Capitalism Is Threatening American Values. Are We Paying Attention?

The American Dream was founded on the basis of capitalism. Yet, today, capitalism is threatening our democracy.

In the free world, we’ve pretty much established that communism is not a viable political system. We almost never talk about an alternative to capitalism and the free market. But one question has continued to become more relevant now than ever — how can we best ensure acceptable standards of economic and natural justice all over the world?

A Scrutiny Of Terms

“All for each and each for all” proclaimed Abraham Lincoln, and held that “enriching the poor is not by impoverishing the rich or strengthening the weak is not by weakening the strong”. Communist doctrine declared, “from each according to his capacity to each according to his needs”. Capitalism and communism are two different approaches resolving whether it should be the reward for the right or the right for the reward. Merit based distribution made meaningful impression where there was no dearth of opportunity. Equitable distribution appeared logical where supply did not satisfy demand. Before we answer the question posed above, let’s briefly analyze the origin and growth of communism as a major political theory in the history of our world.

History, Condensed Massively

In the Greco-Roman world, Plato expounded the idea of communism in the 4th century BC and implied it in his doctrine of natural rights. He held that nature created all equal and private ownership was unnatural.

Communism as a system of social organization, based on the theory of holding all property in common, was theorized by Karl Marx. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels formulated the theory of modern communism, which found full expression in their work, “The Communist Manifesto” (1848), “Das Capital” (I volume in 1867), and “The Civil War in France” (1871).

Marxian general theory held that all historical changes were ultimately determined by changing relations caused by changes in technical conditions. It contends that each economic system has an exploiting class, who owned and controlled the means to production. According to Marx and Engels, “history is a struggle of class”.

The communist society was looked upon as a system of social ownership in which production would be carried out by voluntary association of workers, distribution would be in accordance with the needs, the state would cease to be an instrument of force, and the individual would live in freedom and harmony with the society.

Though active communist theory was evolved in France and Germany, and contrary to expectations that another revolution would follow the French revolution which would culminate in “emancipation of the class of proletariats”, the establishment of Socialist society on a large scale came about with the Russian Bolcheviks falling for it under the leadership of Lenin.

Joseph Stalin, who closely followed Lenin, despite having managed to keep the majority of the politburo firmly behind him, was confronted with two serious problems which appeared to threaten the proletarian revolution itself — the counter-revolution within and the imperialist conspiracy without. Stalin’s efforts to consolidate the gains of the revolution and to lay a foundation for a strong socialist society was greatly impeded by economic backwardness of the country, low rate of capital formation, and disorganized agriculture.

Programs of large scale industrialization called for high rate of capital formation at breakneck speed, which could not but bring about, as its consequence, forced labor at subsistence wages and emphasis on highly centralized capital goods industries at the cost of consumer goods. Stalin hence forced on his people, collective farms, slave labor camps and stern measures of austerity. The water-tight system in the Soviet Union (at the time) built up with so much of devotion, determination and sacrifice took the country to the status of a super power in the world. Clearly, that did not sustain into the future as we know today.

Meanwhile, in the democratic countries in the west, capitalism and free market were encouraging private entrepreneurship and merit-based compensation. While ideologically this tended to encourage the growth of competition and competence, it was not totally without exploitation. While free economy could be attractive in countries where the opportunities and resources were in abundance, communism or socialism appeared to be the only obvious answer where the resources were scarce and the wants were overwhelming.

Both propositions were more ideological than practical at their core. Strong tendencies to deviate from the basic ideology persisted both in the capitalist and communist societies. While both the capitalist and communist economies had merits and demerits of their own, each one needed modifications to gain acceptance.

While the communist society viewed man’s inherent quest for independence as an undesirable upsurge, the capitalist society viewed the demand for rights by the working class as a despicable tendency.

Even though the tendency to deviate from the basic ideology was viewed as an undesirable act in either society, such upsurges from time to time could not be suppressed fully. While the capitalist society allowed certain just demands of the working class, the communist society also had to accommodate certain amount of liberalization towards personal liberties. This can be exemplified by the capitalist society accepting trade unionism and enacting better labor laws and legislation, and the communist society, after having established the initially intended welfare state, being forced to give in to the just democratic demands of its members by liberalizing election process through franchise. Thus, there were mocked tendencies for departure from the fundamental ideology in both societies.

The rigidity of hypothetical standards in both the societies had to give way to rationality which assumed acceptable compromises.

