(This Micro-Summary 15 Oct. revision)

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Most of what people say about politics is unconnected to the basic operation of society. They think political parties and governments 'run the country'. They don't. Crucially, they don’t run the business and work activity in free markets where we produce goods and services to make a living (and some get wealthy). That's the point of free markets.

 

In free markets, the business system develops to most production being in a few large operations - high-volume production (industrial methods), being more efficient, drives out small operations. And this leads to a small class of business people running most of the economy, not government. That way, they get power over everyone else, and great wealth.

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Their conservative parties say that’s fair because everybody can trade as individuals and start and run a business. That gives political cover to how business people take wealth from the system not as individuals but, with those large operations and workforces, as companies, collectively. It’s through collectivism that they get wealthy, and it’s more from what everyone else does than what they do.

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The key mechanism in them getting the wealth is that large, industrialised operations have large workforces, with many staff. With large workforces they can keep production going without any particular worker. So they can bargain harshly with them (us) one at a time. And get wealthy by charging more for our work than they pay us.

 

They are a class – the business class. Because they run the economy, they have political power regardless of the parties. In politics they - as a class, including all sizes of business - protect their power to control everybody else in the work process. They make that the dominant political view through their conservative media and parties.

 

So, contrary to how people talk, political parties don’t simply 'run the country’. The parties come from people in the system organising to protect their role and interests in it. And ordinary people don't get what they want because the business class put more into that and into conservative politics than they put into progressive politics.

 

We need to put our relationships with the business class – at work, and in taxation and the need for public services – at the centre of political debate, and only then discuss the parties.

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We need a clear view of the basic political and trading relationships as a foundation for politics and for people getting what they are entitled to. The works that make up 'Us, Politics and The System' provide it.

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Make sure to at least read 'The Essential Us, Politics and The System', a short read in large text for smartphones.

https://www.uspoliticsandthesystem.org/_files/ugd/e8d212_962dae55bc964fbb88449dfb570bae52.pdf

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