Why We Don’t Have a Global Market

All this talk about global markets and how it’s good for capitalism is double-speak. A global market requires freedom on both sides of the supply and demand chain, but that certainly isn’t the case. Take for instance, employment. A global market, according to people who say we are now competing in a “global marketplace” is a complete fallacy. It would be true if a native of another country could simply walk across a border and tender their resume for any open job, without a visa, or without additional employment costs for obtaining that new job. Otherwise, what you have is a lopsided global market. One where the employer or demand side makes all the rules and can play the supply side off each other since they don’t get the same privileges. It’s only a global market for the elite politicians, not for the common every day person. For the average person, this “global market” is a governmental monopoly, similar in many respects to a dictatorship.

Google

Has anyone noticed how Google is trying to “corner the global market” using multiple strategies aimed at convincing people that doing business with them will be more profitable than doing business with someone else? That’s the core principle of capitalism: self-interest. However, more and more people are awakening to the fact that healthy self-interest has nothing to do with the monetary systems. True profit comes when engaging a business model increases sustainability of a community and the freedom to engage a wider community without penalty. It really is anti-monopoly, whether that monopoly is a business, a search engine, or a political government. Any business strategy that seeks to corner the market on anything in “the pubic interest” is actually an enemy of true capitalistic values as our founding fathers understood it. The establishment of any monopoly is just a hair away from converting to a dictatorship. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be the United States, we’d be the Federal Government of America; Free commerce across state lines is essential, but each state has the right to set up their own rules voted into effect BY THE PEOPLE, not via Federal mandate.

What We Can Do

Take the profit motive out of it. Yes, it’s a radical idea for a capitalist, but it is important if we want to maintain our freedoms. Granted we all need to work within the system, but there is a portion of our time or income that can be tithed into putting forward the foundation of a different system. Capitalism strictly run on the profit motive is not a balanced way of life. It leads to greed, bullying, and ultimately spits out control freaks at the top of the system who aren’t willing to give a penny without two or three back. However, you can use the idea of the parallel systems architecture to remove the old and establish the new with very little conflict or warfare. It means more work on our side, as we have to engage two systems at once, but it can also mean a peaceful way to overthrow a monopoly from the ground up by taking daily actions that encourage new systems to grow that are cooperative, not competitive, and that remove borders to actual free market dynamics.

Here are a few ideas on how to engage simple actions to overthrow “monopolies” in your life:

• Engage more than one social network, don’t let a single one monopolize your time or attention.
• Include a few American made products in your shopping cart, so they can compete with those made in China.
• Reduce your debt as much as possible, so it won’t matter what the money lords decide to do or not do.
• Engage peer-to-peer lending to circumvent bank monopolies on lending.
• Be your own global soloproneur and use PayPal to take transactions from overseas.

What actions can you take to have a true global market and not just one that enriches the 1 percent?

Bad Times Promote More Cooperation

When times are good, people are too busy to help their neighbors. Besides, they reason, charities can do that sort of work. They’re too busy making money! But, when times go sour, I see a lot more willingness of people to cooperate. One reason is that they may have more time because business is down. Another reason is that everyone starts to realize they’re all in the same sinking boat, and competition (the cornerstone of capitalism) becomes counter-productive. Even during the Great Depression you saw more people taking in boarders, starting community gardens, stepping up with soup kitchens, and generally trying to lend a helping hand. You never knew when you would be the one needing that same kindness later. In times like these, it’s much more important to cultivate community and friendship than it is to stimulate competitive business drives. That means, we have to learn to slow down and change our way of being in the world.

Cooperation Versus Competition

So, times are tough, it’s true. But, it’s a grand opportunity to really help others and learn the art of cooperation. We are brought up in the West to compete with each other, so when those rules of behavior become counter-productive, we have to mentally shift gears and learn the art of kindness. While no one really likes tough times, it can be a great spiritual exercise in learning how to create cooperative community solutions and how to cooperate with Self too.

Cooperative Community Solutions

More and more we begin to see cooperative community solutions to the problems that harsh competitive business practices have created. You can even see it in how all the major national leaders got together to create cooperative international financial strategies to resolve this economic crisis. We see it with people doing co-housing to help offset maintenance costs of housing. We see it online in social networking communities that share information and resources freely, in cooperative formats. We’ll be seeing more and more cooperative community solutions as things progress away from competitive capitalism to sustainable capitalism. And, as an added benefit, we’ll learn some valuable spiritual lessons too!

Cooperating With Self

See, when we learn to be gentle and kind with others, we automatically extend that to ourselves too. And, when we internalize cooperation, trust, and kindness towards Self, that’s when the energetic blockages that create tough times tend to dissolve. So, every cycle of creation has a purpose, whether it can be traumatic or not. And, this shifting of competitive capitalism to sustainable capitalism, I believe, will eventually lead America into being a kinder, gentler, nation.