(PROUT Globe) – The concentration of great wealth beyond the influence of ordinary citizens is at the heart of the mounting difficulties that now make global capitalism look like the Nexus of Evil. As a first step towards establishing a real economy of real people, stock exchanges and their exploitative trading tools should be banned.
In a seminal discourse in 1984, PROUT founder P.R. Sarkar exhorted:
“Capitalists, in either their singular or collective forms, are the most pernicious economic exploiters today. All over the world they are continually exploiting local economies and draining their wealth. In nearly all cases the profits they accrue are spent outside the local area and remitted to outside stockholders and parent companies. An essential measure to control this economic exploitation is that the speculative markets in all countries of the world should be closed down immediately.”*
Closing down the leading institutions of an exploitative system is a first step. However, the subsequent constructive steps may seem even more important.
The world and its people need a decentralized consumption-oriented economy where profits are for developing the economy of everybody and not only of a few. It will be the job of lawmakers and the people to evolve such a humanist system.
Money needs to be kept rolling. Otherwise it loses its practical value. Right now, capitalists are holding back as they are not sure where they can get optimum returns. By their present unwillingness to invest they hurt the entire world and threaten to offset an unprecedented depression. But their greed does not allow them to act otherwise. They keep the whole world hostage to their defective mentality. Consequently, the days of capitalism as the dominating world system are numbered.
We appeal to occupants and protesters all over the world to move swiftly from being angry and upset protest movements to presenting mature sustainable and constructive alternatives for the welfare of all. In that way we may be able to present solutions that may be applicable to all, including those of a commercial and economic persuasion. The movement for economic justice is global.
* Source: “Socio-economic Movements”, PROUT in a Nutshell Part 13, Ananda Marga Publications
Copyright PROUT Globe 2011
i am fully agree with this new idea. i am a small investor in stock market. after reading this, will get immediately out of this evil net. i am a rural villager working in new delhi, india. am studying prout and want to implement what ever way is possible. please help in this regard.
Many millions of people have their retirement invested on stock exchanges. Shutting them down is a naive and short sighted idea. Beware of simplistic solutions to complex problems.
Well, in our opinion it would be better to be proactive and get out whatever is left in your pension fund now and organize it in a better way, say in a cooperative pension fund managed and controlled locally. At the moment all over the world pension funds bleed badly. To keep money in any way and form on the stock exchanges for much longer means it will be lost forever. That would be naive and short-sighted indeed. The age of giant financial institutions are about to end and we will transit into an age of decentralized economy where local people take responsibility for their economy. So why not start with pension funds and show the way? When people finally realize there is nothing in those gambling dens for them they will close them down anyway and not because we write it. We agree with you, it is complicated for many right now and everybody’s reality changes fast these days. Regards, Comments editors
In the US and wherever pensions are invested in stock markets, the pensions are increasing at the expense of low-and middle-class whose income is going down as every company is squeezing the firm wherever possible to give the money to Wall Street. Amazon, the darling of Wall Street, has been hiring hourly paid workers and these workers are forced to work in horrible conditions. Had Amazon been a non-Wall Street firm, the profit at the year end would have gone towards the pension of these workers but instead pensioners and ultra-rich are getting that money. I discussed this with a collegue. Initially he had claimed that US is the best place to work as it has minimum tax and Canada is best place to retire where was paying 46% tax whereas in US he pays only 30% (or even less). According to him, he was working for non-working people in Canada and in US he works for himself. Then I explained how his pension (401k) invested in the stock market is increasing in US (i.e. he is getting money from low-paid workers) whereas in Canada, he would have been getting his own income in pension. The Japanese Nikkei went up to 39,000 in 1989 and for the last 6-7 years it has been hovering between 8,000 and 10,000; it has lost nearly 75%. Same thing will happen with the Dow. It will drop by 3/4 and consequently lose 75%. After the crash, every one will claim that the old pension system was the best — getting pension from their own firm after retirement.
“Capitalists, in either their singular or collective forms, are the most pernicious economic exploiters today. All over the world they are continually exploiting local economies and draining their wealth. In nearly all cases the profits they accrue are spent outside the local area and remitted to outside stockholders and parent companies. An essential measure to control this economic exploitation is that the speculative markets in all countries of the world should be closed down immediately.”
-P.R. Sarkar, 1984, “Socio-Economic Movements”, Prout in a Nutshell – 13