Don’t be fooled by “Inclusive Capitalism” It’s still a disaster!
According to its website, Inclusive Capitalism, every corporation must be a citizen of the society in which it operates. This ensures long-term growth and company health. They even write that “inclusive capitalists” will not attempt to free-ride on services that others have paid for.
Inclusive Capitalism “is a global effort to restore capitalism as an engine of broadly shared prosperity." It claims to be an effort to improve environmental, social, and governance indicators. The founders write that there are many different forms of capital (environmental, social, and governance) that corporations should take into consideration as they conduct their business.
The Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism was founded in 2014 by Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild. Beside her in this noble task are, according to the Coalition’s website, a Working Group comprised of such luminaries of social justice as Sir Evelyn de Rothschild of E.L. Rothschild, Dominic Barton from McKinsey and Company, Ann Cairns of MasterCard, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles of HSBC, Paul Polman of Unilever, along with CEOs of various pension plans and philanthropic foundations, like the eponymous Ford and Rockefeller foundations.
The Working Group meets its requisite allotment of at least one African and/or Asian, but not more than two of each. The four board members of this august group are the two Rothschilds, a tax lawyer, and the leader of a networking investment club.
I find this all so very interesting. As I write this, I think about the slave laborers in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) camps who are mining coltan so Microsoft and others can have plenty of it for their Xboxes, Play Stations, iPhones, and laptops and desk computers. Will the families of the seven million people who have been murdered in this blood trade now be acknowledged and made whole in just this one Wild, Wild West capital of capitalism? Is the future rip-off of DRC not going to happen because capitalism’s scions are now asking for “Inclusive Capitalism?” To find out more about capitalism’s current role in DRC, please read anything written by Keith Harmon Snow in all its horrid details.
What role is HSBC, the bank that helped its uber-wealthy clients avoid paying their fair share of taxes, going to play in improving the lives of those ruined by the same neoliberal capitalism championed by The Economist? How many banks will recompense their clients who lost their homes in the 2008 mortgage casino and shake down? I don’t think too many. So much for not being free-riders or for being good citizens of the place in which a business operates.
So, understanding the ills of capitalism - from spawning the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and genocide of indigenous peoples, to today’s virulent racism that some scholars are trying to put back into the bottle by declaring that there is no such thing as race - one has to wonder: “What is going on in the world when “Inclusive Capitalism” is being championed by the same capitalist outposts that brought us “Exclusive Capitalism?”
Well, it couldn’t be fear of prosecution. It is true that US prosecution of white collar crime is at a twenty-year low, setting the robber barons loose on a defenseless public. There remains at least one reason that comes to my mind as explanation for Lady Rothschild’s interest.
One possible explanation that makes the notion of “Inclusive Capitalism” so au courant could be that a critical mass of people are now “on to” the robber barons and the governments purchased by them; these “democratic” governments specialize in representing the robber barons and not the people who “elect” them.
Could it be that there are finally enough among the masses of people who are acutely aware and so refuse to fall for the old divide and conquer trick?
Could it be that the there has reached a critical mass of people who are unwilling to be manipulated or remain open to a cultural invasion that consigns them to second-class and impoverished world citizenship? And that denies them their right of self-determination?
Could it finally be that the historical cultural interlopers are concerned that they might be out-muscled by the poor and middle class who vastly out-number them, say 99 to 1?
Could it be that it is now time for those who benefit the most from a status quo global economic organization to trick a new generation into supporting its own disempowerment? Could it be that more and more people now recognize that capitalism, with its side dishes of genocide, slavery, and virulent racism, is not the answer for human and ecological advancement? After all, capitalism was invented by certain Europeans and then imposed on the rest of humanity.
One clue to all of this could come from author Thomas Piketty who has provided incredible ammunition for those of us who say that capitalism is inherently ex-clusive. In his 2014 tome, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Piketty, a French economist, investigated wealth inequality over a very long period: 250 years. What he found is what we know from our own personal experiences—over time, in capitalism and today’s extreme version known as neoliberalism—income inequality gets worse as economies expand. Piketty predicts that wealth inequality will worsen in the future. His prescription? A global progressive tax on wealth. The Economist, owned by the Rothschild empire, opined that while Piketty might be onto something academically, his ideas need not infect public policy. In May 2014, The Economist headlined, “A Great Piece of Scholarship, but a Poor Guide to Policy.”
A second clue to all of this could be the recent landslide victory of Jeremy Corbyn to leader of the UK Labour Party. I have been to many pro-peace, anti-war events and Jeremy Corbyn has been in attendance at EVERY one. He is a stalwart anti-Zionist peacenik and the thought of Corbyn as UK Prime Minister probably makes the robber barons very uneasy. He survived terrible caricaturizing and demonization. I’m hoping that we will be able to pull off a similar upset here in the US and elect a President that is truly for all of the people.
By the way, the Inclusive Capitalism Conference of 2014, whose theme was “Renewing Trust,” ended in a squabble among “inclusives” that resulted in Lady Rothschild filing a lawsuit against the Henry Jackson Society for breach of trust.
The 2015 Conference recently ended with a whimper. So much for “Inclusive Capitalism.” They are having these meetings because they sense their weakness. They are the ones who introduced disaster capitalism to the world; they know that a revolution in the way the masses think and behave could topple them. Now is the time for us to demand systemic change - that is, deep, transformational, second-order change.
Cynthia McKinney, for RT
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
