Capitalism redistributes wealth from the majority to the bank accounts of the few.
Many people believe that if they are earning a living then they are enjoying the fruits of capitalism and should therefore support right-wing organisations and political parties. They continue their support for capitalism even as workers rights are eroded by these same capitalists. Workers rights that were fought for by left-wing organisations to end exploitation and ensure the needs of society were met. What workers should realise is that they are being thrown the crumbs of capitalism by the rich who build their personal wealth through exploiting workers.
Wealth is unevenly distributed in capitalist nations, not because some people have a better education or more drive than others, but because of greed and an unwillingness by many to contribute to society in order to meet the basic needs of us all, such as health, shelter, education and security.
Capitalists promote the idea that the richer they become, the more people they can afford to employ and the better wages and conditions they can afford to provide. This is a falsehood. The idea of 'trickle down economics' is misleading. The mega-rich are always looking for ways to increase their profits, which means lowering their costs and increasing prices. Reduced costs can be achieved through a smaller work force with fewer entitlements and lower real wages.
Capitalists will often refer to the Soviet Union or other despotic and repressive regimes as being the hallmark of socialism. Yet, they fail to mention right-wing despots who were often sponsored by capitalists and right-wing governments, particularly the USA, UK, France and Germany. This support was based on nothing more than greed for power and wealth with no concern for the human rights abuses being committed. It resulted in economic and military support for tyrants such as Nazi Germany's Adolf Hitler, Fascist Italy's Benito Mussolini, Indonesia's Suharto, Cambodia's Pol Pot, Chile's Augusto Pinochet, Uganda's Idi Amin, Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and apartheid regimes of South Africa and Israel, to name a few.
True socialism does not require repression, it does not require censorship, it does not require pogroms against dissenters or racial and religious groups. Those regimes claiming to be socialist or communist, but which relied on repression, did so in order to protect the power and wealth of the leadership, not to protect or provide for the needs of the community. Protection of power and wealth for the individual is the domain of capitalism.
True socialism ensures that the needs of the community are met before the wants of the individual are. True socialism tempers the greedy, individualistic exploitation of capitalism, in order to ensure that all people in society are looked after and benefit from the national wealth.
American author, Fran Lebowitz said, 'In the Soviet Union, capitalism triumphed over communism. In this country (USA), capitalism triumphed over democracy'.
Capitalism triumphed over communism in the Soviet Union, long before perestroika and glasnost brought an end to it. Even under Stalin, extortion masqueraded as 'wealth redistribution' to shore up the power and wealth of the Politburo. Money extorted from workers under pain of imprisonment, torture and death, was spent on military technology and conquest, rather than on the people of the Soviet Union and their basic needs.
Capitalism usurped democracy long ago. This is particularly evident in the United States where only the wealthiest can afford to conduct an election campaign. Throughout the world, big business and the richest few have more say over government policy than the voters, ensuring the interests of the wealthy are protected while the ordinary citizen struggles to meet the growing cost of living. A cost that redistributes wealth from the majority to the bank accounts of the few.
The failure of capitalism is that we are seeing the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. There is an increasing gulf between the rich and the poor. There is more money spent on the military in order to defend capitalist interests than on the poor. Money that could save lives by being spent on health, housing and education is directed to fund wars against the poor.
Capitalistic greed only benefits a few individuals while exploiting, and even killing, the poor. This is the fruit of capitalism and it is rotten to the core. It doesn't nourish, it doesn't fulfil. Instead it feeds greed and an insatiable hunger for more, while lessening the appreciation of what we already have. It focuses on wants, not needs.
We should stand up against it.
We should defend the interests of all over the interests of a few.
Don't be deceived by the greed.
There are some things that you forget. Ill start out with one and we can debate it further from there.
ReplyDeleteIf a group of people all work for the same government paycheck no matter how hard they work why should anyone work at all? In a society where you can not be fired or docked pay because you are not working as hard as those around them is a society that is going to starve itself without outside support. Human nature tends to order things The Self, The Family, The Religion, The community. Human nature dictates that you don't mindlessly work yourself to death while the guy next to you sits and watches and gets a percentage. Prof that socialism/Communism/Marxism doesn't work can be found at the lowest levels. Like at Plymoth Rock.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jerrybowyer/2011/11/23/occupy-plymouth-colony-how-a-failed-commune-led-to-thanksgiving/2/
If you want to go to an even smaller more relate able version of socialism failure look at any classroom group project. There is always some kid(s) who is willing to take an F if that means that somebody else does all the work while they share the product and/or the credit. But if you tell the groups that they will each be graded based off of how their group mates scored them you will notice a significant increase in productivity and in the finished product.:)
Socialism is the idea of the perfect Utopian Society, but until the human race as a whole is willing to work as hard as they can without being directly rewarded for their efforts, socialism will never be able to not slowly and surely wither into starving masses dependent on handouts. Until there is a revolt and the whole process starts over again. "Those who do not learn from the past are destined to repeat it."
So strike any Idea of a perfect Utopian Society from your mind and Strive to better what is possible in Capitalism and reward hard work:)
I realize that changing your Warped, pre-decided mind is pointless, but I enjoy the debate :)
P.S. Capitalism does not "redistribute" everyone buys what they need and want and those who invented/run a business well get the consumers money plain and simple. Nobody decides who gets what money except for the consumer and the self.
Your value of socialism sounds charming, but you're lost. Socialism only works in a scant populated earth, and abundance of wealth. You want to reward the people who procreate and punish the people who are intelligent enough to create huge amounts of wealth. With your system in place, there won't be many entrepreneurs (foundation of wealth creation) and there won't be much innovation. Look at Russia how they are trying to important entrepreneurs, why cant they make their own? Their government can't breed it. Yet look at the States, they ahve plenty of entrepreneurs and it benefits the whole world. I ask you to zoom out of your perspective, and look at the bigger picture. Forcing socialism is not the answer, it will happen naturally without your help when the time is right.
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