Producerism, a new alternative?

en.wikipedia.org...

Producerism, sometimes referred to as "producer radicalism," is a right-wing populist ideology promoting economic nationalism which holds that the productive forces of society—the ordinary worker, the small businessman, and the entrepreneur—are being held back by parasitical elements at both the top and bottom of the social structure.

Why is this a right-wing ideology? This doesn't appear so 'right-wing' to me. I actually like the idea of promotic economic nationalism and I too believe that the greatest members of society are the ordinary worker, the small businessman and the entrepreneur. I too believe that these people are being held back by parasites at the top (especially) and at the bottom (not so much).

Producerism sees society's strength being "drained from both ends"—from the top by the machinations of globalized financial capital and the large, politically connected corporations that together conspire to restrict free enterprise, avoid taxes and destroy the fortunes of the honest businessman, and from the bottom by members of the underclass and illegal immigrants whose reliance on welfare and government benefits drains the strength of the nation. Consequently, nativist rhetoric is central to modern producerism (Kazin, Berlet & Lyons). Illegal immigrants are viewed as a threat to the prosperity of the middle class, a drain on social services, and as a vanguard of globalization that threatens to destroy national identities and sovereignty. Some advocates of producerism go further, taking a similar position on legal immigration.

Yes, yes and yes again! Our country is being drained by these parasites who refuse to care for the best of our nation or for the workers within this nation. The ones at the top who constantly steal from the workers and from the workers government to make themselves richer while at the same time bribing that government to make them even more money by paying them to send jobs oversees and destroy our trade and national economy in favor of their pocketbooks. And the ones at the bottom who can work but refuse the option so that they can lay up and collect welfare (This excludes about 80% of people actually on 'welfare' though).

I never really thought of illegal immgrants as a real bad thing for our country, I never cared too much about the immigration debate but I see the point they are making. I definitely don't have any problem with legal immigration though.

In the United States, producerists are distrustful of both major political parties. The Republican Party is rejected for its support of corrupt Big Business and the Democratic Party for its advocacy of the unproductive lazy waiting for their entitlement handouts (Kazin, Stock, Berlet & Lyons).

This sounds like alot of Americans today who are upset with both parties for catering to particular classes and ignoring the middle class workers. They make a great point, although I would argue the Democrats are also in bed with the big business, so I guess that makes them double corrupt?

Producerists tend to support skilled-craft trade unions, as organizations of "ordinary men" creating goods beneficial to society, but oppose left-wing, revolutionary unions or those that claim to speak for the lower ranks of society in general. National, industrial corporations, that is, those that produce tangible goods in domestic facilities, are viewed favorably, while international, globalized companies that engage in outsourcing, "sending jobs abroad" or those that earn their profits from the abstract financial world are treated with hostility in producerist circles. This disposition is sometimes referred to as "business nationalism." High tariffs and protectionist policies are regarded as not only beneficial to workers, but essential to the long-term survival of the domestic economy to counter the predatory practices of currency manipulation and illegal trade practices.

I agree that Unions that work in favor of the worker instead of just the poor is the ideal union. I too favor industrial corporations that contribute to our society and prefer to remain in America and provide Americans with jobs, not Chinese or Vietnamese, Americans. Those companies should have some sort of reward for their patriotism. I guess it's not that I hate corporations but rather that I hate multination/globalized corporations, they are selling our jobs to the lowest bidder so that they can make as much profit for themselves as possible all the while rigging our government to favor their interests at are own expense.

The domestic innovators and patriotic industrialists such as Henry Ford, Lee Iacocca and Sam Walton are the heroes in this view of the business world, while the cost-cutting CEOs and unaccountable financiers are the villains.

Historically, the producerist attitudes towards corporation adopted to the changing concerns of the middle class. In William Jennings Bryan's time, the big corporations like railroads and mining interests were strongly disliked because they were an economic threat to the producerist-minded small businessmen. Today, by contrast, the middle class tends to be corporate employees and so views corporations more favorably. Nationalist concerns about the decay of the national productive infrastructure due to outsourcing is also a fairly recent phenomenon in America, driven primarily by competition from China and India.

Any businessman that puts his country first is a good person in my opinion, while the ones who are seeking to rake in massive profit at our expense are the ultimate villains of their country, their workers and their fellow citizens.

Globalized corporations are to NEVER be trusted, local and national businesses should be praised and encouraged. I, like Bryan, prefer small businesses as the number one source of competition in our society, nothing works better and is more fair and practical than a small business. Outsourcing is our number one problem IMO, that and the Federal Reserve, but we can quickly destroy both of these problems if Americans would just wake up!


www.slate.com...
Producerism.Org
unenumerated.blogspot.com...

Any comments? I would definitely like a conversation on this subject.

While I don't tend to agree with you on some topics, I do join you in yourviews on how things should be done, vs. what is being done.

I am confused however where the term producerism and producerist actually came from, and how these profiles actually became attached to the descriptive.

I wouldn't call this producerism...

I'd call it Investmentism, in interestism lol...

Those who had previously made a success of themselves here in previous American history should be INTERESTED in helping the next generation achieve a more socially ascended existance, like thier own, through INVESTMENT into this next generation's achievements!

It's considerate.

It's dutiful.

It's humblness in light of honest reality.

It's what separates a Truly Good Natured and Compassionate Human Being, from a Criminal Act of Treason against the very institution that put them there through the squandering of the good fortune invested in them.
To reap a benefit without providing a just return to one's benefactors mandates that the entity involved in such activity to be unproductive towards society, and a thief that squander's thier investor's trust!

People like that should be introduced to the local pig farm, and then introduced to what happens to people like them by exposing what happened to those before them who were introduced to the pig farm... by having them watch the event from start to finish, and then confirming with them thier understanding about where they stand if they don't become productive members for society - in support of those that supported them first!

