working education system. The solution is Placed- Based Finance and Industry. I may have mentioned this in other blog and I may be a broken record by the time I post several blogs. Placed - Based Finance and Industry is putting the means of production for the goods and services on consumes in their local community. This means that the utility one would receive by purchasing goods and services is increased by the betterment of the local community. If one were to save money that person would invest it locally or regionally.
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