Democracy? Plutocracy!

Democracy sustained by capitalism fails as a system to achieve happiness for everyone. This combination does not work for the whole society but for the powerful minorities that control markets and states.

Liberty, equality, fraternity... where?

Wealth, safety, progress... for whom?

Big concentrations of money in cash and credit distort the hypothetical freedom of choice, press, elections, markets, and governments. A system with these characteristics has a name: plutocracy.

Consumers and voters are all responsible.

What can you do?
...

Individual freedom and social capital
Democracy and capitalism defeated feudalism waiving the flag of individual freedom and social progress. Today freedom and progress can be enjoyed selfishly according to purchase power. Money has become an end in itself. Detached from any material value, money has morphed into an abstract concept multiplied by emission and inflation. Money buys power, including democracies.

Individual freedom and social progress can be pursued through other means while pursuing the goal of happiness for everyone. Social capital, the direct capacity of creating products and services, is more valuable than money. Social capital is priceless, as it provides wealth and happiness as one. And it cannot be purchased: the only way of producing social capital is through altruism, cooperation, and emotional exchange. The accumulation of social capital is a learning process no different than a Spiral path.

The evolution of capitalism
Capitalism wanted to appear benevolent, natural, and eternal. However, in its current incarnation as a global plutocracy it is cruel, unsustainable, and it will crash. Even if it keeps distracting many people from the wars, oppression and poverty it causes, it cannot trick the balance and limitations of nature.

The traditional system to enable production and commerce has evolved into a financial cloud that devours everything and extracts income from anywhere. Individual responsibility has been diluted, obfuscated, and exempted by law. While some people get immensely richer they are never accountable of losses. Their mistakes and maneuvers are paid by the society at large thanks to a political framework that they have sponsored.

Privatizing revenues and socializing losses: this is how politicians ruling democratic states serve the plutocrats at the expense of the citizens they represent. Through corruption and cronyism, a globalized elite holds the reins regardless of bankruptcies and elections. They control public and private finances, media and armies. Their concentration of power keeps growing.

What is to be done?