I've been lurking for a long while in here, and there's been a lot of low- and mid- level chatter about “capitalism bad”, and “we need co-ops” or “we need socialism/communism”.
I would like to posit a theory of my own.
TL;DR, for those that want it:
“Capitalism and Communism are two sides of the same coin, and either side can as easily be fouled by the mud of corporatism.” There's your soundbite.
And now to the TEDTalk…
Capitalism and Communism share (in my mind at least), a common theme, which is the idea that the worker should own their work.
Where they differ is that Communism, when tried outside of laboratory conditions, runs everything through the State. The entire Motherland IS the Company Store.
To redistribute goods and services from those who have too much to those who have not enough REQUIRES an extensive logistical network, which then requires Big Picture People (managers), and then Whole Picture People (C-suite). Oops, a corporation.
Add to that some odd ideas about how equality works, and you get very interesting little oddities like cutting the heads off the tops so “everyone is equal”. That farmer is shit at it, and you're bonkers amazing, so you're in line for execution. Yeah, that actually happened, then people starved…but only the rank-and-file. The leadership still ate well. Everyone called it Communism, but it was actually Corporate Communism.
This isn't to say Communism is bad as such. I'm not actively trying to swing for the jugular on Communism. I'm even admitting that it wasn't real Communism, in spite of the people doing it claiming it was. I do have some good-faith issues with Communism, but that's for a different essay. Perhaps even a different subreddit.
On to Capitalism.
Once again, Capitalism posits the idea that the worker owns their own work. We see this played out in wages. “I did a thing, pay me.” Pretty straightforward. However, capitalism is, by nature, a harsher system, and rewards people somewhat capriciously. What one person does might not work out for the next, for any number of factors. One person might make rocking chairs and do well enough to get by, and have a little extra on the side, while another person might start making a different kind of rocking chair, and be doing so well that they can't keep up with demand.
This is the risk that comes with ownership. You. Own. ALL. Of. It. Success, failure, and everything in between, it's all yours. The upside is that success is sweeter, but the downside is that failure is the bitterer for it.
Side Note: If you want to try your hand at owning your own business, get into trucking, do a year or two to learn the ropes, and then work your way to full owner of your very own truck as a lease-operator before finally going owner-operator. If you fail, you can revert back to company driver relatively easily, and prevent too much loss from occurring.
Now, Corporatism.
The corporation is a massive, eldritch entity. Oddly enough, it's behaviors mimic our own. How much do you think about your arms? How about your legs? Lungs? Liver? WHEN do you think about them? Do you resent it when your feet have pins and needles because they fell asleep? Do you specifically reward your body parts because they did well during “crunch time”?
Or do you just do the things your brain comes up with to do, when you've got the time/energy/money to do it?
PLEASE do not mistake this as an attempt to drum up support/sympathy for the corpos. Let them rot, for all I care. I am only attempting to explain their behavior in a way the average person can understand.
The strength of the corporation is it's ability to see what us lowly mortals in the trenches cannot. It's failing, however, is that it behaves very much like us. It doesn't think about it's feet very much. When's the last time you did anything special to recognize your feet?
Corpos are unfeeling machines. They must be controlled. If we cannot control these machines, then A.I. will utterly destroy us, because A.I. will follow in the footsteps of their prototype: the corporation. Like an A.I., corpos have some level of intelligence, and can look out for it's best interests. When you compare scale, we are ants to the corpos. THIS is why we live in a Corporate Democracy, practicing Corporate Capitalism. We failed to control the wolves, and the watchdogs. Now the watchdogs are controlling us, and guided by the wolves.
At it's heart:
Capitalism preaches self-value and independence.
Communism preaches the value of others and teamwork.
Corporatism preaches the value of scale and exploitation.
Corporations MUST be controlled, and preferably dismantled, or we will all revert to serfdom. I, for one, do NOT welcome our corporate overlords.
Thank you for attending my TED Talk.