If capitalism is using your own wealth in circumstances of risk with the aim of increasing not only your own but your nation's wealth, then corporatism must be using the wealth of others in circumstances of minimal risk with the aim of screwing your own people in order to make a small group of globalist thieves even richer.
I reproduce the following from the Telegraph without further comment.
Anyone still wondering who really benefits from big corporate mergers need only look at the prospectus issued last week for the marriage of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management. Certainly it’s not the employees, 800 of whom stand to lose their jobs, though there are fat retention fees for the top brass.
The £200m a year eventually saved by this cull seems scarcely worth the bother, taking into account the £320m in “integration” costs it will take to get there. So who is this merger really for? Not the shareholders either, who I have rarely seen so utterly underwhelmed by the claimed commercial logic of a deal as they are by this one. Nor the customers, who as usual go unconsulted. But when it comes to City advisers – now you’re talking.
Together they share a stonking great £97m, some £15.6m of it in legal fees alone, split between Slaughter and May, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Maclay Murray & Spens. The lion’s share of the rest goes to Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse. What a racket.
16 comments:
When I read a through a list of businesses like those that you mention, it makes me wonder how the governments of the 60's 70's and 80's became so offended by the prospect of union controlled "closed shops"...
They were well aware of the power of these advantages. The law firms, architects, accountants. lawyers, surveyors, doctors... all have their own closed shops, which are rigorously used to strip ordinary folk of the fruits of their effort.
Houses, which are some of the most fundamental things to a human have gone i my lifetime from costing on average three times a single person's salary to at least 6 times that figure.
Corporatism represents an extreme version of fascism... fascism without the nationalism, capitalism, or internationalism... Just plain piracy.
And we are all being mugged.
right-writes
"If capitalism is using your own wealth in circumstances of risk with the aim of increasing not only your own but your nation's wealth, then corporatism must be using the wealth of others in circumstances of minimal risk with the aim of screwing your own people in order to make a small group of globalist thieves even richer. "
Think that sums it up.
"Corporatism represents an extreme version of fascism..."
The essential feature of Fascism is the belief that violence is good, and should be used to solve most problems. I don't think this applies to lawyers, priests, etc.
In my opinion, "kleptocracy" is a more suitable word. Or perhaps "embezzlemania". Or "psychopathic management".
The "closed shop" for professions that require qualifications and experience, such as architecture, is I think a different question.
Don Cox
Fascism is one of those over-used words isn't it?
I believe that it is derived from the Roman word for a bunch of sticks... One stick on its own doesn't stand a chance against a bunch of sticks working together to form a broom. I suppose you could draw from that the idea that violence was the main strength of that arrangement, but I don't. I reckon that it is the mere act of forming an exclusive group, intent on gaining an advantage through numbers, rather than violence.
So when the world's bankers, lawyers, accountants, and multinational businesses wave their incentives at a bunch of weak and easily manipulated politicians, they quickly persuade them to work against the interests of ordinary folk.
As for closed shops, your justification seems to be that qualifications are needed in order to join. Which is precisely my point...
Remind me... How many qualifications did Michelangelo have? And Leonardo DaVinci? How about Christopher Wren?
In the world of medicine, the drugs industry and the doctoring business was closed down to anyone that took different views to the drug (allopathic) pushers (practitioners). So those that espoused different approaches to healthcare were made to look like charlatans.
Closed shops, merely retard progress and work against those that think differently. Under such systems, those mentioned above could never succeed and would never have been heard of.
Yet the man who paints the Forth Bridge for forty years is merely a painter, like Michelangelo.
There are many more examples of closed shops... The political parties, the various organised religions, all of them have one thing in common, a tendency to be fascist.
right-writes
Ah, RW, that's a whole new post - I've seen the deskilling of design & engineering over 40 years as increasing professional exclusivity and the creeping power of the global corporates has given us unimaginitive, formulaic, dreary design that's little more than British Standard 'building block' solutions just slotted together. New engineers dare not depart one single kN from the tables and the specs and the whole tends toward corruption.
Take external stone paving for vehicle traffic. The new BS specifies a bedding mortar which has a slump of not less than 150mm (like vichysoisse for non-builders) and can take specified loads when cured - but there are only 2 companies in Europe, one UK and one Swiss, that make a product that will perform as specified. No surprise that a member of the UK company sat on the BS panel that wrote the new standard ...
I would rather work in a building design by a qualified and experienced architect than in one that might collapse any minute. Where there are life-and-death risks, the responsible people should be properly trained and qualified.
This does not apply to artists, film-makers, photographers, novelists, or bloggers.
To understand Fascism, I suggest reading a biography of Mussolini, who invented it. The Futurists are relevant too.
Don Cox
The thing not mentioned is education and the world of work today. Just enough education in order to operate the machinery and fill in the paperwork. Just enough money to survive (minimum wage). That is what big corporatists want. And it all ties in with Bilderbergers.
People who think independently and can deliver critical thought? Nah, big state and big corporate don't want that.
Don - be careful what you wish for. If you build a new stone-slab patio in your garden this afternoon you will need to ensure it complies with the new standard - taking a loading of 20kN, bedded, jointed, bonded and grouted to the tolerances specified, or you will find your home insurance will not cover your BBQ guests falling over on it.
Better forget B&Q and engage a Landscape Architect. Shouldn't cost more all-included than £450/m2.
Radders, so often we see and hear of specification and rule changes that offer nothing to the end user other than additional expense.
It is creeping into environmental issues now as they move the goalposts on what is or isn't acceptable limits on levels of pollution. Much in the same way as preventing ALL deaths on roads is a practical impossibility, so is reducing pollution to zero - yet we are pressed into corners to satisfy an individuals needs to take our money to salve their conscience.
