A Natural Law of Social Evolution

[MiguelD]

CITIZEN STEWARDSHIP EQUITY: A KEY FEATURE OF THE POLITICAL-ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY SOLUTION TO THE EMERGING GLOBAL CRISIS OF HUMANITY

Dear World Politics Forum Participants,

CITIZEN STEWARDSHIP EQUITY

"Citizen Stewardship Equity, supersedes the "wage-labor", '''sold labor-power''', or '''alienated labor''' relation of capital. It encompasses the constitutional rights of each working adult, to membership in, and 1-person/1-vote 'economic suffrage' within, the ' producers' councils ', or 'stewards' councils', democratically managing the socially-/legally-/constitutionally-favored producer's cooperative enterprises, and including the right to share in the profits-of-enterprise of any producers' cooperative in which that citizen works, with partial rights of use/disposition over the socially-owned means of social reproduction ceded, in stewardship, but not in local ownership, to these producers' cooperatives/local producers' associations, under the collective/democratic control of their base-elected ' stewards' councils ', in continuous negotiation with these enterprises' own 'externality-equities' property-holding 'publics' boards', as part of Equitarian Society's «aufheben»-negation/conservation/elevation of market-based checks-and-balances regarding the pricing and quality of the goods/services supplied to the citizen-consumers by these enterprises, using equitably-allocated, socially-owned means of social reproduction.

This newly-emergent 'Stewardship-Equity-relation' is expected and intended to increasingly supplant the likewise «aufheben»-conserved/constrained '''wage-labor''' / private-capital social-relationship-of-production [cf. the model of "Economic Democracy" comprehensively constructed and defended by David Schweickart in his book Against Capitalism (Cambridge University Press; NY; 1993), as well as in his book After Capitalism (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.; NY; 2002), to which we are indebted, in part, for key aspects of the conceptual derivation of this crucial sub-principle, and 'socio-ontological «species»', or 'social relations of production «species»', of 'generalized equity'].

. . .

Marx: Joint-Stock Capital-Equity as the Perfected Form of Capital, Transitional to 'Democratic Communism'

In the context of this subject-matter, it is profoundly informative to see what Marx actually had to say, in the very core of his written works, about the immanent emergence — from out of the heart of the capital-relation itself — of the core social relation of production of 'democratic communist' society, in the transition from capital-relation-based society to 'democratic communist' society --

"The general remarks, which the credit system so far elicited from us, were the following: ...

III. Formation of stock companies. Thereby: ...

3) Transformation of the actually functioning capitalist into a mere manager, administrator of other people's capital, and of the owner of capital into a mere owner, a mere money-capitalist. Even if the dividends which they receive include the interest and the profit of enterprise, i.e., the total profit (for the salary of managers is, or should be, simply the wage of a specific type of skilled labour, whose price is regulated in the labour-market like that of any other labour), this total profit is henceforth received only in the form of interest, i.e., as mere compensation for owning capital that is now entirely divorced from the function in the actual process of reproduction, just as this function in the person of the manager is divorced from ownership of capital. ...

In stock companies the function is divorced from capital ownership, hence also labour is entirely divorced from ownership of means of production and surplus-labour. This result of the ultimate development of capitalist production is a necessary transitional phase towards the reconversion of capital into the property of producers, although no longer as the private property of the individual producers, but rather as the property of associated producers, as outright social property. On the other hand, the stock company is a transition toward the conversion of all functions in the reproduction process which still remain linked with capitalist property, into mere functions of the associated producers, into social functions.

This is the abolition [better translation: <<aufheben>> -- M.D.] of the capitalist mode of production within the capitalist mode of production itself, and hence a self-dissolving contradiction, which prima facie represents a mere phase of transition to a new form of production. It manifests itself as such a contradiction in its effects. It establishes a monopoly in certain spheres and thereby requires state interference. It reproduces a new financial aristocracy, a new variety of parasites in the shape of promoters, speculators, and simply nominal directors; a whole system of swindling and cheating by means of corporation promoting, stock issuance, and stock speculation. It is private production without the control of private property. ...

The co-operative factories of the labourers themselves represent within the old form the first sprouts of the new, although they naturally reproduce, and must reproduce, everywhere in their actual organization all the shortcomings of the prevailing system. But the antithesis between capital and labour is overcome within them, if at first only by way of making the associated labourers into their own capitalist, i.e., by enabling them to use the means of production for the employment of their own labour workers' capital[ism]' — anonymous].

They show how a new mode of production naturally grows out of an old one, when the development of the material forces of production and of the corresponding forms of social production have reached a particular stage. Without the factory system arising out of the capitalist mode of production there could have been no co-operative factories. Nor could these have developed without the credit system arising out of the same mode of production. The credit system is not only the principal basis for the gradual transformation of capitalist enterprises into capitalist stock companies, but equally offers the means for the gradual extension of co-operative enterprises on a more or less national scale. ...

The capitalist stock companies, as much as the co-operative factories, should be considered transitional forms from the capitalist mode of production to the associated one, with the only distinction that the antagonism is resolved negatively in the one, and positively in the other. ...

