Capitalism = Punk Rock
Anderson, Rodd
"Capitalism = Punk Rock" NEVER MIND THE HAIRCUTS BY TODD ANDERSON WTO. NAFTA. The IME All these are objects of scorn for the punk press and a lot of other idealistic young people. And rightly so....
...The more controls, the more mainstream...
...Thanks, Ralph Nader...
...The only problem is that they've been sold a lie...
...CAPITALISM=PUNK ROCK NEVER MIND THE HAIRCUTS BY TODD ANDERSON WTO...
...That was only in the 1980s...
...Why would we think our individual desires would be honored in this scheme...
...What is it...
...Sound familiar...
...So there is a tradeoff: angry and enslaved, or happy and free...
...Free-exchange and free-association--the ability to associate and disassociate with whom you want...
...What kind of robbery is that...
...Self-regulating...
...Can you imagine running your independent record label and suddenly having a government official telling you that you could not raise the prices to cover your costs...
...Costs continually go up, benefits go down and waiting rooms get more crowded...
...Punk rock is independent and entrepreneurial...
...No matter how you slice it, socialism and statism require forcing people to submit to the wishes of others.Your work is for the "common good," determined by the mainstream...
...National health care schemes would force doctors to work on everyone for set wages...
...Who can start a business with only 15 investors...
...When AT&T was finally split, everyone was amazed that they could walk into a store and buy a phone for $20...
...Sound free...
...Fifty percent of money spent in health care is spent by the government...
...MARCH/APRIL 2002 • THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 37...
...Wage and price controls were prevalent throughout the 1970s...
...And who could afford lawyers...
...Freedom to pursue your own means of living...
...One day, a Department of Labor investigator walks in and strikes up a conversation with one of your friends working the counter...
...And it would give you nothing to be punk about...
...Did you know that everyone once had to rent a phone for $5 a month...
...Freedom to follow your own desires and initiatives...
...Why would anyone trust their health to the government...
...You want and you need free market capitalism...
...The statists keep the socialist left happy by offering more and more outrageously wasteful and inefficient government social programs.They keep the rich-right happy by offering state-assisted advancement into the world of the super-rich...
...Punk rock, despite the peer pressure to wear black T-shirts and cut and dye my hair all funny, offered an escape for me to be an individual...
...In fact, the system we live with in America today is not capitalist...
...In summation, those who cry that capitalism fails to keep us free, safe and healthy aren't looking at capitalism...
...Was it the small entrepreneur...
...I wasTodd Anderson edits and publishes Popshot magazine, where this article first appeared...
...In short, they offer a pleasing, fat-and-happy mainstream...
...Nike, Intel, IBM...
...The investigator cites you for not paying minimum wage.You can't afford to pay your friend minimum wage so, the court shuts down your business...
...The friend discloses that every week or two, you give him 20 bucks for working there...
...But at the same time, punks ignorantly advocate a government that would main-stream everything and endorse politicians who only seek to empower themselves...
...No morefree association...
...Lawyers had to travel the country explaining to companies how to raise their own prices...
...This isn't capitalism...
...And since when have punk rockers been mainstream...
...Why then do punk rockers generally advocate socialism or at least left-liberalism...
...Would this encourage people to become doctors...
...True capitalism would smash the power structures more effectively, more fairly and more freely than any other alternative...
...My gut feeling is that they've been presented today's version of socialist statism—giant corporations in cahoots with politicians running the market—and told: "This is capital-ism" As punks, they react by doing the opposite of the mainstream (they think) by going socialist...
...Ask someone older about the rapid and massive developments in telecommunications alter the government finally ended AT&T's (government-sanctioned) monopoly...
...Free market capitalism...
...No way...
...Without individual ownership of the means of production, independent punk rockers couldn't record songs on a four-track, duplicate them at home and sell them at shows...
...And telephones are smaller, lighter, smarter...
...Punks break laws all the time that we don't even know about: stupid, regulatory laws regarding how we do business with others...
...I have news for you: The establishment isn't afraid of you at all...
...Imagine this:You decide to start a magazine.You've got 20 friends who are all willing to chip in enough money for a first issue.You launch.You sell your magazine in record shops and bookstores and start lining up advertisers...
...Thank you, Communist Party U.S.A...
...All because the free market took over...
...The problem is that none of these organizations is remotely capitalist...
...n't a part of the mainstream...
...Is the solution to put the government in charge...
...minimum wage was their idea, back in the '20s...
...Imagine this:You're 23, working in a grocery store for minimum wage and saving to start your own indie record shop.You finally get enough to open it, and though sales are slow, you have a dedicated customer base and loyal friends to work the store when you can't...
...You want freedom...
...How boldly do I have to make this point...
...How about wage and price controls...
...When I got into punk rock at 15 and 16, it was because I didn't fit into a clique...
...Who can afford to pay higher minimum wages...
...Take health care...
...Bill Gates, Warren Buffet...
...The problem with socialism and government regulations is that you empower only the rich and mainstream and injure only the independent and entrepreneurial...
...No more independence...
...Most punks try to buck this by agitating for social welfare programs.The government is only too happy to oblige, because it still controls everything...
...Imagine trying to get an entire community to agree to let you use the communal recording studio...
...Entrepreneurial initiative is personified in the punk rock ethic of "DIY" Doing It Your-self is only possible in a capitalist system...
...Now it's even cheaper...
...No choice...
...Thanks, Al Gore...
...It would empower effective, private solutions to social problems...
...The suits are happy that you hate them, because they've fooled you into giving them more power...
...But now you're guilty of securities fraud—only 15 people can invest in a company with-out elaborate, expensive disclosure statements...
...Initiative-taking...
...Shouldn't this be obvious...
...I love punk rock and all, but I'd like to be happy...
...Not that there are those freedoms now...
Vol. 35 • March 2002 • No. 2
