Mondragon has operated under both a fascist and now a parliamentary constitutional monarchy government.
FDR's Legislative Control of 20th-Century Predatory CapitalismIn the early 20th century, while Italy, Germany and Spain sought to save predatory capitalism by embracing it and the USSR took total control, FDR limited the predatory nature of capitalism by passing significant legislation that protected and empowered citizens. The New Deal successfully restrained capitalism such that it created the largest and wealthiest middle class of the 20th century.
Oligarchs Endeavor to Preserve US Predatory CapitalismAmerica had its own capitalist effort to totally embrace predatory capitalism like Nazi Germany. In the 20th century, it was led by the Liberty League. The League attempted to recruit retired Marine General Smedley Butler to lead a military coup in 1934. The coup would remove FDR and demolish his New Deal. The oligarchs funding the coup embraced predatory capitalism that concentrated wealth in their pockets. To hell with the middle class.
Like most nations, USofA has been struggling with a 400-year-old authoritarian economic system - predatory capitalism. Each time its oligarchs have gained the upper hand, the nation has suffered. The slave-owner oligarchs started a civil war. The Industrial Revolution oligarchs gave us the Great Depression. Today's oligarchs gave us the Tech Bubble, The Great Recession and have become unimaginably wealthier during the COVID pandemic.
Our democratic political system struggles to prevent our authoritarian economic system from maximizing inequality. The authoritarian economic system enables the oligarchs to buy/privatize/co-opt our democratic political system and its public resources. The oligarchs' goal is to replace our democracy. They want an authoritarian plutocracy that will protect and further empower predatory capitalism and increase their excessive wealth.
Since the failed coup of FDR, oligarchs have gained more power and undone most of FDR's New Deal. They are closer to ending Social Security and Medicare than ever before. They have returned us to a struggling democratic political system that is again threatened by unchained, predatory capitalism.
A Nation Optimized For All of Us - Replacing Authoritarian Political/Economic Systems with Complimentary Democratic OnesThe key element that adversely impacts the political/economic combinations above is authoritarianism. Either or both of the systems are authoritarian in nature. What we have not seen is a combination where both systems are optimized for democratic operation. We have democratic political systems controlled by citizens through socialist factions like in Europe to maintain public services. But we, here, have never combined that with a democratic economic system controlled by the workers to maintain private services.
Let's create a more democratic political system where all voting-age citizens can freely vote. One where we aren't limited to two capitalist political parties. Where even if oligarchs still exist, they can't bribe our democratic representatives. Where tools abused by abusive political minorities, like the filibuster, are controlled or eliminated. To that add a democratic economic system where workers decide how their profits are distributed. Where oligarchs can't exist to use their wealth to destroy our democratic systems.
This combination would provide an optimized political/economic combination that focuses on equally protecting and empowering all citizens and workers. It eliminates the threat of authoritarianism in both our political and economic systems. It would prevent predatory capitalism and the protection and empowerment of the excessively wealthy. The combined democratic systems would empower citizens and workers to fairly distribute political equality and economic wealth.
We can create "a more perfect union." A hybrid version of democratic political and economic systems that is the inverse of China's hybrid, all-authoritarian, experiment. We'd have a more democratic political system, where voting is protected and empowered for all breathing citizens. We'd have a more democratic economic system than 21st-century Germany. Both democratic political and economic systems would protect and empower each other.
Stop fighting, chaining, saving, or regulating what doesn't work. Build something new.
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