Capitalism is wasteful and inefficient

The capitalist class, through their control of the means of communication, in short, in command of the production of ideas in society, naturally holds up the market, the capitalist system, as the most efficient and productive means of organizing productive life, which is life itself.

I remember reading some time ago how an arms manufacturer in order to improve the efficiency of a new bomber that was being developed, had about 500 engineers working on it. "What an incredible waste of human talent and expertise" I thought to myself.

I am reminded about this in a small way reading the latest business week. It reports that IBM is creating a new unit "that will advise corporations on how to better analyze data and make smarter decisions." The new unit has 4000, consultants dedicated to it. IBM's rival, Hewlitt Packard, has a similar unit of 3000 experts. Oracle and others are following suite as the competition in tech heats up.

The purpose of this capital expenditure is to figure out how best to exploit Labor power--how to increase profit at the expense of their rivals. This is the basics behind this activity, the incredible waste of human capital is another aspect of it. It is not that human capital shouldn't be used to develop technology or other means for increasing the prodcutivity of Labor or to improve the human and environmental condition, it is the quest for surplus value that makes this activity so destructive and wasteful.

Meanwhile, the UN reports that it needs $6 billion to save the 400 million or so people around the world who have been driven in to starvation due primarily to food price increases due to the present strike of capital. Farmers in the former colonial world are being deprived of loans that they need to buy seed.

The richest 200 people inthe world have a combined wealth of more than $1 trillion, equal to the combined annual income of the porrest 47% of the earth's population, about 2.5 billion people. There is no need for anyone to be hungry, except by the laws of the free market.

A couple of important freedoms of the market are that a human being is free to posses nothing but his or her Labor power, his or her ability to work. Capital must be free to exploit Labor across borders and unencumbered by Unions and issues sucha safety. And the another is that you have the freedom to starve to death.