Don't recyle capitalism - Bin it

The global economic crisis can be an opportunity for positive social change, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus said

"This economic crisis suddenly awakens us to the fact that this system is not working. When the system is not working that is the best time to undo it and redo it in a new way," he said. "The financial crisis on top of the food crisis, the energy crisis, the environment crisis, the social crisis — all these are combined. Isn't it time to wake up and redo things?"

Yunus focussed on how wealth can be generated and poverty eradicated through more socially conscious investment. He said social businesses — like his bank and other companies he has created — can be used to bring health care to the sick, safe drinking water to villages and nutrition to poor children. "Whenever I see a problem, I immediately go and create a company," he said

It has been pointed out that Grameen banks could not survive without subsidies from aid donors otherwise the interest rates they would have to charge would be prohibitive . And where do these subsidies come from ? From the sum of global profit created by the collective working class of the world and placed at the disposal of of the collective capitalist class of the world. In the 1980s and '90s, the bank received nearly $150 million in grants. Meanwhile, George Soros has given some $12 million plus to all sorts of Grameen spin-offs, including gifts to expand "banking" in other countries , and , of course , the other well known philanthropists Bill Gates has donated money .

At the same time, Yunus and Grameen started borrowing at low interest rates from governments around the world, and lending out the same money at higher rates. His institution keeps the difference. Without these subsidies , Yunus and his Grameen bank scheme would collapse through the intrinsic logic of capitalism - concentration and centralisation .

At the cost of the poor a large number of NGOs have benefited; banks have found a convenient route to increase lendings; and corporations have got a growing consumer market to target. The myth that micro-credit will empower women or enable poverty alleviation has been propagated by international agencies to draw people into a market economy based on cash or credit. It is also a ‘win-win’ scheme promoted by a State that is increasingly withdrawing from its development and welfare responsibilities. The micro-credit approach implies that it is people’s own responsibility to lift themselves out of poverty – an impossible goal

The Women's Micro-credit Accountability Network (WOMAN) writes that “the cumulative effect of rising costs, declining demand, and competition from both cheap imports and increased entrants into the sector leads to shrinking profits in informal-sector trade”. In other words, the initial success of micro-enterprises can lead to subsequent over-competition problems, especially when international trade liberalisation is factored into the equation. A few micro-entrepreneurs in a given area may be able to turn a profit. A large number cannot.

In other words , recycled capitalism !!

Let's simply BIN capitalism , not re-do it