Author Topic: From Capitalism to corporatism to feudalism  (Read 1220 times)

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Giuliano Taverna

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From Capitalism to corporatism to feudalism
« on: May 17, 2009, 08:21:10 pm »
From Capitalism to corporatism to feudalism

A guide to the consolidation of wealth from Rome to America

By Giuliano Theodore Taverna

Infrastructure is vital to capitalism and individual liberty. The feudal age began when population increased to above the level technology allowed infrastructure to sustain. This lead to war first barbarians invaded because their inferior technology meant little or no infrastructure, they were defeated time and time again by the Romans. That is until the Romans reached the limit of their technology and needed to expand. The Persians reached this limit at around the same time. This lead to a long indecisive war between the two superpowers of the ancient world, both of which also fending off raids by barbarians, for the Persians it was the nomads of central Asia raiding their frontier, for the Romans it was the Germanic tribes, and the picts of modern day Scotland. This created massive inflation in both their economies, continued destruction of infrastructure, and as the population didn't decrease, it lead to internal conflict.

The first thing that happens when you have more people than the infrastructure can support is debt. People can't support themselves so they look to those who can to... "Help them" they become dependents, working for these wealthy people. At first they are paid, but gradually overtime the debt becomes greater than the respective wealth distributed to all of these people. So you go from working in the fields for gold, to working in the fields to keep a small portion of the wheat to prevent yourself from starving. So to conclude you have 5 farms, and 5 people. Each person grows wheat, makes his bread, and sells the extra for gold. That is capitalism.  Then however the population goes up, you have 10 people and 5 farms. So, the 5 most powerful people get control of the 5 farms, and employ the others to work on their farms for money. Obviously they get less than if they owned the farm. Now you have 50 people, and 5 farms. You make so little that the wheat you are allowed to keep, so you don't starve is worth more than the minuscule amount of wealth you would have been paid for working the field, because the wealth of 1 person has now to be spread to 10 people. And of course, the person who owns the farm gets to keep the gold and most of the wheat for him or herself. Now, this lord calls the shots, he may force you to do thing you don't want to do, obviously you have to do it, or you starve.

So you have gone from capitalism, to corporatism, finally to feudalism. So it was that control of the resources gradually consolidated into the hands of a few men. This coincided with the outbreak of endemic warfare, and financial collapse. The result of which was the perfect storm known as the crisis of the third century, which was a period where the roman empire split up into 4 different parts controlled by generals, and the emperors were assassinated almost as quickly as they were coroneted. At around the same time The Parthians were overthrown by the Sassanid's who also experience routine civil strife and regicide. This ended with the appearance of Constantine and the conversation to Christianity. This glued society together with belief in divine power and authority. People no longer cared that life was miserable and short, because they believed that if they worked the field like good serfs they would be rewarded with salvation.

However this was unstable, the underlying problems of the empire persisted, and as barbarians became more desperate due to climate changes freezing their northern homes and the empire became more and more bankrupted and thus incapable of maintaining its defenses, gradually society disintegrated. The lords and nobility then cut their own deals with the barbarians, intermarrying with them, and as the Roman Empire disintegrated, the feudal age was forming in its place. When the empire was finally gone, the last traces of all that it offered went with it. Books were burned, roads fell into disrepair, fresh water was lost, sewers stopped working, trade collapsed, industry collapsed, learning all but stopped, and as a result, there was anarchy and unrest precipitate a dramatic decrease in population and infrastructure. Resulting in the era we know as the dark ages.

Now this persisted for centuries until 4 major events. 1, the crusades, in which Europe banded together to fight an external threat, Islam, and thus gained a great deal of books and learning that had been protected and maintained by the highly advanced Islamic civilization which was based not on feudalism but a more classical model of city states and trade networks. 2, the formation of the Mongol empire and the reopening of the silk road that gave Europe contact with china, and thus the ideas customs, (and diseases like the black death) of those land 3, the black death, in which population levels dropped dramatically, by some estimates 50% of Europe's population died within the span of a few months. This caused a labor crisis in which the common man was again in a position of dominance and could demand higher wages, it was a period where many nobles ended up working their own fields and making their own bread, and workers now owned their own private estates. And finally the sack of the last bastion of roman civilization, Constantinople by the Ottoman Empire, in which many of the well educated and well read people of the city fled to Italy.

