Is Steve Jobs and the success he engendered the perfect demonstration of how far off track the global financial system has gotten? According to columnist León Bendesky of Mexico’s La Jornada, innovation and creating new products that consitute progress requires the availablity of credit, an element of buisiness that banks have rejected in favor of sophisticated financial instruments that generate little but huge profits for the few and economic collapse for the many.
For La Jornada, León Bendesky writes in part:
Now that such a huge segment of financial activity is being openly questioned, especially with regard to the major banks and the way they manage the debts of families and even states, it is sensible to refocus on the essential meaning of production and work.
Jobs underpinned that part of the economy which combines scientific advances and available technology to develop new and attractive products and expand markets. … The impact of Jobs’ quite public departure is apparent among his closest associates, competitors, the global press, and even his customers. It isn’t unusual to see this kind of reaction in a world characterized by goods and services where everything is exchanged on the market; but not so much on one focused on money and rampant speculation, which has been called the “financialization” of the economy. This can be seen in the recent history of capitalism, and is clearly illustrated by the way it has operated over the last decade.
The simple fact is that production and credit go hand-in-hand. When financial activity becomes an autonomous form of conducting transactions, it turns into speculation and tends to go too far. Today the two are divorced and there is no reconciliation in sight.
In the most fundamental sense, this is the crux of the current crisis. There is no sign that the link between production and income generation on the basis of employment will be mended for the purpose of creating wealth. If this process does not guarantee widespread social equality, then this ongoing disassociation will only accentuate inequality. Those protesting on Wall Street have already realized this, and they certainly use Apple products to maintain their communication with the rest of the world.
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