Capitalism Without Ownership

By Dan Hagen

It occurs to me that the tacit goal of 21^st century corporate America is to eliminate ownership from capitalism.

They would much prefer to rent back to you what you once owned, at rates just as stiff as the traffic will bear — your books, music and movies; your home; your vehicle; your public water supply; your public schools; your health in the form of never-ending brand-name prescriptions.

The banks would even like to rent you your own already-earned wages, slicing off a piece of vigorish for the privilege of actually letting you have them.

But don’t worry, you’ll still own all the guns you can afford. Having 300 million guns rattling around the country is useful to the corporations. People who are constantly scanning the horizon for gunmen tend not to notice when you’re picking their pockets.

Capitalism is all about ownership, you see, so the corporate logic of profit-is-all dictates that corporations must finally become the sole owners of everything. To that end, they’ve already bought the U.S. government, and fairly cheaply.