The credit system appears as the main lever of over-production and over-speculation in commerce solely because the reproduction process, which is elastic by nature, is here forced to its extreme limits, and is so forced because a large part of the social capital is employed by people who do not own it, and who consequently tackle things quite differently than the owner, who anxiously weighs the limitations of his private capital in so far as he handles it himself.

This simply demonstrates the fact that the self-expansion of capital based on the contradictory nature of capitalist production permits an actual free development only up to a certain point, so that in fact it constitutes an immanent fetter and barrier to production, which is continually broken through by the credit system.

Hence, the credit system accelerates the material development of the productive forces and the establishment of the world-market.

It is the historical mission of the capitalist system of production to raise the material foundations of the new mode of production to a certain degree of perfection.

At the same time credit accelerates the violent eruption of this contradiction — crises — and thereby the elements of disintegration of the old mode of production.

The two characteristics immanent in the credit system are, on the one hand, to develop the incentive of capitalist production, enrichment through the exploitation of the labour of others, to the purest and most colossal form of gambling and swindling, and to reduce more and more the number of the few who exploit the social wealth; on the other hand, to constitute the form of transition to a new mode of production.

It is this ambiguous nature, which endows the principal spokesmen of credit from Law to Isaac Pereire with the pleasant character mixture of swindler and prophet."

[Karl Marx; Capital: A Critique of Political Economy (vol. III), '''The Shapes Taken-On by The Reproductions-Process of/by Capitals Overall''', Chapter XXVII, "The Role of Credit in Capitalist Production"; International Publishers Co., Inc. (NY: 1967); pages 435-441; ...][emphases added by M.D.]

In a letter to Engels [Marx to Engels; April 2, 1858; in MEW 29; page 312; reproduced in Rubel on Marx: Five Essays; Cambridge University Press (NY: 1981); page 216], Marx writes of the planned structure of his critique of the political economy of the system of «kapitals», with even greater explicitude regarding the transitional character of the emergence of the "share capital" «species», i.e. the "capital equity stock" «species», of the social relation of [social re-]production called "capital" --

"Capital is divided into four sections.

1. Capital en général [in Fr.] (This is the material of the first brochure).

2. Competition or the reciprocal action of the many capitals.

3. Credit, where capital appears as the general element in opposition to the many capitals.

4. Share capital as the most perfect form (assuming the character of communism), together with all its contradictions." [emphases added by M.D.]

What are we to make of these positings, by Marx, of capital equity stock, and of its '''stockholder democracy''', as a close kin to '''the associated mode of production''', and to "communism"?

An Historical Helix of Social Democratization, Spanning the Epoch of Capital as Dominant Human-Social Relation of Production

The incipient political democracy and civil liberty that early, competitive, ascendant-phase capitalism asserted, initially against its feudal and Absolute-Monarchical rivals, can only be restored in a higher form, and preserved from otherwise total destruction by the late, decadent-phase form of that same capitalism, by means of advancing that initially merely political democracy to a politically-and-economically democratized, actualized political-economy.

We hold that the way to achieve this begins with an extension and generalization of "stockholder democracy" into '''stakeholder democracy''', in a "publics" sense; that is, by way of a constitutional institutionalization of Equitarian, externality-equities-based economic democracy; a public and popular economic democracy that was absent as such throughout the capital epoch, seeded only in that democracy among capitalists — among the holders/owners of 'internality-equity' — immanent in the principles and practices [however often honored in the breach] of joint-stock company "stockholder democracy"."

For full article, see --

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/Theory/PoliticalEconomicDemocracy/PoliticalEconomicDemocracy.htm

For more about 'Citizen Stewardship Equity' Rights, see Section 5 in --

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/AmendmentXXVIII/AmendmentXXVIII.htm

Regards,

Miguel

[MiguelD]

CITIZEN ALLOCATIONAL EQUITY -- KEY COMPONENT OF EQUITARIAN NATIONAL CONSTITUTIONS

Dear World Politics Forum Participants,

CITIZEN ALLOCATIONAL EQUITY

Via unison with the new constitutional principles, rights, and properties, of (1.) CITIZEN EXTERNALITY EQUITY, (2.) CITIZEN BIRTHRIGHT EQUITY, and (3.) CITIZEN STEWARDSHIP EQUITY, the new constitutional equity principle of (4.) CITIZEN ALLOCATIONAL EQUITY consititutes a key component of the proposed new political-economic system -- of the system of POLITICAL-ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY -- that is the predicted successor system to the present, self-destroying Capital-Equity-Only system of increasingly anti-democratic political economy.

This proposed constitutional principle of "CITIZEN ALLOCATIONAL EQUITY" may be summarized as follows --

"Citizen Allocational Equity, [is the] social principle, and the social policy, of equitable regional-geographical allocation of social property — of socially/publicly-owned means of social reproduction resources/funding — on a «per capita», or per human person, basis."

Some greater detail regarding this principle follows --

"Truly equitable distribution of, e.g., the public assets ceded, from the stock of global social property, in stewardship to local and regional producers' associations, may involve, especially initially, from the point of view of the internationally base-elected A.I.D.P. [«Association Internationale des Directeurs Publiques»], compensatory and reparative elements, until the injustices of past capitalist-imperialist social auto-cannibalization of the capital-hinterland and former "Second World" and "Third World" regions of the globe has been adequately redressed.

