My next book to read: "The Capitalism Papers"

Nowhere near the end yet of "This is your brain on music" (BTW which is turning into one of the most interesting books I've ever read) but I've already lined up my next book to read. Will take it out to Lightning Ridge with me in case I finish the first one out there. This one is called "The Capitalist Papers: Fatal flaws of an obsolete system". Sounds pretty radical man!

Unlike other books I've read on the subject (Like "23 Things they don't tell you about Capitalism") which don't go anywhere near as far as this one apparently does in coming straight out and saying pretty much, that the whole system is fucked and unsustainable on a planet with finite resources.

The book description at the above link is good, but there's a much more detailed critique of it at the Dissident Voice, and giving a summary of the six arguments in the book:

• Amorality – increase of individual and corporate wealth is the only core principle of capitalism. Recognition of any social concern or relationship to the natural world that transcends the goal of increasing capital accumulation is extrinsic to the system. 
• Dependence on growth – capitalism relies on limitless growth, but the natural resources essential to wealth production are finite. Super-exploitation is exhausting those resources and destroying the ecosystems of which they are a part, jeopardizing human survival as well as that of other species. 
• Propensity to war – since the only goal is to accumulate rather than distribute wealth, resources that produce wealth must be controlled; therefore war is inevitable. 
• Intrinsic inequity – without any constraining outside force or internalized principle of social equity, capital accumulation leads almost exclusively to more accumulation, and capital is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. 
• Anti-democratic – democracies are corruptible: wealth can purchase most of the representation it needs to get the laws necessary for further accumulation and concentration of wealth. This means that as the concentration of wealth increases, democracy is degraded and ultimately destroyed.
• Unproductive of real happiness – human happiness and wellbeing are demonstrably tied to other factors besides capital accumulation. Extreme poverty is clearly unproductive of happiness, but so is wealth, past a relatively modest level. Happiness is most widespread where there are guarantees that basic needs will be met for all, wealth is more equitably distributed, and bonds between people and the natural environment are still stronger than the desire to accumulate wealth.

Personally I'm not sure about it all, but I do agree that what we've got now has to change in some way. It hasn't worked, and in the only places where society has remained reasonably egalitarian is in countries where the gov's have had a large control over the economy and tempering the inevitable excesses and immoralities of Capitalism and profit at all costs. The gov has had to step in, if you will, to make the system more moral than it would otherwise be. 

For example, I still think it was morally wrong of my last job for them to make redundant an entire dept and outsource it, with the higher profits being more important than the jobs of about ten people. But at the same time we all got a tax free payout according to years of service, provided by the industrial relations system given to us by the gov. I'm damned sure the company didn't want to pay it, and in fact in the last on site Enterprise Bargaining Agreement signed two years ago, we had to threaten strike action as the company wanted to reduce the redundancy payout to a maximum of 16 weeks, down from a maximum of 49 weeks. We succeeded in securing 51 weeks in the end, through the threat of legal strike action that was part of the industrial system we worked under. In short the gov imposed a certain moral outcome, even though the company wouldn't have done it.

Maybe there's some middle ground in all of this? 

One thing that's definitely not going to work is that bizarre nut bag Romney and his new vice president cohort Ryan. I can't think of policies that are more wrong. If by some tear in the space-time continuum happens and they actually gain power, they will take what's left of the country over there and destroy it. Go back to the 1950's and undo much of what's taken the US forward over many years. Rip the guts out of middle America and hand the spoils to the rich. Punish pensioners for the crimes of Wall St, spouting bullshit about the "road to prosperity". Let Capitalism have it's immoral way, where profits and gain are more important than people, unfettered.

This is honestly the scariest picture I've seen come out of America in many many years. It makes Reagan look like a leftie pinko hippie. I shudder looking at that, right from the other side of the world. Don't do it America! We love you and don't want to see you fucked over by these people!