Re: <nettime> structural greed

["chad scov1lle" <chad@chadscoville.com>]

Hi All.

I've been following the run of messages posted to nettime over the past week or
so, as well as watching the crisis firsthand from my office on Wall street.

One of the more interesting points, I feel, is that the US Treasury, by
provisioning lenient funding for reckless banking practices and alloting
taxpayer capital from the coffers of the American government is a social hedge
on an unprecedented scale.

The social hedge, not on the individual level, but on the corporate level.
Corporate socialism, better known as subsidies, which have been occurring
transparently within the context of the military-industrial complex for several
decades. It has been said that most of the firms listed in the DJIA would not
be able to survive without social funding from the American worker. Whether
this is factual or not I am skeptical, however, I would not be surprised if it
were.

So, effectively we have over the past few weeks and most likely continuing on
through the summer a condition where profit is privatized and risk is
socialized. Hypercapitalism at it's best! The American consumer benefits from
access to high-end lifestyle goods and services, cheap oil (based upon the
price paid at the pump compared to our friends in Europe), and even foremost,
access to extensive credit! That is what I'm thinking it has been about ever
since Nixon removed the currency from the gold standard and alloted monetary
policy to be set by free market adherents from the Chicago school.

Are we better off as a result of this? How can we make these judgements? Mean
lifespan measurements? Quality of life indexes? Infant mortality rates? All of
these kpi's might be localized indicators of American success, however the
obvious implications on a global scale are quite horrible.

I don't know what the answer is, but perhaps beyond peak-oil, we're all going
to move into more localized economies of scale, where all of our goods and
services are negotiated based upon their regional value and not set on markets
with a multinational dynamic.

Has anyone ever read 'The Soverign Individual'?

Best Regrds,

Chad Scoville


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