Mark Small

Great graffiti in 1975 in Las Vegas, New Mexico: “Capitalism is the system of man exploiting man/socialism is the other way around.” To understand how the two systems function perhaps helps better than a specific definition. 11/30

Capitalism is like a one-loss basketball tournament - like the NCAA big dance - except businesses, not basketball teams, compete. If a business cannot compete effectively - i.e. operate at a profit - as other similar businesses, it folds or bought out - i.e., eliminated. 12/30

And usually the business entities in the Capitalism Tournament are corporations. Corporations are entities that shield individual shareholders from liability from corporate conduct. The Boston Tea Party dumped tea owned by a corporation into Boston Harbor. 13/30

Businesses, over time, do not confine themselves to a single industry. Amazon, for example, started as an on-line book dealer. Now Amazon sells many things in many lines of products and services. 14/30

Businesses do not always “win” by playing “clean.” Standard Oil, in the late 1800s, priced things so low as to put competitors out of business - then jacked rates way over their previous levels. 15/30

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, fewer and fewer hands owned and controlled greater amounts of things and industries. Ultimately, the Clayton and the Sherman Antitrust acts were enacted. 16/30

That is one problem with capitalism. Once a corporation, or handful of corporations, has succeeded and “won” the tournament, there is no re-set for a new tournament. 17/30

People cannot simply start a business to compete with the “winner” of the tournament: 1) Lots of money is required to build a business - e.g., buying oil fields to beat Standard Oil or creating an internet entity to compete with Amazon. 18/30

2) If someone tries and begins to succeed, usually litigation occurs. Large corporate entities laid out big sums to win that tournament and want to keep that trophy - or, more accurately, ALL the trophies. 19/30

Theodore Roosevelt - a Republican President who was a progressive - fought against the “few” hoarding all the wealth. When capitalism plays out, it results in monopoly - one in the hands of a few. 20/30

People are better off if they - through the government - own and run large systems, versus that handful of people who won the Capitalism Tournament. Corporations - ultimately - are pieces of paper. In the USA their stock can be purchased by anyone. 21/30

People are better off if they - through the government - own and run large systems, versus that handful of people who won the Capitalism Tournament. Corporations - ultimately - are pieces of paper. In the USA their stock can be purchased by anyone. 21/30

Once those shares go “public,” anyone, including foreign individuals, corporations or governments, can buy those shares. 23/30

People, such as Mr Bales, who are scared of “Socialism” apparently have neglected to study U.S. history of around 1900 and how corporations had little kids working 12-hour days in factories. 24/30

There is little recourse against a large corporation for its actions. Think of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April, 2010. BP paid a big fine. 25/30

Few Americans remember the 1984 Bhopal, India, gas leak from a Union Carbide plant that killed 2,259 people immediately and, eventually some estimate, over 20,000. In the years following, kids whose parents lived near the plant were born with birth defects. 26/30

The CEO of Union Carbide’s operation in India skipped his bail of $2,000 and fled to his home here in the U.S. 27/30

Corporations have no brains. There is a fiduciary duty owed by corporate managers to shareholders to obtain profits. If a corporation cuts corners - as Indian authorities said was the case in Bhopal - more profit accrues. 28/30

Mr Bales should study history, particularly how corporations have not been friends to anyone but shareholders. 29/30