Michael Laxer
Some Myths Regarding the Genesis of Enterprise
Not only were “modern” elements of enterprise present and even dominant already in Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC, but the...
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Michael Laxer
May 157 min read
Seven Features of Ancient Enterprise
The changing context for enterprise through the centuries reminds us that business activities are not universal but fluid and alter...
Michael Laxer
May 135 min read
Weight Loss Drugs Go Hand-in-Hand With Junk Food Industry
Capitalism has built systems of inequality in food, health, and wealth and convinced us that the cause is individual failure, not...
Michael Laxer
May 116 min read
Parallels Between Archaic Entrepots and Modern Offshore Banking Centers
Offshore banking and tax-avoidance centers are nothing new; they’ve been with us for millennia. Singapore skyline at night - Bijay...
Michael Laxer
May 35 min read
Student Demands for Divestment Are Not New
There is a long history of students organizing for divestment from states and institutions complicit in criminal acts, apartheid, and...
Michael Laxer
Apr 266 min read
India’s Billionaire Wealth Is on Display as Nation Votes
India’s Ambani family has enjoyed flaunting its obscene wealth, a perfect reminder in the midst of an election, of the economic...
Michael Laxer
Apr 205 min read
US Prison Calls Are Increasingly Free, but Prisoners Still Aren’t
New reforms have made it easier and cheaper to make calls to and from incarcerated people. But corporate profiteering will continue until...
Michael Laxer
Apr 168 min read
Property and Debt in Ancient Rome
The Roman concept of property is essentially creditor-oriented. As Rome’s power grew, practices quickly became predatory. House of the...
Michael Laxer
Apr 1210 min read
A Class Analysis of the Trump-Biden Rerun
Amaury Laporte, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons By Richard D. Wolff By “class system” we...
Michael Laxer
Apr 66 min read
How Elite Infighting Made the Magna Carta
Although the Magna Carta typically is depicted as the birth of England’s fight to create democracy, the 13th-century struggle was to...
Michael Laxer
Mar 305 min read
Corporate Profiteering Destroyed the Baltimore Bridge
The price of corporate compromising on safety is usually paid with taxpayer dollars and immigrant worker lives. Image via screenshot By...
Michael Laxer
Mar 235 min read
Here’s Why You Can’t Afford an Electric Car
The U.S. is aggressively keeping cheap Chinese-made EVs off the market. We are all paying the price for this protectionism. BYD Seagull...
Michael Laxer
Mar 227 min read
Why Artificial Intelligence Must Be Stopped Now
The promise of AI is eclipsed by its perils, which include our own annihilation. By Richard Heinberg Those advocating for artificial...
Michael Laxer
Mar 205 min read
Lessons From Legalization: The Problem Isn’t Cannabis, It’s Capitalism
There has been a sea change in attitudes and laws on marijuana, which ought to have helped ease racial inequities. But without concerted...
Michael Laxer
Mar 1611 min read
We Need a Plan for the Transition to Renewable Energy
Radical societal transformation is inevitable; a plan could make a difference between catastrophe and progress. Dillon Wind Power...
Michael Laxer
Mar 118 min read
Debt Forgiveness in the Bronze Age
Whether in the realms of trade or agriculture, the operative principle was that debtors should not lose their economic liberty by being...
Michael Laxer
Mar 65 min read
Empire Decline and Costly Delusions
President of Russia Vladimir Putin and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping, March 2023 -- Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0...
Michael Laxer
Feb 267 min read
Outdated Narratives Have Humanity in a Downward Spiral—It’s Time to Tell ‘Stories for Life’
A short film and narratives project “Stories for Life” seeks to bring about the shift in culture that humanity needs to survive....
Michael Laxer
Feb 245 min read
Countering Corporate Propaganda
We are steeped in the cultural glorification of capitalist exploitation. What if we rejected economic individualism and instead embraced...
Michael Laxer
Feb 176 min read
Why Won’t Biden Wave the Magic Wand in His Hand to Stop Israel?
If stopping genocide is not a good enough reason for Biden to rein in Israel’s blood thirst, is losing the 2024 election a risk he’s...
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