Rhonda Haley

Moist robot

[Sizwe SikaMusi @SizweLo]

People defend capitalism because they confuse it with commerce. They believe “capitalism” is when people start businesses and sell things.

If people understood that the thing they call capitalism and love so much is actually just commerce and that it’s not the same thing as capitalism, they would feel very different.

This is because a local baker selling bread, a mechanic fixing cars, or an artisan selling wares on a digital storefront is a sign of commerce in a market economy, which is simply a mechanism for exchanging goods and services based on supply and demand.

Needless to say, this has existed for thousands of years before capitalism was created.

As economic historian Fernand Braudel pointed out, commerce and capitalism are not only distinct; but historically, they have often operated at cross-purposes.

According to Braudel, ordinary commerce is competitive and transparent, while capitalism is anti-competitive and deliberately opaque, making it a zone of privilege held by a small elite who bend the rules in their favour.

Braudel further argues that commerce, or the market, is horizontal, transparent, and competitive and as old as civilization itself. It involves individuals or small groups trading goods, where barriers to entry are low, no single player dominates, and profit is a reward for fulfilling a specific need.

Capitalism, meanwhile, is a specific institutional arrangement that emerged relatively recently in human history, around the 16th to 17th centuries. It is NOT just people “trading stuff”. It is instead the legal and financial system where the means of production are privately owned, and the primary objective is the continuous, infinite accumulation of capital.

Because of this accumulation-obssessed nature of capitalism, when it scales up, it seeks to eliminate the free play of commerce to protect its investments. True market competition is risky for massive capital as it drives prices down and threatens profit margins.

Braudel contended that capitalism only begins where commerce ends. It is the zone of high finance and state collusion. Because it operates across vast distances such as the 17th-century spice trade, information takes months to travel, which creates a deliberate lack of transparency.

Braudel noted that the great capitalists of the early modern era in Madeira and Venice or the Dutch East India Company, never wanted to compete in a fair, transparent market because competition slices profit margins to the bone. Instead, they secured royal charters, exclusive trading rights, and naval protection. At the same time, the state granted them legal monopolies, effectively outlawing competition.

Therefore, capitalism naturally trends toward creating monopolies and securing state interventions like bailouts, subsidies, and regulatory capture to shield itself from the very market forces it claims to champion. In fact, the most important takeaway from Braudel’s analysis is that capitalism is NOT the natural evolution or the highest form of the free market, it is its dark shadow.

So, when our lizard overlords use “free market” and “capitalism” interchangeably, they’re deliberately hiding this distinction and using the moral legitimacy of the hard-working, transparent business owner to defend the structural privileges of the protected financial elite and its regulatory capture.

If ordinary people could comprehend these distinctions, many self-described “capitalists” would realise they are just pro-commerce, and actually anti-capitalist, because it would be clear that defending “capitalism” means defending the right of a small parasite class to bypass the market entirely.

[Rhonda Haley @MadJuju]

@jackfriks A bidet. Let me ask you this question, if you accidentally put your hand in shit, would you just wipe it off with a kleenex or would you wash your hands? Water jet them booties, people.

[Rhonda Haley @MadJuju]

@Dawnbelle I had no idea. 🙁

[Rhonda Haley @MadJuju]

@WallStreetApes If true, has anyone ever thought if the amount and quality of evidence against black defendants is lesser or if the willingness of DA’s to prosecute black defendants on less evidence is possibly the reason and these numbers don’t mean what you think they mean?

[Rhonda Haley @MadJuju]

@SabuOfficial @JamesBousema The online version was great during Covid. Totally Free.

[Rhonda Haley @MadJuju]

For profit prison is touting their approach in dealing with ICE detainees, stolen from 1990’s Pump Up the Volume. If you saw the movie you understand the irony. #lastweektonight

[Rhonda Haley @MadJuju]

I reported my mother’s passing to United Healthcare and they refused to reverse the payment made after her passing. Guess they feel no need to look less monstrous post #Luigimangione.

[Rhonda Haley @MadJuju]

@skinnyndshiny Her shits are probably super weird.

[Rhonda Haley @MadJuju]

@jzux Old custom of a band of people having a rap battle with you to get into your house. If you lose, they eat your food and drink your beer. How I got to this page I can’t tell you.
https://t.co/f4utVNSJX3

[Rhonda Haley @MadJuju]

This is heartbreaking. And he’s just getting started.

[Mrs. Butters 🥧 @MrsButters]

We are witnessing a President of the United States of America commit hate crimes.

I'm in a fucking rage.

I fucking hate this man so fucking much.

He's dehumanizing the entire trans community.

Teachers aren't doing what he says they are doing. Nobody is going to school and coming home a different gender.

I hope every single trans person sues the crap out of him.

[Rhonda Haley @MadJuju]

@RealEmirHan Pride & Prejudice 2005. Perfectly shot.

[Lucas Brown Eyes @LucasBrownEyes]

The median US rent is $1967. Which means the median US hourly pay which would be considered livable (1/3 of rent) should be $35.40

The current US median hourly pay is… $17.02

Society will never be “okay” until this is fixed. It’ll always feel like a bad economy because of this

[More Perfect Union @MorePerfectUS]

Democrats have introduced a bill in both houses of Congress to ban hedge funds from buying and owning single-family homes.

The bill would require all hedge funds to sell off all the single-family homes they own within 10 years, then prohibit them from owning any again.

[Fuck You I Quit @fuckyouiquit]

Exhibit number one on why Wall Street, private equity, and profit motive in general should be removed from healthcare

[Nina Turner @ninaturner]

This IS NOT sustainable.

[Win Smart, CFA @WinfieldSmart]

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO HOUSING?

[Rhonda Haley @MadJuju]

@McClain4Freedom @ninaturner @Sandersd84

[Rhonda Haley @MadJuju]

@maplebob2350541 @ninaturner @McClain4Freedom @Sandersd84

[Rhonda Haley @MadJuju]

@tyromper “There’s one smart dude who believes this thing without evidence so I’m going to use him to justify my belief without evidence and then accuse the opposing side of belief without evidence….without evidence.”

[Rhonda Haley @MadJuju]

@bfox38916 @tyromper Are we trying to minimize evolution by natural selection by calling it “happy accidents”? I reject your dichotomy.