Interestingly, as a side effect result of this, pork belly shares on the market would actually then become a fairly stable investment option!

reply to post by Heyyo_yoyo


I believe it is called Producerism because it is a philosophy based around the producers of society (i.e. Middle Class), which is whom the philosophy supports.

I am beginning to abandone the whole Socialist thing in favor of whatever is for the Middle Class, it should all be based around the middle class and nothing should be off the table. I am beginning to disregard the left/right paradigm in search of what is the truth and what is in the best interests of the workers.

I just came across this and it pretty much seemed what I believed. Glad you liked it too.

Misoir,

I completely agree with your assessment and opinion regarding this issue. But I have a great amount of personal pause in thinking that the system will ever allow itself to be changed, and would, in fact, fear any politician or corporate entity which seemed to espouse this doctrine.

There is a razors edge within these sorts of ideologies that mankind rarely manages to effectively walk. In seeking to rid the strata of waste we would be noble. But, as history shows, in practice it would not be the top which suffered expense - it would be the bottom. It always falls to the bottom to endure and suffer.

I could honestly see this sort of thinking as becoming the rhetoric which leads to the end of social programs and leaves us all with a bent and twisted "Logans Run" sort of society.

reply to post by Hefficide


Sadly the ills of every reform movement fall on the shoulders of the workers and the poor. I am not advocating the abolition of social welfare programs but rather a national response which would call for the immediate inspection of all businesses accused of corruption and wrong doing, arrest all businessman and bankers proven of doing illegal acts and reforming the whole system to stop the mass abuse by the rich. Once this is corrected and the criminals are put on trial then we can focus on reforming the bottom.

As long as this is not corrupted and is truly reformist and grassroots it would succeed, although the proponents may be assassinated for their insubordination against the established regime. The rich are far more dependent on the system than the poor and are far more likely to fight back with their excessive power.

Originally posted by Misoir
Why is this a right-wing ideology? This doesn't appear so 'right-wing' to me.

As opposed to being strictly socialist, in that everyone is equal (lower class, upper class), or communistic (the upper class is the problem), it takes a strictly middle class only approach, eliminating the lower and upper class as much as possible. Also taking into account the nationalist economy, that being the only economy that matters is our economy, a very 'right-wing' approach to any ideology. This is why Hitler's National Socialist party was right wing and not left, socialism for select Germans, not everyone.

Perhaps for the immediate future producerism would be wonderful, but ultimately, worldwide socialism would be the goal.

most of what is posted in the op I agree with. It seems that the majority of the american people are just here working our tails off, to feed a bunch of parasites from above us, and below us...although we can't be too angry with those below us, because we call know that we might be forced to be a tad bit parasitic ourselves in the near future...

but...well.....I think we need an even bigger shift..
I'll use an example..

We recently had one of our fast food chains disappear real quick...I mean hubby went out to get a couple taco salads came back and well...the building was torn down! come to find out, well, the chain is replacing all their buildings with newer buildings...okay...
the buildings were only 10 to 20 years old...my house is close to a hundred years old, and is still perfectly usable! but well, tearing down these "old buildings", it does produce jobs and puts people to work, right??
only, it also wastes resources!
it seems like our whole society is functioning like this....we are putting a bunch of people to work producing a bunch of crap that really isn't needed! wasting alot of resources, not to mention that many of these people who are working their tails off producing the crap, well, they could find more productive uses of their time, if they could just find the time!!!
we have more homes and buildings now than we need, yet we keep building more....
we would have plenty of cars for us, if the gov't didn't create a program to destroy alot of the used cars..
and most of us have so much crap that we've bought through the years that we don't have any idea what we do have in our homes!!

and how much money did obama's stimulus plan spend/job it created??

maybe this idea that hard work is such a great virtue isn't such a great idea??
we'd probably all be having a much better life if we just concentrated on producing those things that are needed, along with a few items that are nice to have....
ya know, put people to work building roads and bridges, and forget about that new hotel that wants gov't credits to build where there's already 25 in the area operating at 50% capacity....
and well, just accept that there is no need for every one to work!!
we conceivably could all be working part time hours, providing everyone with a decent standard of living, and well, having cost us less money, and wasting less resources!

after all wasn't that what mass production, computerization was all about?? doing the work for us, so we didn't have to work so hard??
seems like we are working harder, for less instead!!

reply to post by Misoir



S&F

Thoughtful, well presented.

...Unfortunately, "Producerism" is being twisted and promoted by global corporations - who do NOT bring us jobs aka opportunities to produce.

The flip side of the ideology is "Consumerism" - and that's what the global corporations want from us. To them, we are consumers and a market - nothing more.

At producerism.0rg, Producerism is a stateless society that gives total freedom and responsibility to the individual. You can be a Democrat, Republican, Communist, a Buddhist, a Christian, an agnostic, a gay person, as long as you can support yourself and follow natural law, persuade do not force, you can be a Producerist.

A Society organized with natural law, property rights, contracts, and powered by the golden rule. No government, no taxes, and everyman free to do what he deems best for himelf as long as he doesn't take from his fellow man. Can you get behind that idea? We all know what is wrong, we have to put our energy into finding out what is right.

What you describe is even more of a precursor to fascism than we already have.

Seriously? Nationalism? I'm sorry but I don't put faith in the state, I put it in the people who live in the country and that's that.

reply to post by producerist


Sounds like "Producerism" is just a marketing ploy to pull in Libertarians. Fact remains that the legal framework exists to enforce global corporate government.

Small farmers couldn't compete against agri-business; small business can't compete against WalMart.

...A bad joke. A really bad joke.