After all, evolution of history is from thesis through anti-thesis to synthesis.

Our quest for domination has been concomitant with our lust for liberty. If the spine-chilling tales of mass graves in Katyn, stunning atrocities in Nazi labor camps, and the decisive denouncement of the democratic upsurge in Tiannanmen Square by an act of armed suppression are condemnable, so are the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the sad stories of the Apartheid in South Africa and the quelling of the distant voice of democracy in Jalianwallah Bagh! History is replete with incidents of ugly occurrences committed even by the champions of democracy.

For a brief while, the world witnessed swift changes in communist countries. Global response, offering unconditional help to those who were struck by natural disaster in Russia during Gorbachev’s regime was a moving testimony of human sympathy and compassion. Gorbachev’s acknowledging the help was a welcome gesture, not often expected of a closeted political system. Gorbachev’s faith in free economy, unconditional limitation of arms and the courage with which he made his convictions public were received with cheer both within and outside Russia.

Nevertheless, capitalism triumphed in the free world, with America undoubtedly becoming the symbol of the free world and the Soviet Union disintegrating with a myriad of problems. Yet, Russia is taking a shot our democracy today, threatening the free world symbolism that was once unquestionable.

Capitalism Won. But Did It Really?

Democracy and capitalism did not stop at merely us living with our fundamental liberty, enjoying freedom of thought and action, but slowly extended to the vulgar folds of materialism. Comfort and conveniences brought forth ignorance and idiocy. National bigotry and racial prejudices were consequential. Rapid industrialization and acquisition of economic superiority led to exploitation of the developing countries. Multinationals with massive technological potentials virtually retarded the natural growth in the developing countries and converted them into markets for the former. Basic human values were undermined by the onslaught of materialism.

Today in America, more than ever, we are seeing the vulgarity that capitalism has brought upon us. Aside from racism and bigotry running high, we also see the impact of capitalism in three segments of our society.

1. Those that have “made it” in the capitalistic world. This is a small minority of people who have undoubtedly benefited in the materialistic sense.
2. Those who aspire to make it. This is a sizable majority that believe their American dream is just one turn away.
3. The working class who got left behind. This is the significant minority that loses as capitalism triumphs more and more.

The ones who’ve made it and the ones who believe they are going to make it collectively elevate capitalism to unhealthy levels that then leads to the things that shake up humanitarian foundations.

We create “winners” and “losers”, where winners are massively rewarded and losers are punitively punished.

The rise in mental health issues, the need to seek revenge and the surge in self-harm thoughts are all largely due to this notion of rewarding winners and punishing losers. We self categorize ourselves as losers when we don’t get what winners have — whether it is grades, pay or the number of likes on Instagram!

We are so caught up in making it that we think a display of sympathy can be a sufficient substitute for empathy.

We forget that part of the American dream was about inclusion and acceptance. Instead, we’re caught in the madness of making it, no matter how much we’ve already made it! There is no room for empathy in this mode of living.

Where To Now?

As we witness the developments in our world today, I cannot but analyze the differences between socialism, communism, and capitalism. Socialism is considered as a gradual nationalization by constitutional and democratic methods, where the essential means of production are carried out and distribution is organized on the basis of a just reward to each person for the amount and quality of his/her work, whereas, communism is seen as a system of curbing human freedom. Today, capitalism and free market are being viewed as the only solutions to the existing problems.

But, can the mass exploitations being caused by privatization of firms and industries, encouraged by capitalism be stopped?

How well has the failure of communism and the so-called victory of capitalism helped in the upliftment of the poor and the downtrodden?

How well has the free economy ensured jobs for the homeless, and an undiscriminated distribution of wealth and jobs?

These are questions that remain unanswered till date. All these can never be impossible if every citizen of the world adopts two little words, “I CARE”.

Perhaps we need to reach a point which lies between the extremities of capitalism and communism to really bring back the values of humanity. I don’t know. But, if we cannot curb the negative impacts of capitalism, we, in America, will cease to be symbolic with the dream we once were.

So, are we ready to say “I Care” yet?

In 11th grade, I wrote an essay titled “Communism vs Capitalism — A Scrutiny Of Terms” that won third place at a National Geographic contest. A good part of this article borrows from that essay. But, today, I’d like to draw attention to the fact that the extremities of capitalism are threatening our values. I don’t have solutions yet, but I’d love to hear thoughts and chat more!