Such allocative equity, in any case, involves the solution of presently unsolved — and hardly even posed — problems of 'social-negentropy accounting' in the context of a 'meta-market' social system, in which mere monetary-valuations provide an even more inadequate metric of 'social-reproductive use-value' than they do now, still within the integument of the "capital-relation".

The nature of 'Citizen Allocational Equity' is thus that of an historical equity-principle, which targets an "ideal" of equal «per capita» regional allocation of socially-owned social negentropy, but which recognizes that such an ideal standard becomes relevant only once an "equipotential" among all regions of the globe has been achieved with regard to life-opportunities.

There will be a role for the constitutionally and juridically regulated and monitored 'Declarations of Peace and Prosperity' — replacing, and hopefully preempting and obviating the whole history of '''Declarations of War''', up to today — adopted by one global region, with respect to another, as part of the process of achieving the necessary compensatory and reparative allocations that constitute '''the correction of the past''' in terms of wealth- and resource-sharing. Such 'Declarations', and, even more so, their implementation, involves subtle applications of a mastery of human-social science — of the science of the catalysis of accelerated human-social self-development — that are all but beyond the ken of our current, capital-compromised and capital-corrupted civilization. These declarations might involve something of what Marx envisioned, with respect to Russia, and with respect to the Russian Mir, '''given a successful proletarian revolution in the West''', in his Preface to the Russian edition of Capital (volume I), and in his draft letters to Vera Zasulich."

For a fuller definition and discussion, see --

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/Theory/PoliticalEconomicDemocracy/PoliticalEconomicDemocracy.htm

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/AmendmentXXVIII/AmendmentXXVIII.htm

Regards,

MiguelD

[pbarosso]

blah blah blah, miguelD's manifesto. if wishes were fishes.

[danielost]

Are you saying that the OP hates America? That's just a cheap shot. The OP has made it clear that Capitalism is not the way to go. He never said he hated Democracy.

ok but whatdo we replace it with. everything else is open about the government controlling your life.

[MiguelD]

REPLACE IT WITH POLITICAL-ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY

Conspiracies Forum Participants,

Dear Danielost,

Replace it with the Socio-Economic System of "Generalized Equity", or Political-Economic Democracy, as defined per the following links --

http://www.amazon.com/After-Capitalism-New-Critical-Theory/dp/0742512991/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266832740&sr=1-1-spell

http://www.amazon.com/Against-Capitalism-David-Schweickart/dp/0813331137/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266832740&sr=1-2-spell

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/Mission/Mission.htm

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/AmendmentXXVIII/AmendmentXXVIII.htm

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/Theory/PoliticalEconomicDemocracy/PoliticalEconomicDemocracy.htm

Involves the constitutional establishment of four new classes of "citizen-stakeholder socio-economic equity", in addition to "capital-equity" -- "internality equity", or "stockholder democracy" -- namely (1.) Citizen Externality Equity, (2.) Citizen Birthright Equity, (3.) Citizen Stewardship Equity, and (4.) Citizen Allocational Equity.

Regards,

Miguel

ok but whatdo we replace it with. everything else is open about the government controlling your life.

[SlimJim22]

Hey Miguel, I think you and I both know that this simply would not be allowed to happen. However, I am with you and in principle it sounds great. The problem is that people will make comparisons with communism and socialism on one hand and we will still be reliant upon the same class of people to administer the wills of the people without resorting to corruption.

I praise your efforts regardless. Slim

[SolarPlexus]

this topic is very interesting

[SlimJim22]

this topic is very interesting

A good name for it seems to be neo-liberalism. It sounds kinda equitable but it is far from it. It is another way to describe global capitalist policies for the last 25 years when the emphasis was put onto a free market economy.

There is some heavy reading on it here

If you put in the term you should get a lot of sites debating the merits of it.

[MiguelD]

Conspiracies Forum Participants,

Dear Slim,

Thanks!

HYPOTHESES: I believe that the people can demand Political-Economic Democracy if they so choose en masse, in their overwhelming majority -- once they realize that the present, and rapidly worsening, 'Plutocatic Whoreocracy' is going to be LETHAL for they and their children.

Like when the aroused people of Eastern Europe, and of the former "Soviet" Union, overthrew the Stalinist, proto-state-capitalist, terrorist-/police-state bureaucracies in those countries [until the Rockefeller Plutocracy re-imposed a new version of them].

But this time, it will be the Rockefeller-Morgan-Rothschild-... Plutocracy itself that will be deposed, starting in their home ground, the U. S. and the U.K.

Regards,

Miguel

Hey Miguel, I think you and I both know that this simply would not be allowed to happen. However, I am with you and in principle it sounds great. The problem is that people will make comparisons with communism and socialism on one hand and we will still be reliant upon the same class of people to administer the wills of the people without resorting to corruption.

I praise your efforts regardless. Slim

[MiguelD]

MORE ABOUT CITIZEN ALLOCATIONAL EQUITY

Dear Conspiracies Forum Participants,

Further clarification of the "CITIZEN ALLOCATIONAL EQUITY" constitutional component of Equitism --

" 'Citizen Allocational Equity' — is the constitutional requirement that the proceeds of the social self-investment fund, generated by the '''social rents''' on the value of social property — production plant and equipment — granted by society for use in stewardship by qualified enterprise-level '''associations-of-producers''' / '''socialized producers' cooperatives''', will be allocated to the various geographical localities of the social territory on an equal per-citizen, per-capita basis.

