Corporate power in the United States has risen to unprecedented levels, but the rate at which this power has grown is decelerating. Both facts have important implications for the future of U.S. capitalism.
According to the theory of capital as power (or CasP for short), the quest for capitalized power – and for more and more of it – is the key driving force of modern capitalism. Capitalists, CasP argues, particularly dominant ones, judge their power differentially. They measure it by the size of their earnings and assets – but they do so not absolutely, but relative to others. Driven by power, their goal is not simply to amass more money, but to do so faster than the average. Their ‘bottom line’ is not maximum accumulation, but differential accumulation....
And here lies the problem. Dominant capitalists and corporations cannot stop trying to increase their power. The need to beat the average and grow faster than others is ‘in their nature’. And that has consequences, because rising differential earnings require greater threats, sabotage and violence against the rest of society. If this relentless pressure is not counteracted by effective democratic resistance, U.S. subjects are likely hear much more about the benefits of ‘economies of scale’, the imperatives of ‘global competition’ and the dictates of ‘national security’ – processes that, they will be told, require them to accept ever larger corporations and a much more authoritarian society.
Capital As Power
Corporate Power and the Future of U.S. Capitalism
Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan
Research Note, December 2020
Corporate Power and the Future of U.S. Capitalism
Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan
Research Note, December 2020
8 comments:
Link error. TpTB no want us to read.
Fixed.
neo-liberal conspiracy!!!!!
I would prefer the author to state this in terms of incentives, rather than being part of their 'nature'. If what they're doing is counter to their own interests, warn them!
But Peter, how we weigh incentives, what incentives we respond to and how are all part of our nature! You were just joking with your second sentence right? You don’t actually think that warning people that their interests aren’t what they think they are would have an affect do you?
You seem to think there is something “outside” nature that is operating? I would even argue that IF someone finds/proves a “God”, he, she, it will be best understood as another part of nature, sort of like another dimension. There is only nature/the universe etc etc. Parts we can measure pretty well, parts we can’t measure at all so we don’t know they are there. It adds nothing to our understanding to have a dualist view.
There are examples of large corporations agreeing to co-exist. They divvy up their monopolies, like drug lords. Marx argued that incentives will drive them towards unsustainability - while this author doesn't spell it out. If Marx is wrong then it's not inevitably in their nature to keep pushing for more.
They divvy up their monopolies
That’s Mafia activity, some boss deciding “you get that neighborhood, you get this neighborhood, I get these neighborhoods...... Hey wait why do you get the two best neighborhoods......... I’m the boss”
Big fish, little pond. Naturally, the bigger fish require more room.
The detritus on the bottom is called the working class.
Post a Comment