The Myth of American Capitalism

Why is America’s inflation 7 percent? Why isn’t it 70 percent or 700 percent? The economic policies of this country are as bad as that of the South American nations which are currently being crushed under a double-digit inflation. America’s pampered population can get away with a lowly 7 percent inflation because their country is a superpower—America commands the world’s natural resources and it has the power to transfer its debt (and inflation) to other countries. 

The American economy cannot survive without plunder. Until the end of the nineteenth century, America was being fueled by the annexation of huge tracts of land as the American empire expanded from the east coast to the west coast, pushing out the Native Indians. Territorial expansion meant more land under agriculture; more cities and towns; more highways, railways, dams, and ports; more industries and companies—all this constituted a massive boost to the economy. Much of America’s agricultural and industrial work was being done by low-cost slave labor. In the twentieth century, the Americans subsidized their economy by capturing Middle Eastern oil and the resources of South America and Africa. After 1945, the status of the dollar as a global reserve currency gave America the power to buy anything in the world by printing dollars. The dollar became the supermassive black hole which sucked in the wealth of all nations. 

The idea that “capitalism” (whatever this word might mean) is the cause of America’s economic success is the biggest myth of the twentieth century. Without territorial expansion, without slave labor, without the control of petroleum and other resources, and without dollar being the global reserve currency, America could not have become a prosperous and powerful nation. The crisis that America faces in the twenty-first century is that the world has run out of resources that can be plundered to fuel the American economy. The Asian countries are preparing to save their economies from an imminent American collapse—they will not pick up any more American debt.