This requirement is designed to ensure that equal populations of citizens receive equal opportunities to contribute to, and, thus, to partake in, the human societal production of human and natural, biospheric prosperity.

This constitutional requirement might be subject to certain temporary "corrections of the past", designed to undo the adverse social consequences of past inequities of wealth and opportunity allocation."

For full articles, see --

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/Mission/Mission.htm

Regards,

Miguel

CITIZEN ALLOCATIONAL EQUITY -- KEY COMPONENT OF EQUITARIAN NATIONAL CONSTITUTIONS

Dear World Politics Forum Participants,

CITIZEN ALLOCATIONAL EQUITY

Via unison with the new constitutional principles, rights, and properties, of (1.) CITIZEN EXTERNALITY EQUITY, (2.) CITIZEN BIRTHRIGHT EQUITY, and (3.) CITIZEN STEWARDSHIP EQUITY, the new constitutional equity principle of (4.) CITIZEN ALLOCATIONAL EQUITY consititutes a key component of the proposed new political-economic system -- of the system of POLITICAL-ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY -- that is the predicted successor system to the present, self-destroying Capital-Equity-Only system of increasingly anti-democratic political economy.

This proposed constitutional principle of "CITIZEN ALLOCATIONAL EQUITY" may be summarized as follows --

"Citizen Allocational Equity, [is the] social principle, and the social policy, of equitable regional-geographical allocation of social property — of socially/publicly-owned means of social reproduction resources/funding — on a «per capita», or per human person, basis."

Some greater detail regarding this principle follows --

"Truly equitable distribution of, e.g., the public assets ceded, from the stock of global social property, in stewardship to local and regional producers' associations, may involve, especially initially, from the point of view of the internationally base-elected A.I.D.P. [«Association Internationale des Directeurs Publiques»], compensatory and reparative elements, until the injustices of past capitalist-imperialist social auto-cannibalization of the capital-hinterland and former "Second World" and "Third World" regions of the globe has been adequately redressed.

Such allocative equity, in any case, involves the solution of presently unsolved — and hardly even posed — problems of 'social-negentropy accounting' in the context of a 'meta-market' social system, in which mere monetary-valuations provide an even more inadequate metric of 'social-reproductive use-value' than they do now, still within the integument of the "capital-relation".

The nature of 'Citizen Allocational Equity' is thus that of an historical equity-principle, which targets an "ideal" of equal «per capita» regional allocation of socially-owned social negentropy, but which recognizes that such an ideal standard becomes relevant only once an "equipotential" among all regions of the globe has been achieved with regard to life-opportunities.

There will be a role for the constitutionally and juridically regulated and monitored 'Declarations of Peace and Prosperity' — replacing, and hopefully preempting and obviating the whole history of '''Declarations of War''', up to today — adopted by one global region, with respect to another, as part of the process of achieving the necessary compensatory and reparative allocations that constitute '''the correction of the past''' in terms of wealth- and resource-sharing. Such 'Declarations', and, even more so, their implementation, involves subtle applications of a mastery of human-social science — of the science of the catalysis of accelerated human-social self-development — that are all but beyond the ken of our current, capital-compromised and capital-corrupted civilization. These declarations might involve something of what Marx envisioned, with respect to Russia, and with respect to the Russian Mir, '''given a successful proletarian revolution in the West''', in his Preface to the Russian edition of Capital (volume I), and in his draft letters to Vera Zasulich."

For a fuller definition and discussion, see --

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/Theory/PoliticalEconomicDemocracy/PoliticalEconomicDemocracy.htm

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/AmendmentXXVIII/AmendmentXXVIII.htm

Regards,

MiguelD

[SlimJim22]

Conspiracies Forum Participants,

Dear Slim,

Thanks!

HYPOTHESES: I believe that the people can demand Political-Economic Democracy if they so choose en masse, in their overwhelming majority -- once they realize that the present, and rapidly worsening, 'Plutocatic Whoreocracy' is going to be LETHAL for they and their children.

Like when the aroused people of Eastern Europe, and of the former "Soviet" Union, overthrew the Stalinist, proto-state-capitalist, terrorist-/police-state bureaucracies in those countries [until the Rockefeller Plutocracy re-imposed a new version of them].

But this time, it will be the Rockefeller-Morgan-Rothschild-... Plutocracy itself that will be deposed, starting in their home ground, the U. S. and the U.K.

Regards,

Miguel

I wish I had your optimism. However, the masses that I see are victims of the 'revelation of all that is hidden' type ploy. They are experienced at what they do and have got to this stage using cunning and deception. Mainly though they have distracted the people away from what is important - Our environment, that which sustains us, through the media, psychology and the economics of greed. They dress it up all they like but neo-liberalism or the freemarket tastes like an elitist oligarchy. How far it stretches is hard to say? To break the hold enmasse we (as a society) need to revise opinions on new and old evidence and scrutinize the executive. The problems go deep though and I see no realistic alternatives at present.

