> I think one good way to dismantle capitalism is the destruction of capital
> itself, the tool itself I mean. You see money has become less of a real entity
> and more an abstract concept.
I'd like to point out that major shifts in capital -- and even minor ones -- depend on flows of information. While the capitalist management may be obligated here and there to give some companies a slap on the wrist -- fines from the SEC, say -- most disputes would be handled politically so as to keep things quiet and behind-the-scenes. Occasionally the system goes into larger crises which are not easily swept under the rug, as with Long-Term Capital Management in '99, and, more recently, Enron, Worldcom, Global Crossing, and others.
> I committed computer expert could destroy for
> example huge sums of electronically managed money by means of a computer
> virus.
I seriously doubt this scenario, from a technical standpoint -- if it did happen it would be the result of some company winding up with the short end of the stick in some political transaction.
> But let's not start by talking about the dirrect approach, I.E. buring
> money in bond fires. Because money has become an abstract thing this imaginary
> concept, it's effect on people has been some what piculiar.
Capital is *not* an imaginary concept. It is quantified information derived from surplus labor value and market machinations on capital, combined with political global dynamics. The world's system of capital flows may be seen as complex as a macrocosm of the workings of an individual brain.
> People say the
> Soviet Union calasped because it when bankrupt, however it's Rival the U.S.A.
> has been Bankrupt for quite some time aswell.
Yes, but in which country's currency has oil been traded in for decades? The petro-dollar is only now coming under threat of competition from the euro, not that the euro even represents a very healthy economy.
The best analogy I've heard for that of the U.S. and its petro-dollar is that of an individual who is able to settle accounts by writing checks which then are *not even cashed*. In essence, the post-World-War-II era has seen foreign central banks exchanging *real* labor-backed local currency *just to buy U.S. dollars*, so that they can begin business transactions!
Another analogy is going to a video-game arcade to buy mandatory (expensive) tokens, in order to do business.
The Soviet Union's economy was not competitive enough, in the realm of petro-dollars, to be both self-sustaining, *and* attempt to compete with the U.S. in the nuclear arms race.
> The U.S. Government I mean,
> infact it's policy when it comes to spending is "if you haven't collected the
> money in taxes don't worry make it up and call it Deficit spending". This
> basically means the U.S. has been spending trillions and trillions of dollars
> that DON'T EXSIST!
This is true, but again, so many countries have been buying U.S. Treasuries for so long that the U.S. economy is able to run almost on mere worldwide confidence alone. Fundamentally it's a confidence ("con") game, or a Ponzi scheme, or a pyramid scheme.
However, the process is now threatening to go into reversal, as countries like Iraq (circa 2002), and now Iran, and possibly Japan, shift to a petro-euro, and away from the petro-dollar.
This, along with lessened buying of U.S. Treasuries, would threaten to jack the confidence game into reverse, with possible selling of U.S. assets. See:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8354.htm> Perhaps had the Soviet Union tried this it might never have
> callasped. You see when government employee in the U.S. are paid with this
> imaginary Deficit money they Actually get to spend it, while on the other hand
> in the Soviet Union if they didn't have the money in the budget they couldn't
> spend it and the workers simply didn't get paid, it was "Sorry no rubles for
> you." This was a poor tactic and it might have worked better to have employed
> the tactic of imaginary money like the U.S.
Economically the USSR was an island economy toward the end. While its legacy of central planning and authoritarianism allowed it to industrialize extremely quickly through the '40s and '50s (at great human cost), it could not keep up with the Western consumer-goods boom, the microchip boom, and, finally, the nuclear-arms race.
> But I digress. Because money
> itself has become to a large extend an imaginary thing, it's value too can be
> altered to suit the aims of toppling capitalism. Things don't have set values,
> a loaf of bread for example might cost one amount in one location and a Huge
> amount more in another location even within the same country, This lack of
> stability can be exploited and used to the advantage of toppling capitalism.
> If people can't trust money the practicality money itself begins to deminish.
I agree, to a point. The U.S. had to take out Iraq because of its shift to the petro-dollar, and now it also wants to take out Iran for the same reason, but it can't do it so easily as now its military is stretched very thin. But keep in mind that the world capitalist economy is more intermeshed than ever before, and so countries like Japan and China would not so quickly un-hook their own economies from the U.S.'s. China, for example, which is going through frenetic growth, is having to politically command a weaker value of its currency, the yuan, in relation to the dollar. The black market will give you more dollars for the yuan than the Chinese government will. And meanwhile the world's proletariat has no material alternative to capitalist currency and enforcement.
> The global ecconomy is based largely on this trust, and if people can't trust
> the money to acheive their goals the system will topple. Because money is
> abstact it can be undone it's not a solid camodity and can be disrupted with
> ripples of dought distrust and uncertainty. Will you money be able to buy a
> loaf of bread tomorrow? Not if it's Imaginary made up money.........
I wish economics were as simple as that, but it isn't. However, we can forsee the systemic crises of capital like storms on the horizon. As Japan stagnates, Europe stagnates, the U.S. slows down, and China begins to hit the wall, there will be a worldwide deflation across the board, no matter how much additional currency is printed. If things level out too much, especially probable in today's hyper-proletarian globalized economy, the leverage of the capitalists' capital will dramatically decrease against the bread-and-butter demands of the working class. Think Argentina 2002 on a global scale...!
Chris
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Two letters on Bill Gates [computer technology/Marxist revolution]
http://www.marxist.com/scienceandtech/bill_gates_letters.htmThe Role of Software in the Context of Commodities
http://image44.webshots.com/45/1/83/65/316018365eifrcn_fs.jpghttp://chicago.indymedia.org/media/all/display/14446Favorite web sites: chicago.indymedia.org, wsws.org, marxist.com, rwor.org, whatreallyhappened.com, moneyfiles.org, informationclearinghouse.info, blackcommentator.com, narconews.com, truthout.org
Photoillustrations by Chris Kaihatsu
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