Thieving Oligarchs

 Two consecutive essays at Ian Welsh both contribute to an understanding of the collapse of the West, morally, intellectually, economically and militarily.

"The Best Short Summary of Why China is Winning & the West Fading"

Which argues that China's elites see themselves as developing a state and a society and that their control over this society rests on their ability to deliver for its people.  In the West, oligarchs use politicians to deliver economic rents and to somehow stave off or divert the anger of the people against their exploitation and abuse.

In every single case, the discourse had, and has been, seized by what people want to believe, or what oligarchs want people to believe. They want people to believe what pays, not what is true. There are no consequences for being wrong and no self-awareness. I am bad at electoral predictions. So when I make one, I always note that I suck and am probably a negative indicator. (I thought Harris would win, for example, though I did get the Canadian election right.)

Now, it isn’t entirely true that there’s no accountability in the West. There is. There is only one rule that the West insists always be followed:

The rich must keep becoming richer, no matter the cost to anyone or anything else.

Because that is the only form of Western accountability, the West will keep losing, because richer rich and higher inequality do not cause or even correlate with any of the main constituents of power, prosperity, or technological progress

Our entire discourse system, our entire media, and our entire elite class have zero accountability outside of ensuring the rich get richer.

That was followed by "When Financier Win, They Lose"

Capitalists need money so they can do things. Financiers do things so they can get money. To a financier it doesn’t matter how money is made, so long as they won’t go to prison. All that matters is rate of return.

A capitalist has something they want to do: Ford wanted to build cars. Edison wanted to invent. The Wright Brothers wanted to fly. They need money so they can do whatever it is that turns their crank.

Capitalists create great societies. Financiers destroy them.

As soon as rate of return becomes the only consideration, a society becomes less interested in doing new things or doing old things well and starts searching for “unfair advantages.” They offshore and outsource jobs to lower cost domiciles: either for labor or for environmental regulations. They seek a monopoly or oligopoly positions in businesses where people have to buy: healthcare is the gold standard. They buy functioning businesses and load them up with debt. The business dies, but they are richer than they would have been had they run it.

...

You can see this clearly in the West, especially in America and Britain. Sixty percent of people now can’t afford a decent lifestyle in the US, but America has the richest rich who ever lived.

This may seem like a victory for financiers, but it’s a Pyrric on. Yes, the America’s rich in 1950 or 1980 or even 2000 were not nearly as rich as America’s rich today, BUT America was the most powerful nation in the world, with the strongest economy. Now American elites are filthy rich, but rule of the second strongest economy, and China is pulling away from them: the difference is accelerating.

Do you want to be king shit of turd mountain? That’s the choice that America’s elites made. “Our country will suck ass and no longer be dominant but we will be rich, rich, rich!”

This is what is meant by "financialization."  Finance has gone from being an aide to economic development to being the whole rationale of society.