They have Beyonce, Jay Z, half of Hollywood and all the religious leaders (pretty much) and we've got Charlie Sheen and a few webauthors. The people are scared and will accept whatever they are told by the establishment.

[SolarPlexus]

The basic idea Miguel is suggesting, is to legally rewrite constitutions of world countries, with "equitism", neo-liberal concepts in mind

I like this idea and agree that this is a relatively non-violent way out of the mess, but i think people can always break laws, just as constitutions are violated every day. And probably nothing can stop that. Our entire mind-set must change fundamentally i think, its the most definite and risk-free way out.

EDIT: this thread is brilliant, very well constructed in an "academic" manner

Edited February 23, 2010 by SolarPlexus

[Jetro]

Hey -

Quick Thoughts.

1.) There's no such thing as Democracy. Never was. Never will be. It's Capitalism. Always has been, always will be. "Free" people have the "freedom" to choose what and where to buy.

2.) When people think of Socialism, they tend to mix it up with Communism. Canada is a good example of where there's a capitalistic society mixed in with socialist ideas. To say that you can't mix the two is foolhardy and to say that having Universal Health Care triggers death panels and makes the US into a Communist state is hilarious because it's just not true.

3.) Communism (old style) - Best example would be old school Russia and North Korea. No examples needed.

3a.) Communism (new style) - China. Mixture of Communism practices with Capitalism. Which creates more of an illusion of "freedom" since it's

people can buy what they want from different brands and services unlike old Communism where it was one size fits all.

Jetro

[SlimJim22]

The basic idea Miguel is suggesting, is to legally rewrite constitutions of world countries, with "equitism", neo-liberal concepts in mind

I like this idea and agree that this is a relatively non-violent way out of the mess, but i think people can always break laws, just as constitutions are violated every day. And probably nothing can stop that. Our entire mind-set must change fundamentally i think, its the most definite and risk-free way out.

EDIT: this thread is brilliant, very well constructed in an "academic" manner

I am confused. To me equitism is the opposite of neo-liberalism. Can you clarify Miguel as you seem to understand this better than us. Neo-liberalism has it's origins in the Freemarketeer ideas of Thatcher and others, right? Remove restrictions etc to improve competitiveness. Problem is that this only benefits the capitalists who have the wealth to make investment and exploit the free market effectively. Equitism on the other hand seems to give all residents a right to a certain amount of equity which I assume they do with as they please. It's good in theory but how do you get around the problems of oligarchy.

When I studied economics, the monopolies and mergers commission carried a lot of clout. Now you never hear them mentioned.

[MiguelD]

Dear Slim,

The "neo-liberals" you reference -- especially Thatcher -- would probably hate Equitism more than anyone else, because it would restore democratic power to the people, by expanding it to include economic democracy, and new, economic checks and balances -- especially via Citizen Externality Equity, and Citizen Stewardship Equity -- thus removing power from the corporatist plutocracy, and forcing their anti-democratic, authoritarian, hierarchical corporations to compete with stewardship producers' cooperatives, capitalized by social bank stewardship cooperatives when their business plans pass muster, and in which the workers, the producers -- the stewards of the social capital provided -- would elect/recall their management, and share equally in the profits of their enterprise, as well as earning [typically unequal] labor-market-determined salaries.

Equitism thus retains market competition, as a check on price and quality abuse by [e.g., oligopoly, monopoly, or state-monopoly] producers, but also "contains" market competition against what capitalist economists call "market failures", i.e., "externalities" such as pollution. The economic checks and balances of the Citizen Externality Equities component of Equitism apply equally to capitalist corporations and to Stewardship Equity producers' cooperatives.

Equitism does, in fact, grant Capital Equity to all citizens, from birth, via its Citizen Birthright Equity component.

However, the other components of Equitism -- Citizen Externality Equity, Citizen Stewardship Equity, and Citizen Allocational Equity -- represent new species of Equity, beyond the only species officially in existence today: Capital Equity, or 'Capital-Stock-Holders Equity' ["Stockholder Democracy"].

Equitism also makes conformance to the principle of Capital Equity a requirement of constitutional law -- see Section 1 of the proposed Equitarian constitutional amendment --

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/AmendmentXXVIII/AmendmentXXVIII.htm

Regards,

Miguel

I am confused. To me equitism is the opposite of neo-liberalism. Can you clarify Miguel as you seem to understand this better than us. Neo-liberalism has it's origins in the Freemarketeer ideas of Thatcher and others, right? Remove restrictions etc to improve competitiveness. Problem is that this only benefits the capitalists who have the wealth to make investment and exploit the free market effectively. Equitism on the other hand seems to give all residents a right to a certain amount of equity which I assume they do with as they please. It's good in theory but how do you get around the problems of oligarchy.

When I studied economics, the monopolies and mergers commission carried a lot of clout. Now you never hear them mentioned.

[SolarPlexus]

I am confused. To me equitism is the opposite of neo-liberalism.

