A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

formed the capitalist market entirely. Financial markets have surpassed
by far the markets of commodities and services to absurd and dangerous
proportions. Even Financial Times has to admit it: ‘the most glaring
and lethal example of this madness has been the growth of the unregulated
derivatives market, which has ballooned in size to $600,000bn’.
This speculation juggernaut is worth 40 times the world trade in merchandise
and services. It’s also is the equivalent of nearly 10 years of
the of global economic output or the equivalent of almost $100,000 per
person on Earth. 32
The corporate state
A very important part of the subsumption process is the ‘silent takeover’
of the state by capital. 33 In a capitalist system the role of government is
not the common good, its priority is not to give a decent life to the citizens
or to patronize their cultural and social development. The primary
goal is to provide the best possible conditions (infrastructure, low costs,
low taxes, low salaries, etc.) that business needs to flourish. If that requires
war, it means war, as is illustrated by the bombardments of US
since 1945. The ‘European state’ is also a good illustration of the silent
takeover. The most powerful political entity of the EU is the European
Commission. Almost all present commissioners were former CEO’s and
the exceptions who are not, will probably be in the future. The Parliament
has almost no real power and for every deputy there are six lobbyists.
34 The financial crisis and the repeated shocks afterwards shows
the complete subordination of the politicians to the dictates of the commanding
heights of finance.
32 Financial Times, February 16, 2011, p. 7.
33 Hertz N. The Silent Takeover,London 2001.
34 European Transparency Initiative, ‘Registering the Brussels lobby – five years
after ‘, http://www.nujcec.org/brussels/index.php/latest-news/past_evts/burstingthe-brussels-bubble-alter-eu%E2%80%99s-new-look-at-corporate-lobbying.
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