Kleptonomics

It’s high time that we expanded our economic and managerial vocabulary to describe the way that big business and grossly overpaid executives profit in unlimited and immoral ways at the expense of ordinary citizens. Perhaps the following suggestions have already been put forward, but I think that we should definitely add the terms Kleptonomics, Kleptonomy and Kleptopoly to describe the way that capitalism operates in this country today.
And time to retire Adam Smith too – well past his use-by date. We’ve heard more than enough about what wonderful and faultless things markets and self-interest are. The only ‘invisible hand’ that most people are aware of is the malign one from our beloved privatised utilities, banks and the likes lightening our purses and wallets year in and year out. And, no surprise here, the beneficiary of self interest is a few wealthy selves with a few crumbs dropping off the table to pay those whose labour is used to produce the gain.
We read about economics syllabi slowly being reformed to recognise that markets are not perfect and expectations are not rational. The purveyors of theories that have preached Kleptonomy and pushed globalisation have almost as much explaining to do as the fat cats that have profited from it.
The refrain ‘Got to pick a pocket or two’ should no longer be attached to the reluctant and impoverished urchins of Bill Sykes but to the rapacious executives, hedge funds and major shareholders of the robber baron corporations who now dominate our lives.
They fulfil the definition of kleptomania – they cannot or will not control their desire to take things from other people. Money of course – we see that on a vast scale in so many services that used to be run fairly and in many lesser things such as reduced sizes, reduced quality, no spare wheel on cars etc. And also of course jobs, destroyed or exported under the globalisation frenzy with the pretext that ‘they’re all doing it’.
And so they are, as the copycat wheeze towards gargantuan profits spreads like a virulent disease through the corporate system with the chill being felt by the powerless majority. As does the taking from societies in which they operate through contriving to pay practically nothing in tax while benefiting from a workforce educated at public expense, a road system, the NHS (though the corporate execs will dodge the queue and go private), defence and everything else that is publicly funded including intellectual property legislation.
Having seemingly captured most of the political elite in this country mainly due to unreformed funding of political parties, these corporations, many having been passed over into foreign ownership, are pretty much free to extract as much lucre from the general population as they like with government leaders merely expressing ‘disappointment’.
Then these outfits such as energy suppliers have the brass neck to ‘explain’ the price hikes and profiteering to shivering consumers. Still, the government tells us we can keep on switching amongst the Kleptopolists as if they were different from each other. But I fear the switch that will be used most this winter is the ‘off’ switch for heating in low-income households.
The very same governments refuse to reform political funding and leave tax loopholes unplugged, deliberately I would argue to attract more tax-dodging companies, while merely getting in the odd ‘disappointed’ sound-bite and hoping that the fuss will blow over yet again. Well it won’t, not this time.