Yeah kind of, my bad haha. i meant equitism yeah

EDIT: tried to act smart =P

Edited February 23, 2010 by SolarPlexus

[SlimJim22]

Yeah kind of, my bad haha. i meant equitism yeah

EDIT: tried to act smart =P

No worries man, I didn't understand the term 'til yesterday. The first time I heard it was after the Haiti quake. The failure of the aid effort was blamed squarely on neo-liberal policies that had effectively sub-contracted the aid programs. I didn't know what it meant but guessed that the UN was dishing out grub that was made by some catering firms. I couldn't believe they were dishing it out in polystyrene containers. Ha ha. Anyway at the time I couldn't understand why they didn't parachute in supplies of water and food but they'd rather keep it at the airport until the food went off I expect. It's not really off point because the point is that it is an example of how organizations like to make money even when dealing with tragedies. The liscensing of GM seeds is another prime example. What levels of interest do the IMF charge nations if they are late with the repayments? Equitism is an idealistic idea right now but if people make efforts to be more sustainable, borrow less and lower their consumption of consumer goods then that pressure is gonna hurt them.

[MiguelD]

EQUITISM INCLUDES CAPITAL EQUITY [STOCKHOLDER DEMOCRACY] AS A TENET OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW

Dear World Politics Forum Participants,

The proposed Equitarian Reform / Revolution does not outlaw Private Capital Private Property.

Rather the Reverse -- the very First Section of the proposed Equitarian Constitutional Amendment affirms the principle of Capital-Property Equity [of Stockholder Democracy] as a -- founding -- element of Economic Democracy as a whole --

"Section 1. All enterprises under joint-stock ownership, and operating in the sovereign territory of the United States of America, shall be operated in accord with the principles of capital equity and stockholder democracy. Contributors of money, or of other capital property, for the purchase of shares of the common stock of an enterprise, shall have the right to nominate and to elect directors to the board of directors of that enterprise, to promulgate and to vote upon owner resolutions, and to vote upon other important matters, including compensation for directors and for senior management, on the basis of one vote per share of common stock owned. The results of such owner elections shall be binding upon enterprise management."

HYPOTHESES IN EXPLANATION OF THIS "SURPRISING" FEATURE OF EQUITISM: Today, the ruling Rockefeller-Morgan-Rothschild-... plutocracy, rules, in part, by assuming total authority within capitalist public-stock enterprises, an authority that they have never paid for with their own capital, and do not deserve, even on capitalist principles.

Through crony management, through their interlocking directorates, and through their prostitution of, e.g., the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission ["SEC"], and of other governmental regulatory agencies, that are supposed to regulate for stockholder rights, but which are actually captives of the plutocracy, they are usually able to leverage a minority share of common stock in many mega-corporations into full effective control -- into de facto total ownership -- stealing from, and stifling the voices of, and violating the property rights of -- the capital equity rights of -- the other -- the majority -- stockholders and equity capital providers -- the real majority owners of the corporate enterprise by right -- many of which owners are unions, public workers' pension funds, private citizens, etc., who, in may cases, are not happy with the rapacious behavior of these corporations when under core plutocracy control.

Section 1. of the proposed Constitutional Amendment would -- by constitutional law -- force these "capitalist anti-capitalists" of the plutocracy to play by the rules of capitalism, probably for the first time ever.

Private capitalist enterprise should not be outlawed by the abolitionistic imposition of state-power.

That is the way of the bureaucratic ruling classes of Stalinist/Maoist state-capitalism, in their antagonism against their threatened challengers, the private capitalist would-be ruling classes -- and that way leads to totalitarianism.

However, under an Equitist Constitution, private capitalist enterprises would have to compete against Citizen Stewardship Equity producers' cooperatives, in which citizen stewards use, in stewardship, but do not own, social/public capital, in the form of [means of purchase of] means of production, granted to them by another, fellow producers' cooperative, a social bank stewardship cooperative, if their business plans quality per legislated criteria . . . [a stewardship-cooperative social bank which itself goes bankrupt if it makes too many grants of public, social property stewardship to unqualified, unprofitable -- failing -- citizen stewardship cooperatives, and which makes a profit to share among its stewards if it picks successful stewardship cooperatives to invest with the small share of social capital allocated to it as a social bank cooperative], social capital on which those stewardship-cooperative grantees pay a proportionate "social rent", part of which is income to the social bank which granted to them stewardship of that social capital, and within which cooperative enterprise the citizen stewards elect/hire, from among themselves, and, if necessary, fire -- both by majority vote -- their own management, and in which they share equally in the net profits of their stewardship cooperative enterprise, as well as deriving salary income -- typically UNequal, and set by inter-enterprise competition within the market for labor skills.

It is thought that the private capital enterprises would tend to lose out against this competition from citizen stewardship cooperatives over the long haul.

For more about these features of Equitism, see --

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/AmendmentXXVIII/AmendmentXXVIII.htm

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/Theory/PoliticalEconomicDemocracy/PoliticalEconomicDemocracy.htm

Regards,

Miguel

Edited February 25, 2010 by MiguelD

[SolarPlexus]

Correct me if im wrong Miguel, but to introduce equitism we need to legally modify the constitutions of the world. How is that done in practice?

[MiguelD]

World Politics Forum Participants,

Dear SolarPlexus,

Excellent Question!

Yes, constitutional modification is required to enact the Equitarian Reforms peacefully.