This combination of factors lead to the Renaissance, followed by the religious backlash of the reformation, and finally the enlightenment. Which created the revolutionary environment that gave rise to the modern age of Democracy, republicanism, and constitutional Government, which the current global superpower America is based on.

It is in my opinion that America like Rome is at the precipice of a new third century. Our infrastructure is no longer sufficient to generate independent existence. Labor has become devalued to the point of being little more than slavery. We artificially inflate the value of labor with minimum wage laws, mandated benefits, and labor unions. However, as we have not solved the underlying problem, too much labor, and not enough demand for labor, i.e. Jobs. We are only resisting the inevitable. As the population continues to expand, people will become more and more bound to the whims of the nobility. We cannot spread wealth so thin that 3,000 men share the substance of one man, or allow 1 man to control the 3,000. We must not fall into the trap of believing this is the result of greed, it is not. But rather as I have outlined the inevitable result of having more people than the land can support. The way to solve this is either to have much fewer people, much more land, or much more efficient ways of using land. We must increase the carrying capacity of our land. Better farms to make food, better roads to transport it, better markets to sell it. More effective mines to get materials, better factories to make them, but most importantly, we need more of these things.

We have an advantage that the Romans lacked, the possibility of expansion into space. There is already talk of establishing a permanent base on the moon. In my view this is the first step to colonizing space, in the same way that Europeans colonized the new world. And this will open up endless resources, and land for future generations, thus solving the problem of having too many people and not enough wealth. The most important thing we must conclude in all of this is that we cannot simply treat a symptom of the problem such as inequality, or wealth gaps. We must treat the underlying cause if we are to stave off the long term effects of the shift from capitalism, to corporatism, to feudalism. It’s a road; we are half way past, steadily approaching a destination that I sincerely hope we never reach, a new dark age.

« Last Edit: May 27, 2009, 09:11:32 pm by Giuliano Taverna »
"It is the duty of a good shepherd to shear his sheep, not to skin them." Tiberius Caesar

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Alia

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Re: From Capitalism to corporatism to feudalism
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2009, 06:25:06 pm »
Too many people and not enough jobs, this is exactly what I said but in a different form:

If only we had population control, jobs would compete for people and not the other way 'round.

Giuliano Taverna

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Re: From Capitalism to corporatism to feudalism
« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2009, 06:29:14 pm »
Either that or a massive plague, those typically break out when humans become to densely populated anyway.

But we should come up with ways to make more effective use of the land we have, and start developing the technology to create colonies in space. If we can put a man on the moon in 1960, we should be able to get a construction team up there by 2030. NASA needs to get off their asses and stop being so lazy.
"It is the duty of a good shepherd to shear his sheep, not to skin them." Tiberius Caesar

Alia

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Re: From Capitalism to corporatism to feudalism
« Reply #3 on: May 21, 2009, 11:32:22 pm »
The problem with space is that it isn't productive. You haul 80 tons of topsoil up there if you want, and then haul the crops back down, because I'm not doing it.

Giuliano Taverna

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Re: From Capitalism to corporatism to feudalism
« Reply #4 on: May 22, 2009, 08:22:09 am »
Who needs soil? Just set up a base, build a tank to grow edible algae which can be process on site into protein rich food, and use that to feed the colony. In time you can begin generate enough extra oxygen to set up fields, the moon already has soil, and water all you need is air.

Its not nearly as complicated as a lot of people think. The moon has tons of natural resources. Especially high quality metal like titanium.
"It is the duty of a good shepherd to shear his sheep, not to skin them." Tiberius Caesar

Alia

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Re: From Capitalism to corporatism to feudalism
« Reply #5 on: May 23, 2009, 11:19:12 pm »
You work out the nitty-gritty and I'll agree with you.