The Futures Market: …response to my series on the Collapse of Capitalism.

WWH -This letter arrived the other day in response to my series on the Collapse of Capitalism. I thought I should share it with all of you.

Dear Mr. Pinko Pervert Polizatto,

Whoopee! Climate change is creating food shortages. As a capitalist investor who specializes in commodities, particularly crops, I am ecstatic that I bought lots of staples such as corn, wheat, oats, rice and soybeans at ridiculously low prices in the futures market. I was counting on a few natural disasters to bring about a shortage of foodstuffs. I knew from the way things were going, it was only a matter of time. Now, thanks to these worldwide food shortages, I am wealthy beyond my wildest dreams. I doubt that more than a couple of billion people will have to suffer much. Should it come down to rampant starvation, the planet could do with a few less people anyway. Fewer resources used means more for me and mine. Thank you Climate Change! A smart capitalist knows how to make money off of any disaster, be it economic, political, social, or environmental.

The only thing I really worry about is that if it gets too out of hand, if the price of food gets too high, no one will buy it… they will steal it! I mean we are talking survival here. Desperate people do desperate things. I guess I could always hire Whackenhut Services to guard my money and warehouses. More than likely, no matter how expensive food gets, there’ll be enough rich people who can afford what I have in storage.

But just to hedge my bets, I’ve counted on a worldwide bumper crop next year, bringing down the price of some crops to below what a farmer can live on, and though it will eat into the dividends of those who own stock in agribusinesses, I’m counting on making another winning from the inability of Capitalism to perform adequately.

Capitalism: the only economic system in which you can make money by betting on someone else’s failures. It really is the only game in town. The futures markets work much the same way that the banking industry did when they took out mortgage insurance on loans that they knew would fail because they would make more money from the insurance than from the payback of the loan. Simply genius! The essence of American patriotism… bet on the failure and suffering of others! So all I have to say to you, Mr. Socialism, is I’ve got mine, and oh so sorry, you don’t! Suck it up!

The only thing you got right (and I hate to admit it) is that consumer capitalism can only truly survive in a highly developed welfare state so that the poor slobs have some money with which to consume, thereby keeping ME rich. I mean, after all, Capitalism is based on constant consumption! So consume you dirty fuckin’ socialist hippies!

Sincerely,
I. M. Moneybags

My Response:
Dear Mr. Moneybags,

The only Futures Market I care about is what the future may hold in store for the welfare of humankind. As Werner Erhard once said, “The world doesn’t work unless it works for everyone.” I will place my bets on success, not failure.

I believe Socialism is the best way to make the world work for everyone! But I also believe you are stuck in and on a word. You are brainwashed with the stigma intentionally attached to Socialism for purely political motives by people in this country who seek only power and personal gain. You obviously do not care a whit for the common good of your fellow citizen.

Therefore, I assume you are not a hippie. My personal understanding of a true hippie is that he or she organically leans towards Socialism, not because of ideology, but because of common sense and the common good. Worldwide Hippies does not pretend to be fair and balanced. We are hippies! Love, peace, respect for the earth, social and economic justice for all! That to me is the true democracy which best thrives in a socialist environment.
But let’s get real for a second. Though “back in the day” there may have been a handful of people who set out to be a commune and live communally, to do so intentionally and with forethought was rare. I will not doubt there are very special people who arrived at the same spiritual, economic and political conclusions without the use of external substances, but for the most part any ideology we have was an organic outgrowth of what we experienced on psychedelics.

Worldwide Hippies has tried to be as all-embracing as possible. But what really separates hippies from “hippie in spirit” is the fact that during the psychedelic experience, we learned that words, language, categories, and labels were all created for our convenience, but may have little to do with reality.

Definitions change with time. In our time, socialism= bad? Capitalism= good? Liberal = bad? Conservative = good? I find it embarrassing that so many are so stuck in these little pigeonholes. I think that when we were taking psychedelics, we experienced different states of being in which there were no categories whatsoever. All categories and labels dissolved into thin air, and words were merely hieroglyphics with no meanings. When you get beyond the world of words, language, and categories, you fall into a state of grace in which everything is everything, and everything is infinite. And you choose to live with people based on the Hippie Laws of Attraction and economic expediency.

Most people who chose to live communally did not do so out of ideology. It was just an organic and natural outcome, and its success was self-fulfilling because everyone got what they needed, most got what they wanted, and all lived happily and securely. It is no wonder then that having EXPERIENCED such a way of life, not as an idea, but as a fact, that those people are more likely to have preponderance toward socialism as their economic system and pure democracy as their political one. It was simply very organic to them. It was the most natural, the most obvious way to live together. Everything fell into place because we had reached that place where there were no categories, no words, and no labels. The essence of hippie was and is communal. The basis for all morality is that it is against the laws of nature to deprive anyone of experiencing that place in which there are no categories or labels; that place in which we are all one, and everyone may understand that satisfying the common needs of all is easy once you decide that it is the right thing to do.

Yes it’s nice to think that lives are lived in concentric social circles, and that none are any greater than another, simply concentric. Rich people have problems just as the poor do. And poor kids have just as much fun playing stick ball in the streets as rich kids do playing polo on their pure bred horses. And if that is the case, if regardless of your wealth or class, all people experience sadness, heartache, disease, loss, why wouldn’t the rich WANT to spread the wealth around so no one goes to bed at night hungry, cold and insecure. Happiness will flow to everyone. Everyone will have enough. Some will have a bit more, but not a huge amount. No poverty = less crime. More education and social programs = less paranoia and need for protection. If it is essentially all the same, why not everyone play in the same garden? Why the resistance to what ultimately is the only sustainable way of life? It is people’s FUTURES I am concerned about, not whether or not soybeans are up and pork bellies are down.

Mr. Moneybags! If you read my series on the Collapse of Capitalism carefully, I never said there would be no room for capitalistic endeavors…. as long as the basic needs of people were met first. I never said to stop growth or expansion…. but that we must all grow and expand TOGETHER… not just the upper 1-2% of the wealthiest. Whether enlightenment or material comfort, we must all seek it TOGETHER. There are plenty of resources to go around, once the greed has been replaced with the joy of intentional sharing. On our spaceship Earth, we must bring each other along, leaving no one behind. Otherwise, there will be no pretty future to which any of us can look forward.

Sincerely,
Phil Polizatto

Check out the series:
The Collapse of Capitalism, Part One: Planned Obsolescence
Collapse of Capitalism, Part II: Squeezing Blood from a Stone
Collapse of Capitalism, Part III: Sustainability
Collapse of Capitalism, Part IV: Razor Wire and Wealth

To contact Phil or find out more: check out his website and blog For a copy of HUNGA DUNGA
Phil Polizatto is a graduate of The School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. He was a feature writer for the overseas division of UPI, a copywriter for CBS, and an award-winning corporate film producer. Mr. Polizatto is a published poet and a regular contributor to Worldwide Hippies as well as a variety of other arts and literary journals. Hunga Dunga is his first published novel. He resides in the Pacific Northwest.