As the current crop of 2020 Democratic hopefuls is
demonstrating, the younger generation is enamored (again) of socialism. Of
course socialism has had a bad name in the US for the last century at least,
being associated with Communism and the Soviet Union and China and Cuba and
Venezuela…and…and…; none of which are systems I would like to live under.
Still, it is clear that we have some problems with the capitalism
that Americans seem to love. For one thing, inequality in wealth and power has
now grown to a pretty extreme level, approaching the level it was at just
before the great depression. Currently the richest 1% of the population holds
more wealth than the bottom 90%. And some CEOs are paid tens of millions ($103
million was the top CEO salary in 2017), while the average annual worker wage
in the US in 2017 was $44,564. Clearly no one is worth $103 million a year –
this is obscene! Or put another way, there is no way the CEO, however brilliant
she or he is, is 2,430 times more valuable than the average worker.
Part of the problem is that, like the game of Monopoly, once
a few people, by whatever means – luck or perseverance or skullduggery - get
enough ahead of everyone else the capitalist system works to increase their
wealth disproportionately. In Monopoly, once someone has the luck to get hotels
on a few of the high priced squares everyone else in the game begins to lose
ground. Similarly, once one has enough to invest, the investment returns tend
to widen the gap from those who cannot afford investments.
And the same is true with power. The rich – billionaires like
the Koch brothers or Tom Stayer or George Soros, and huge wealthy corporations,
like ExxonMobile or Apple or General Motors – have undue influence over the
political system, and (quite naturally), use their influence to shape it to preserve
and increase their own wealth and influence.
Now every system has its inequalities; nature is unequal.
Some people are born smarter, or work harder, or have better luck. No system
can ever eradicate inequality completely, but there is a level of inequality at
which societies become unstable, (not to mention, immoral) and I fear we are approaching
that level, if not already there.
In this regard let me suggest the talks on YouTube by Professor Richard
Wolff, here (Socialism in America) and here (The Game is Rigged). Wolff is Professor
of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts and currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate
Program in International Affairs of the New School University in New York.
Wolff is a Marxist economist, meaning he knows what Marx actually wrote vs what
the public and media think he wrote, and there is stuff in Marx that applies to
today’s situation. He certainly understands that the socialist experiments in
Russia and China didn’t work out, and he has spent his career trying to figure
out why. It is well worth listening to
his reasoning.
Considering that we may be heading back into a
period of socialism with the younger generation, it seems worth educating
ourselves on current socialist thought, and on what works and what doesn’t
work. And by the way, though conservatives don’t like to admit it, we are
already a socialist country in some respects – think of Social Security and Medicare and unemployment insurance – all socialist
ideas that we wouldn’t want to give up
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