The U.S. Chamber of Commerce: Threat To Capitalism

Eric Lotke is the author of 2044: The Problem Isn’t Big Brother, It’s Big Brother, Inc., a look at a not-so-distant dystopian future in which multinational corporations openly rule the world.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched yesterday “a sweeping national advocacy campaign … to defend and advance America’s free enterprise values in the face of rapid government growth and attacks by anti-business activists.”

The Chamber of Commerce doesn’t get it. They aren’t defending capitalism and free enterprise. They are all but destroying it.

Free-market fundamentalists don’t understand that capitalism is a system. It has rules, boundaries and obligations. When those rules are broken, the system falters.

• It’s not football without lines to mark touchdowns and out of bounds.
• It’s not basketball without a referee to call the fouls.

This is more than just a sports metaphor. Capitalism won’t work unless a negotiated price and promise to pay $100 is followed by payment of $100. And someone needs to enforce those rules. Otherwise it's not capitalism. It’s robbery.

These rules operate at every level.