The lawful procedure for constitutional amendment varies from nation-state to nation-state.

The key perspective, of course, of which you are also aware, is that, since the Equitarian Reforms will meet with the most massive opposition from the ruling plutocracy, a popular, majoritarian movement will be required to achieve the Equitarian Constitutional Amendments in any country.

It will require a popular -- populist -- movement of citizens who realize that Political-Economic Democratization is the only available positive alternative to the degeneration of their societies into the police-state, totalitarian, multi-genocidal, citizen-impoverishing, citizen-torturing, citizen-murdering, state-capitalist dictatorships -- into the Hell-On-Earth -- that the ruling plutocracy is planning, and implementing, increment-by-increment, right now, before our very eyes.

However, the Journey and the Destination are inseparable.

Every step of communicating the content of the Equitarian Reforms has, in my experience, the effect of [re-]awakening those participating in such communication to the historical creativity of humanity -- to THEIR POTENTIAL HISTORICAL-CREATIVE, SOCIETY-CREATIVE POWER.

Regards,

Miguel

Correct me if im wrong Miguel, but to introduce equitism we need to legally modify the constitutions of the world. How is that done in practice?

[SolarPlexus]

Every step of communicating the content of the Equitarian Reforms has, in my experience, the effect of [re-]awakening those participating in such communication to the historical creativity of humanity -- to THEIR POTENTIAL HISTORICAL-CREATIVE, SOCIETY-CREATIVE POWER.

great reply! So basically, we need to continuously demonstrate the possibilities, while the ineffective modern systems continuously fail. This should do the trick?

Edited February 28, 2010 by SolarPlexus

[MiguelD]

World Politics Forum Participants,

Dear SolarPlexus,

Thanks!

'''Continuously demonstrate the possibilities of a new, effective, democratic socio-political-economic system, in the context of the continuing, ever-deepening failure of the existing, present, old, [increasingly-State-]Capitalist socio-political-economic system.'''

Yes, I believe that the method you describe represents our best hope.

Our success in the use of this method, however, is NOT guaranteed.

But catastrophe IS guaranteed, I believe, if the non-plutocracy citizens of the world fail to intervene on their own behalf -- in fact, on behalf of humanity as a whole.

Regards,

Miguel

great reply! So basically, we need to continuously demonstrate the possibilities, while the ineffective modern systems continuously fail. This should do the trick?

[SolarPlexus]

'''Continuously demonstrate the possibilities of a new, effective, democratic socio-political-economic system, in the context of the continuing, ever-deepening failure of the existing, present, old, [increasingly-State-]Capital ist socio-political-economic system.'''

Thats brilliantly put mate

But catastrophe IS guaranteed, I believe, if the non-plutocracy citizens of the world fail to intervene on their own behalf -- in fact, on behalf of humanity as a whole.

Yeah i agree success is not guaranteed because of the ever-present variables in human nature and behaviour, but the current meta-nazi 'capitalism' will surely fall as social evolution dictates

Edited February 28, 2010 by SolarPlexus

[MiguelD]

SUMMARY OF CITIZEN STEWARDSHIP EQUITY RIGHTS

Dear World Politics Forum Participants,

SUMMARY OF 'STEWARDSHIP EQUITY', ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY RIGHTS OF CITIZENS. '"The Proposed Constitutional Right of 'Citizen Stewardship Equity' is designed to gradually supplant and supersede the capital-relation, by superseding the wagéd-labor and salaried-labor relationships, the latter, forming the core of the capital-relation.

This new species of social equity rights entails the constitutional empowerment of each citizen to participate in the co-formation of, and the democratic, 'one steward, one vote' co-conduct of, the production of, and the democratic self-management of, localized, enterprise-level, associations of producers (i.e., socialized producers' cooperatives) on a 'one citizen-steward, one vote' basis.

This means that each such citizen-producer would be empowered to act as a co-steward of that part of the total social property — in the form of, e.g., production plant and equipment — granted, and '''rented''', to that citizen's qualified producer-association, as collective self-employer, by a local, public, social bank, itself also a 'Citizen Stewardship Equity' co-stewardship association/cooperative, democratically self-managed by its own citizen-producers, as collective self-employees.

This 'Citizen Stewardship Equity' right would include the right of each such citizen co-steward of such social property in-use to an equal share in the net profits of enterprise generated by that cooperative association of producers, as well as to a — typically unequal — base-salary, set in the market for producer-skills, in return for the collectively required productive participation in, and contribution to, that association for production, as democratically decided by the assembly of the co-stewards of that cooperative enterprise.

Payment of those profit-shares and base-salaries to themselves by those co-stewards, would depend upon their productive contribution, and also upon their collective success in finding fellow-citizen customers for their product/service output, fellow-citizens/customers willing to pay a price sufficient to fund those salaries and that profit-sharing, and for whose patronage they would face market competition from other socialized stewardship cooperatives, as well as from remnant capitalist enterprises."'

