If you spend too much time amongst those who live comfortable lives(and this cuts across economic lines e.g. broke OWS protestors with the latest iPads), you might notice that it seems that the majority of what people get paid to do is completely useless. I call this phenomenon "alienation from the means of production": these people are alienated from the means of production because so little of what they do is productive. But Jack, how can the market tie up the majority of people in unproductive labour? Well it's very simple. Suppose you wanted to give welfare to the majority of people, in order to but their votes/keep them from revolting. You can't just give it to them directly, because then certain sectors of the public would complain, and the work ethic of those receiving it would collapse. So, you need a sneaky way of handing out the dole. Oh I know! We can increase consumer spending power thru inflation! If interest rates are at zero, people can buy flatscreen TVs and Escalades and McMansions on layaway and payday loans, thus giving them all of the bread and circuses they could ever want. Brilliant! Oh, but that's not all! You see, when people buy that house, that car, that tv, all of the sudden new jobs are created. And then those people, with those new jobs, go and spend more money on consumer products, so the cycle continues. Capitalism must be about capital, i.e. accumulated wealth. SAVINGS. The beating heart of Capitalism is the reinvestment of the profits of yesterday into the projects of today. The material wealth that is skimmed off of this cycle and used to supply people with consumer goods does not get reinvested. Once you eat that doughnut or the battery in your iPhone wears out, all of the labour and resources that went into building it are gone. Consumerism is a leech on Capitalism. Shopping malls are cathedrals of communism. If you are a real estate agent, you live off of welfare. If you are a construction worker, you live off of welfare. If you are a teacher or a professor, you live off of welfare. If you are an accountant, you live off of welfare. If you work in the service industry, you live off of welfare. If you are a salesman of consumer products, you live off of welfare. If you are a writer, you live off of welfare. If you are a financier, you live off of welfare. If you are a doctor, you live off of welfare... etc. Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm not saving that you don't work hard, or that you're exactly the same as methheads living in trailers receiving SSI, but a rational market would not allocate capital this way. We are essentially living in a post-scarcity society: the savings generations past accumulated are being burnt through at record speed so that nobody today has to engage in productive work, instead of trying to get their memoirs published on salon.com at the age of 23. An interesting side effect is that this makes employees more disposable since they do not actually do anything of value, other than provide the illusion of productivity. Keynesianism isn't even necessarily the root cause. This can be seen as the natural state of a decadent society: the replacement of real value with the simulacra of value: knowledge with a diploma, material wealth with a worthless dollar, and real authority with unwieldy job titles. The Matrix and the Singularity have already happened. Victory and abundance have killed us. The poor can already get as much food porn(cornsyrup and battery chicken, empty calories), politics porn(the illusion of power), and porn porn as they could ever want.
