The foundation of the Converging Storms analytic framework is “system think.” The world must be understood in systems: Societal and ecological factors are linked systemically and are not just a piecemeal amalgamation of separate causes or crises. This framework has several essential building blocks: • All things human occur in, and answer to, the laws of physics which control the material world. All social systems can be understood in relationship to environmental systems rooted in this scientific understanding. • The capitalist system has defining commitments to a competitive market economy, perpetual growth, private property, profit maximization, and unequal power relations; with a dependency on fossil fuels to keep it all going. As such, the capitalist system generates unsustainable consumption of earth resources in the material world, plus unequal access to and control of resources that all life needs to survive. • Social systems that pursue endless growth and productivism, whether capitalist or collectivist, are unsustainable on a finite globe. • Only a shift in human relationships to the biosphere will lead to the socio-ecological balance needed to save life on earth.
Crisis happens and suddenly inflation is created. How and why? Are the crises the “reasoning”, or could it be the scapegoat behind inflation by corporate leaders and politicians? Do actual occurrences or crises (real events in the material world) in societies inherently lead to raised prices (abstract value assignments)?
Corporations, throughout history, make decisions to maximize short-term profits. These decisions were not created to meet the needs of people. And they were not created to sustain a disruption, like a pandemic, or any crisis. Corporations chose the current global supply chain currently operating: Jobs overseas, needing to ship goods large distances, poor work environments primed for the spread of illness, etc. This poorly constructed supply chain could not maintain the same productivity and distribution through the COVID pandemic. Should consumers have to pay more because corporations were short-sighted and did not plan and develop systems to sustain their production and distribution? Isn’t the whole reason why CEOs and their investors are heavily rewarded, is because they decided to take risks that proved to be profitable?
Another question is why do prices go up when these large corporations, dictating the market, are already pulling in major profits? Does a company need profit to cover salaries and cost of operations? Why is profit needed to be maintained when these executives are already pulling in large salaries well beyond what is needed to be financially stable and healthy?
These occur, not because there is an inherent need to inflate prices to keep the company going, but because corporate executives and their boards of directors decided that their stockholders, who knowingly or ignorantly took a risk to invest in such companies, would lose money. If there was a decision made, that during a crisis like COVID, to maintain social stability, prices would NOT be raised and dividends would be lower for the year, then there would be no inflation. People who are already wealthy and investing in stocks would be ok unless they solely rely on the risk of investing. And less wealthy people would not have to pay higher prices just so these wealthy people can get even wealthier.
When someone gambles on horse races and loses, they don’t get their money back. And they certainly can’t demand the track pay an even higher price because they made poor decisions. They lose their money and all the consequences of taking that risk. No one comes in and starts paying their mortgage because they gambled their money away.
We also must be conscious; our economy is built faith. It is a belief system upheld through the specter of the stock market, politics, violence/military, exploitation, and the media. If these companies choose to allow their investors to lose profits, then those investors would sell their shares and the stock market would go into an unavoidable downfall. But that has to do with investors and their fears of gaining wealth. Again, it does not occur because computer chips cannot get across the Pacific. It occurs because people would lose faith in accumulating hopeful wealth. It is a faith in a system inherently dependent on very negative characteristics of a society: classism, racism, and sexism/misogyny. The Holy Trinity of Capitalism. Without these pillars of oppression, capitalism does not even exist historically or cannot express itself.
This year, the Federal Reserve reported U.S. Corporate profit is up 25%. These are the highest profits, in record, for 50 years. Yet we have the highest inflation in 40 years. Corporations are not hurting. In fact, they are making record profits. So, why is any inflation occurring when they are making more money for their shareholders than ever before?
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Either way, inflation is a choice to mitigate poor decisions corporate leaders make and to appease their shareholders. It is either a choice based on greed, developed by a hyper competitive and toxic patriarchal society, or fear of position, wealth, and status. And this fear is grounded in deep ignorance and arrogance of how one interprets how humans relate to one another. It is a fear the conscious hold because they know what they are doing is wrong and affects poor people and people of color. So, they continue their sociopathic choices and violent economics. Or it is a fear the unconscious hold because they truly believe, in many warped ideologies, that they are above the poor and those who struggle within the framework of capitalism. So, they feel entitled to their violent economics. Either way, inflation is a choice, putting profit over people. It is an inherent occurrence within any economic system. And when the economy includes our food chain, energy, medicine and other necessities for daily life, these choices have a real material impact to our lives.
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