PROTECT DEMOCRACY FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

(Photo: Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited)The 2016 election campaign has left the victims of global capitalism behind.

On one side is Hillary Clinton, the quintessential representative of the financial and political elites, who was temporarily forced into adopting a progressive populist message by her primary opponent, Bernie Sanders. On the other side, there is Donald Trump; a narcissistic con man who was born on third base and insists he hit a home run. By the dictionary definition, I believe Mr. Trump is a sociopath, having no moral judgment, and no ability to empathize or put events into perspective. Mr. Trump’s condition is serious, however, I don't think it is rare.

In fact, Mr. Trump's life of dubious financial dealings is a metaphor for how our unregulated capitalist system has evolved. Success is only measured in terms of accumulated wealth. Executives of large companies are compensated based solely on short-term returns to investors, resulting in cutthroat financial dealings and accounting gamesmanship. Decisions are made in remote boardrooms with no consideration of their social impact.

By most measures, Mr. Trump has been a success in the world of high stakes real estate investing, deal making, and accumulating personal wealth. His path to attaining this wealth has also been a subject of controversy, since Mr. Trump has left a trail of financial dead bodies in his wake; serial bankruptcies, questionable labor practices, legions of unpaid employees and creditors, and some well-publicized scams that were barely, if at all, legal.

The trend over the last decade has been for increasing numbers of corporations of all sizes are to be owned by private equity funds; exclusive clubs for very rich investors whose mission is further concentration of ownership and wealth. Private equity funds agglomerate diverse businesses and manage them according to fixed models of cost cutting and outsourcing, and market manipulation, resulting in even more remote decision-making. Martin Shkreli, the fund manager whose pharmaceutical company increased prices of life-saving drugs by more than 5000%, was only doing what the financial markets expected of him. His actions likely resulted in people being unable to afford critical medications, but human life had no part in his calculations. He was motivated by instant return on investment only.

Mitt Romney's private equity fund, Bain Capital, acquired a steel mill, shut it down, sold the machinery, and raided the employees’ retirement pension fund. While such business practices may seem illogical, the fund managers were, in fact, doing what was expected of them - destroying communities, driving employees into poverty and burdening taxpayers with the costs, because it was a shorter path to returning profits to the investors than was operating the mill and producing products. This "success" was celebrated in finance circles.

Donald Trump said that he was excited about the housing market crash of 2008, because he knows how to make more money in a bad market than in a good one. The millions of people who lost their jobs, homes and life savings were of no consequence. Mr. Trump knew how to game the system, and that's what success is all about.

Capitalism in its current state is oblivious to the humanity of the workers who create wealth for investors and enable wealth accumulation, and to the communities whose lives are impacted by the whims of the markets. The workers who produce the products and perform the services are invisible to remote, financial market owners and managers. People are cost items, cells on a spreadsheet that dilute the bottom line and thus must be minimized or eliminated.

That Mr. Trump is perceived by many as the savior of the working class is ironic, since his business dealings, and those of his numerous clones and wannabes working in the financial markets of Wall Street, Mayfair, Dubai, and Singapore, have led to the downfall of the working class as much as other factors have. Globalization and the race to the bottom are the result, not the cause, of dehumanized capitalism. However, despair is the breeding ground of demagogues. Donald Trump's candidacy is the progeny of our current state of economic despair, which in no small part has been caused by the sociopathic financial system, which he helped create.

