Obama pleading with Capitalists on strike who are holding on to "our" money

President Obama had his scheduled meeting with CEO’s yesterday that we had written about in an earlier blog. The CEO’s, a section of the few thousand people that actually determine US government policy, are upset with all the trash talk about them.  Restrictions on their rights that their politicians have been forced to float around due to the mood of hatred and anger that exists towards big business in the aftermath of the financial crisis that swept Obama in to office are preventing them from investing. They want to ensure its only rhetoric.

The corporations are flush with liquidity having some $2 trillion dollars in cash on their books. The problem is that the capitalist class won’t invest it in the productive forces and help the economy grow therefore putting people to work. In order to do this, they want assurances from the administration that if they do, it will be under conditions favorable to them. As the German economist Karl Marx pointed out, capitalists are not misers; a capitalist gone mad. Capitalists throw the money they own in to circulation with the purpose of it returning to them in a greater quantity than they laid out otherwise the activity is pointless. All the talk of regulation, increasing taxes on overseas profits and general curbs on business that might protect the consumer are very worrisome to the CEO’s.

No worries. We can all see how quickly Obama has shifted from the “yes we can” mantra to the “no we can’t” one, when it comes to us that is. “Growing corporate profits and business friendly moves by the administration, have contributed to a ‘constructive’ atmosphere”, Motorola CEO Greg Brown tells the Wall Street Journal.

So the capitalist class is basically on a strike of capital. Their political representatives, who come under more direct public pressure as they are elected, unlike the few thousand people who sit on the boards of the major corporations and actually determine government policy, have been forced to blabber anti-corporate rhetoric but there’s no need to go too far as it might spark off some social unrest.

In a capitalist economy, certain rights exist. One of those rights is that capital is theirs and they have a right to do what they want with it. Capital must be allowed to go where it wants when it wants and without pesky restrictions like Unions, taxes on profits, environmental restrictions and all that. The US capitalists refer to this as “Full Spectrum Dominance”

Most workers agree with this inviolable right under capitalism. Warren Buffet’s money is his; he earned it. The factory or mine owner, the airline executive or Wall Street hedge fund owner has a right to those profits and to take their millions from them is a violation of their rights. Therefore the CEO’s sitting atop a $2 trillion cash mound have the right not to use it for the collective benefit of society.

This is why it is so important to identify the source of wealth. How wealth is created in a capitalist economy. It is easy to see it when we look at a feudal society where the peasant literally gave over produce and Labor time to the lord over and above that which was needed for their own maintenence.

But with capitalism it is a bit cloudier, a bit harder to see. We sell our Labor power to an employer for wages that they pay with a reserve cash pile that they normally borrow from a bank. They also buy machines and other means of producing whatever it is that they are producing and set the worker to work with the necessary machinery and produce a finished product which, as the capitalists, they own.

The source of wealth creation, increased value, is the process itself. The commodities produced can be sold for a greater value than the total cost of their production, the cost of Labor power and the cost of machinery and means of production necessary to put that Labor power to work. This is because we produce the value of our wages in a certain period of time but work over and above that period of time. When we produce the value of our wages, the capitalist’s don’t send us home. We have to work above that period because that “surplus value” is the source of the capitalist’s wealth; it is the source of profit and other expenses that they incur. The commodities produced contain within them Labor power that has been paid for and Labor power that hasn’t. In order to “realize” or to free that surplus from the commodity, the commodity has to be sold for money, value in a different form. This is how capital is accumulated and the portion they plough back in to production in order to repeat the process enters the realm of “capital” again.

Human Labor power in use is the only commodity that has this unique quality, its use adds value. With any other commodity, a chair say, as soon as you buy it, it begins its decline in value as its use decreases the value contained within it. The use of a human being’s life activity in this way can create value. It’s the goose that lays the golden egg for the capitalist and the state and its institutions prop up and defend this set up. And the fact that the increased value is trapped within a commodity until it is transferred through a sale, explains why ever holiday is a commercial holiday. It explains why we live in a 24-hour market place. It explains why Bush said “go shop” after the planes hit the twin towers. The trapped value must be released before the process can be repeated.

The reserve capital that the business owner(s) borrow from the moneylenders to get the process of production rolling is also our collective product as it is the result of past Labor power. If someone offers you a $10 bill for a $20, you would not do it, we would see it as an unfair exchange. But that’s what capitalism is based on with regard to Labor power; not the exchange of equals. That’s why there is no such thing as 8 hours pay for 8 hours work.

Back to this strike of capital where they won’t put the money they stole from us back in to production because there’s not enough profit to be made. The media has used different terms to describe the purpose of Obama’s meeting with them. He is “pressing” them to invest. He is “charming” them to try and get them to let that capital go.

What do they do we go on a strike, when we withhold our Labor power? They use the media they own to denigrate us and encourage division within the working class. They keep a reserve army of unemployed workers and use the laws and the police to break our picket lines and get these unemployed workers to replace us. And when they have to they use troops, workers in uniform to force us back to work or if necessary, shoot us.

No “charm” approach for us when we’re on strike.

So the conclusion we have to draw from this understanding is that the Labor process has to be taken out of the hands of those who only set it in motion for their individual gain. And the surplus value that we collectively produce and have always produced has to be taken out of the hands of those who presently own it and its use and allocation determined collectively in the interests of human society in harmony with the natural world.

Capitalism socialized production. We will never have peace, a decent environment or a secure life until we socialize ownership and we recognize that rights are determined through struggle and power. The feudal lord had the right to sleep with the bride on her wedding night too, but we put a stop to that.