For further summaries, see --

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/Mission/Mission.htm

For full article, see --

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/Theory/PoliticalEconomicDemocracy/PoliticalEconomicDemocracy.htm

For more details about 'Citizen Stewardship Equity' Rights, see Section 5 in --

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/AmendmentXXVIII/AmendmentXXVIII.htm

For the organization principles of the Equitist Advocacy Group, see --

http://www.equitist.org/Equitist/InternalAffairs/InternalAffairs.htm

Regards,

Miguel

Edited March 1, 2010 by MiguelD

[MiguelD]

EQUITARIAN SOLUTION TO CAPITALISM'S TECHNO-DEPRECIATION PROBLEM

Dear World Politics Forum Participants,

The Equitist Theory posits "Techno-Depreciation" as the root-"intra-duality" inside capitalism, which brings about capitalism's decadence, and demise, turning the capitalist ruling class against competitive, technologically-progressive development, and, ultimately, incentivizing that ruling class to destroy technological progress [in the name of "Ecologism", and other ruling-class perverted ideologies], popular education, democracy, and to institute police-state, totalitarian, oligopoly/monopoly/state-capitalist rule, planned, global "multi-genocide", and a New Dark Ages degeneration of human civilization [unless the non-ruling-class population successfully rises up, to overthrow the plutocracy, and to institute a successor system to capitalism, called "Political-Economic Democracy", and based upon "Generalized Equity"].

Thus, the Proposed "Equitarian Reforms" logically must contain a solution to the Capitalism-Fatal "Techno-Depreciation Problem" that is at the heart of Capitalism, per Equitism, if the Equitarian Reforms, and the Equitarian "Successor System" to Capitalism, are to be viable.

For details on the "Techno-Depreciation Self-Duality" of Capitalism, see --

http://www1.fee.uva.nl/pp/bin/642fulltext.pdf

http://www.adventures-in-dialectics.org/Adventures-In-Dialectics/TechnoDepreciation/TechnoDepreciation-partA.pdf

http://www.adventures-in-dialectics.org/Adventures-In-Dialectics/TechnoDepreciation/TechnoDepreciation-partB.pdf

For the Equitist Theory of the Self-Degeneration of Capitalism due to the "Techno-Devaluation of Capital-Value" propensity inherent in Capitalism, and due to the response of the capitalist ruling class to the resulting "Law of the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall", see --

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/Theory/PoliticalEconomicLawOfMotion/PoliticalEconomicLawOfMotion.htm

In summary: 'Techno-Depreciation' is the self-devaluation of fixed-capital-value [and of bank-capital-value, for the massive bank capital loans loaned out to other, non-bank, capitalists, to purchase, or construct, fixed capital plant and equipment], due to the accelerating rate of "labor-costs-saving" and of "capital-costs-saving" technological progress that competitive capitalist profit incentives stimulate.

At a certain point in the accumulation, centralization, and concentration of industrial capital, and of banking/financial capital, for the most technologically-advanced and most ownership-concentrated concentrations of industrial fixed capital and of banking capital -- i.e., for the very capitals that form the economic base of the power-to-rule of the ruling capitalist plutocracy -- the losses to capital/profit owing to the competition-enforced write-off of physically as-yet-undepreciated, unamortized fixed capital, increasingly exceed the reductions in the unit-cost of produced output which create the profit gains from the labor-cost savings and capital-cost-savings associated with installing the new, more productive fixed capital plant and equipment, and scrapping the physically-intact, but now techno-depreciated, older fixed capital assets [e.g., while still paying debt service on the massive loans taken out to purchase that now-obsolete fixed capital plant, despite that now-obsolete investment now having zero further returns, and having to take out yet new, further massive loans to finance purchase and installation of the technologically more advanced capital plant and equipment that obsoleted that older, now obsolescence-depreciated plant and equipment].

Thus, the plutocracy sets up servant dictatorships all over the less-industrialized and pre-industrial parts of the globe, to suppress industrial economic development their, lest the plutocracy in the European and American core areas of earliest industrial development face competition against their older plant and equipment fixed-capital, and their higher-paid workers, from low-paid workers in the newly-industrializing parts of the world, using the most advanced fixed capital plant and equipment, recently-installed.

Think: the re-nascent, post-WWII Japanese steel and auto industries versus the American steel and auto industries!

By thus suppressing/delaying industrial-economic development in the world outside of the American and European heartlands of earliest capitalist industrialization, they also suppress/delay "The Demographic Transition", at a time when advanced medical and public health techniques are leaking into those parts of the world too, thus creating a growth of population among people denied much life-opportunity by the plutocracy's servant-dictators there [think: Batista, Samosa, Trujillo, Pinochet, Marcos, etc., etc., ad nauseam].

This rising, life-chances-denied population, thus ripe for revolt, scares the plutocracy out of their wits, and leads them to begin down their vicious spiral into ever-more ANTI-HUMAN, anti-progress -- AND ever-more-multi-genocidal -- policies.

How, then, do the Equitists propose that we solve The Techno-Depreciation Problem of Capitalism, as a necessary part of their proposed transcendence of the Capitalist System?

For clues, see the section entitled "How the Equitarian Reform Obviates the 'Techno-Depreciation' Dilemma" in --

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/MaladyAndRemedy/MaladyAndRemedy.htm

and see Section 5 in --

http://www.equitism.org/Equitism/AmendmentXXVIII/AmendmentXXVIII.htm

Regards,

Miguel