Thread: Capitalism!? They Should Call it Laborism

Capitalism!? They Should Call It Laborism

I was at a cocktail party when I was introduced to Alan Greenspan, when really, I knew exactly who he was – he was the man who pulled the plug on all of my investments back in 2001, forcing me out of my retirement and back to Work. And he knew who I was – one of the millions he had deliberately sent back to work. He knew that from the frown I had on my face.

Anyway, he had a few drinks and did not mind explaining himself. It seems that back during that wonderful Bull Run a huge portion of the Labor Force, both White Collar and Blue, were retiring, that is leaving the Work Force. People’s investments were doing so well, that what did anybody really need to go to work for? What was happening was that the Economy was truly becoming a Capitalism, that is, a great many people were about to make their sole livings from being Capitalist Investors.

So Greenspan pulled the plug.

The way he sees it, is that somebody has to do the ‘work’. For all the talk about “money” working for one – “putting money to work” and all of that – well, money actually can’t get much work done by itself, but only if it is paid out in wages. In this regards the Capitalist System relies entirely upon Labor. We should be calling it “Laborism”.

Says he.

I contend that anything people can do, machines, and computers, can do better. The day is fast approaching when Machine Work and Automated Process will be cheaper, faster, better then any Labor and then only those with Capital Interest in the Machines will have any income, and those who rely only upon their Labor as an exchange for income, well, they will be particularly out of luck. The “Terminator” Technologies will not have to go to War with us, but will only need to take our jobs, and then we will fade away in an inevitable starvation. Indeed, I pointed out to Alan that rates of Production were multiplying out of any proportion to Labor’s involvement in the Economy, indicating that production is growing ever increasingly independent of whether or not there are workers available or not.

He told me he could not understand my reasoning, and so I told him that he must be growing senile that that he should consider retiring. Well, he took my advice on one thing.