Another Goldman Sachs waster squanders the social wealth

Jon Corzine guilty of violence against workers

The recent collapse of MF Global Holdings is yet another example of the total integration of finance capital and the state.  President Obama has been in Europe at the G20 meeting representing the interests of the US banks as yet another trading outfit goes bust. MF collapsed under $40 billion in debt.   The firm's CEO, John Corzine is the former state senator, governor of New Jersey and former CEO of Goldman Sachs. He also chaired a presidential commission for Bill Clinton and served on the U.S. Treasury Department's borrowing committee which is like putting an alcoholic in charge of the booze.

The contribution to society from this club of wasters was betting on commodities, government debt, derivatives as well as European sovereign debt. Goldman Sachs is indeed like a huge giant squid sucking the lifeblood out of society.  The US government is full of Goldman and other parasites from the financial and banking industry like Corzine.  Through their government "service" they plunder the wealth of society created by the majority of us that do productive work.

Business Week points out that no bailout is necessary as the MF'ers as Corzine and his friends might best be called, used the firm's own capital.  But we have to return to this issue of capital.  Marx referred to it more as a process rather than a thing.  But what difference is there between this firm's "own capital" and capital that comes form the treasury or the taxpayer?  Where does this accumulated capital come from?

Once we understand how capital is accumulated, or what it's source is, then we realize that the capital that this firm used to buy debt and speculate and gamble on the price of commodities is our money. Wealth is created in a capitalist economy through the Labor process.  In the process of production, the life activity of workers is bought like any other commodity and used over a set period of time to make things for social consumption; things from tractors and cars to soap detergent and furniture The owners of the use of this life activity therefore the directors of it, the capitalist class,  also owns the material that this life activity works with to make a finished product, raw material, machines etc. Consequently, the finished product, a commodity of some sort is also owned by the capitalists as opposed to the workers that actually made it and they can do with it what they please, it is theirs to sell.

Most workers, including myself at one time, would have said that the source of the capitalist's wealth then was that they sold the commodity for more than it cost to make it.  But this is not the case.  The finished product contains within it life activity or Labor time.  Some of that Labor time was paid for and some of it wasn't. In short, the wages paid the worker are less than the value of the finished product. For example, the capitalist keeps the worker or uses our life activity over and above the period during which we produce the equal of our own wages. He doesn't send us home at the point his wage costs or even total outlay is met.  There would be nothing in it for them.  The relationship between the buyer of Labor power and the seller of it is an exchange much like us being forced to accept $15 in return for a $20 bill.  We wouldn't consider that fair.

So capital, the wealth that the MF ers used to gamble on the price of commodities or to lend to governments or trade as different forms of debt is our creation---it is our money just like public funds are that the capitalist class is forced to use to build social infrastructure, as well as other public expenditures that they have been forced to make like state parks and education facilities, something they are in the process or reversing.

As Corzine appropriated our creation for his own personal use or got it from one of his mates and used his position in government to plunder more of it he also used his government position as Democratic governor of New Jersey to ensure that the allocation of our wealth on public projects was curtailed while at the same time placing further burdens on the shoulders of workers. When Goldman went public Corzine made $400 million but this is a summation of his activity as New Jersey's governor from Wikipedia:

Corzine had long insisted that state employees must bear part of the cost of their health benefits after retirement. As of July 1, 2007, in agreements with the Communications Workers of America, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, active State employees in those unions (as well as certain other non-union employees) are now required to contribute 1.5% of their salary to offset health care costs. State and local employees’ contributions to the two largest pension systems by 10%, from 5% to 5.5% of their annual salaries and increased the retirement benefit age for new public employees, from 55 to 60 years.  In 2008, Corzine approved a law that increased the retirement age from 60 to 62, required that government workers and teachers earn $7,500 per year to qualify for a pension, eliminated Lincoln's Birthday as a state worker holiday, allowed the state to offer incentives not to take health insurance and required municipal employees work 20 hours per week to get health benefits.

Readers will notice that the Union leadership went along with these attacks by a multi-millionaire, possibly billionaire on working  people.  The AFSCME and CWA leadership cooperated with this thug and the Democratic Party in this process.  As we have pointed out in previous blogs, Gerald McEntee, the president of AFSCME earns around $500,000 a year. I say leadership as opposed to "Union" because this term would include the rank and file of these Unions who are not really consulted about such matters and if they are they are offered cuts or job losses, they are always offered setbacks of one type or another wage cuts or job losses as the Labor hierarchy has to help the likes of Corzine and the other 1% out.

Understanding that there is no such thing as "their" capital as "public" capital and private capital all come from the same source, the unpaid Labor of the working  class. This surplus value that the working class creates is our collective product and should be owned collectively and it's use determined collectively.  In other words, how we allocate this wealth in society is the decision of those that in the present set up have no decision.

The answer to this issue is the taking of the banks, insurance companies and financial industry under public ownership, to "nationalize" the finance industry.  it is impossible to regulate it as we don't own it. This is not so far out as already the housing industry is nationalized as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae own and/or guarantee most mortgages. It's been nationalized by the capitalist class in order to shift the losses on to our backs..  By taking in to public ownership I do not mean taking ownership of the deposits of savers and small business, but the institutions that hold this national wealth.  The wealth that the speculators and big corporations have stolen from the rest of us is a different matter and should be owned collectively.  Elected committees of workers, consumers, financial experts and representatives of community business are how we can determine how capital is allocated.