An Economy Not Under Human Control

Price Inflation and Scarcity

– K.C. Adams –

People are shocked when shopping, whether for groceries or anything else. Having gone through a difficult two years of the pandemic, now this, price inflation and scarcity.

Prices are up across the board with only the price of the capacity to work lagging behind. People would be excused for questioning what is going on. Why does the economy lurch from crisis to crisis? Why, in this modern age when we have Artificial Intelligence, robots and space travel, is the economy always out of control and said to be mysterious, unknowable and untouchable? The economic experts trip over themselves to be heard but fail to come up with any solutions. They just describe what is obvious to all.

The ruling elite use their political and economic power to block the people from discussing, let alone engaging in acts of finding solutions. They say a mysterious hand controls “the market” and speak of the economy as if it is equivalent to “the market.” But this “hidden hand of the market” doesn’t sort anything out. Just as in nature nothing can be sorted out on its own if it is to serve humans and their needs. It requires conscious human intervention. But that is not the case now with the economy.

First, the ruling oligarchy dominates the economy and twists it to serve its narrow private interests and interferes with all the disparate sectors and parts preventing them from working together. But this modern economy is socialized and must work together in harmony not only in one country but globally with all humanity.

One sector or part relates to all the other parts and the whole and all the people. The numerous sectors and parts are interconnected and involve all the people in a great whole. But the oligarchs do not want any interference with their particular privately-owned part of the economy. They view others with hostility as competitors and want them to serve their wealth and power. Their control of private property and their self-centred actions to serve their narrow private interests affect us all and leave us and the economy vulnerable to the vagaries of nature. The people themselves need to engage in conscious human intervention to bring all the parts and sectors of the economy under control with a broad outlook of the modern human being to serve all individuals and their collectives.

“Just in time” manufacturing and distribution means that the slightest interruption leaves scarcity. Imperialist globalization and intense competition for markets, raw material, cheap labour and means of transportation to transport goods have degenerated into pointing fingers at competitors to the point of war and subjugating entire states through brutal sanctions, brinkmanship and war.

Problems such as the pandemic spiral out of control because the people are not in control. The ruling elite refuse or are afraid to mobilize the people to deal with the problems while the oligarchs themselves only see their private interests as important and how their interests can be served even in crises such as the pharmaceutical cartels making a killing from the sale of vaccines.

The ruling elite flood the economy with money to pay the rich and prepare for war using money that governments do not have and mostly borrow from private moneylenders. Dollars chase scarce commodities. Military spending spirals to new records. Defending private property is the highest priority not the people’s well-being or the well-being of the economy from an objective standpoint. Then when the inevitable crisis breaks out the hand wringing starts and the crocodile tears begin to flow and cries ring out that nothing can be done, just tighten your belts and sign up for war.

When the interruption is a natural disaster like floods and heat domes in BC, the lack of preparation means vulnerable people die from the heat or inundations or homelessness, and a broken transportation system and lack of material insurance means scarcity and empty shelves and people wanting even for the necessities of life.

Maybe the problem is not the economy at this point because the people have no power over fixing it. Maybe the lack of control over the economy is the problem. Under the dictatorship of the oligarchs the people are plagued with disinformation and discouraged from discussing solutions among themselves with objectivity of consideration taking into account the factors causing problems and how to act upon what they discover to change the situation for the better.

No matter how much the trained experts of the ruling elite describe the situation and problems in the economy until the cows come home, it doesn’t amount to a pile of beans. This is because those in control do not what to hear it and do not want to solve the problems because the economic problems begin with them and their control.

The facts reveal that the time is now to build the new. The people do not need permission from the oligarchs to organize themselves for democratic renewal and to bring the economy under conscious human control. It can be done! It must be done!

This article was published in:

Renewal Update No. 72, December 2, 2021

Article Link:
An Economy Not Under Human Control: Price Inflation and Scarcity – K.C. Adams