The differences between the old and new specc's are so insignificant as to warrant no appreciable benefits to the user - but every benefit to the proposer.
Radders said: "e careful what you wish for. If you build a new stone-slab patio in your garden this afternoon you will need to ensure it complies with the new standard "
My take is, if you want to build a patio, fuck what the government thinks, for fucks sake it's your land and you do the 'specs' and if you're an idiot - don't invite 'guests' to stand on said patio.
It is creeping into environmental issues now as they move the goalposts on what is or isn't acceptable limits on levels of pollution. Much in the same way as preventing ALL deaths on roads is a practical impossibility, so is reducing pollution to zero - yet we are pressed into corners to satisfy an individuals needs to take our money to salve their conscience.
The differences between the old and new specc's are so insignificant as to warrant no appreciable benefits to the user - but every benefit to the proposer.
What really vexes me, even if we leave the Berlin slave Empire, apart from politicians losing the one size fits all excuse "It's Brussels Rools mate"!.......... what actually will change, Britain is over regulated and the legal weasels run the show and at the base of all of this is what is sold as "your rights" - HRA, ECHR is elastic law so designed to make all and anything illegal but the last thing it is so designed for: to protect the individual. Bad laws create chaos and chaos is what is coming, mother theresa is no answer, when the people realize they've been fucked over - AGAIN.......
Then all bets are off.
Raedwald said:
'Just as there's a gulf between nationalism and patriotism..'
Not really. A nationalist puts his patriotism to work and what he does with it can be something simple, like removing EU number plates from his car, to putting the interests of his ethnic group first. I have no problem with a small percentage of the population being of different origins but if any political or religious ideology interferes with my origins a parting of the ways is guaranteed.
Steve
Don Cox - I take it that you have heard what Mussolini is supposed to have made about "his invention"...
Something along the lines of "Fascism should more properly be called Corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power.
Following your literary suggestion, take a look at "A Pattern Language", this is a book by someone called Christopher Alexander which sets out how to build, with barely a glance at a drawing, and the more you read, the more you will realise that everything that is and has been great about the human race in terms of its "built environment", was NOT the product of a government department, but rather the sum of what has gone before, also known as collective experience.
As Raedwald points out, when corporate executives meet with government executives, much mischief will too often ensue, and no ordinary member of the public will benefit from that mischief.
right-writes
Don't forget that when Derry Irvine was Blair's Lord Chancellor he introduced "no win no fee". He said it would bring down the cost of " legal aid". Today many restrictions on peoples activities are as a result of the fear of litigation and the ensuing costs. Often "health and safety" regulations are wrongly blamed.
Had to quit a US opinion and comment site recently, it wasn't that I was spending too much time trying to explain to angry Obama / Clinton fans the difference between capitalism and corporatism but their minds were so closed there was no chance of ever getting through to them.
" I was spending too much time trying to explain to angry Obama / Clinton fans the difference between capitalism and corporatism but their minds were so closed there was no chance" [...]
It's very difficult trying to explain to Clinton fans, just how much he was a serial peculator and crook and with his new found mates in Goldman Sachs fucked the world's banking system when that charlatan rescinded the Glass/Steagal Act, with lots of support from another hard left fuckwit called Janet Yellen.
Lefties get so mixed up about economics, they think that money grows on trees, and simply put you can't argue logic with planks of wood.
It's common to all of the left, in its rose tinted specs to cozy up to corporatism but to shout from the sidelines at it, and all the time misunderstanding just by how much the corporate blob fucks an economy. Wherein, the power of the giant conglomerates, the reach of Google and Facebook terrorizes whole countries and old rich men riding on the backs of Clinton's "banking reforms" wield power on such a scale, it influences continents - dodging and diminishing hte very idea of 'people power' ie democracy and that is just not right. The left sing the praises of the likes of George Soros and then in the same moment praise carp about 'strong democracy' - FFS and Obama being one, Obama the one man democracy man.
The only choice is free market Capitalism in all its glory, Capitalism or laissez faire economics frees the world and is total anathema to the corporate blob who love regulation and red tape to stifle and finish off the little boys.
Finally when the giants get to have politicians in their pockets as in Brussels, no good can come of it and I'll give you an example of the power of the big boys, it's sway..............
In their infinite wisdom, the big car producers have decided that, electric cars are the future but honestly no one in his right mind would actually see an electric car as a 'runner', the average joe wouldn't buy 'em.
So, waddaya do?
Start peddling lies about the "environment" and "air pollution" caused by yep - diesel engines, next start limiting diesel cars entry into big cities, legislate to make emissions tests nigh impossible to pass for a diesel car.......eventually banning petrol and diesel engines altogether.......hey presto - totalitarianism/environmentalism wins hands down and the big German caer manufacturers win again!
They did the same with light bulbs, vinyl records, cathode ray TVs, digitizing TV signals, they are planning to rid Britain of gas installations - as I speak and force us to use electricity in domestic settings.
Do you remember how it used to be when the consumer ie the customer was king? Ah but the corporate blob couldn't allow that now, could they? totalitarianism and the corporate design is what the progressives only ever wanted - the trappings of power without the work and thought processes incolved and from the banksters to the legal industry - that's what they provide, the bonds of slavery for the working man, legislate, burden the law abiding citizen and subject them all.
Only FREE MARKETS can save us and which is why left hate it, unbridled free veined market forces, the life blood of any true democracy.
And how about another clusterfuck of EU regulation, MIFID II.
A body of regulations so vague and badly written that even the large bank I work for, having employed an army of consultants and lawyers, is struggling with it. The a challenger banks have no chance.
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