The accusation usually
leveled against socialism argues that it saps initiative, makes people lazy,
and robs the producers of their just profits. If one sees life as a Darwinian
struggle for a place at the top, the accusation appears logical. The flaw in the argument ignores the
fact that "initiative" silently refers to the initiative to make money. Getting
rich does not produce things of value, although making things of value can make
one rich.
Few long-term socialist
governments exists and they differ in one degree or another. The enemies of
socialism, the Outlaw Gene and the Religion of Money, have managed to undermine
any attempts at building a viable form of socialism. All too often, a professed
socialist government only provides another means of establishing an elite. The
enemies of most liberal reforms are leaders looking for a new constituency to
make themselves the elite as the keepers of the new faith.
Socialism remains a largely
undefined term. Certainly, it can be designed to encourage initiative in the
context of that which makes everyone richer in ways not dependent on
accumulating money. Moreover, we evolved as social animals who only survived
through cooperation. It is in our DNA. The movement to suppress that part of
our heritage is well financed. I see "greed is good for you' written on walls
everywhere. Tribes fought over short resources. Technology increased resources
but increase population as well. We became infected with the hubris that
technology could replace nature and greed therefore no longer creates excesses.
Given the coming shortfall,
only socialism provides an alternative to a victim economy, where the powerful
live off of the weak. To draw that conclusion, one has to have the courage to
admit capitalism's failures. I say courage because capitalism has been
advertised as the creator of freedom and prosperity. Indeed it did, for awhile,
support liberal reforms. However, it did so in wasteful ways that created
economic elite. Capitalism is the business of turning anything and everything
into money. It worked in a resource-rich world with a modest population. It has
misdirected technology and required endless wars to create consumption, jobs,
and to allocate resources. We have been on a permanent war economy ever since
WWII ended the great depression.
Capitalism cannot be
sustained. The sacred market only measures short-term consequences. How do we
create long-term markets that do not favor an elite? To start with, we need a
set of regulations critics will brand as socialism. So be it. Many of them were
in place not long ago but both political parties repealed them. Clinton did as
much damage as Bush--all in the name of profits for speculators and those who
create monopolies. The greatest enemy of reform is the American Pathology:
making it big at all costs.
Our ancestors limited
political power with a tri-part government: separation of administrative,
legislative, and judicial functions. Making money the central purpose of life
bridges that separation. All functions coalesce. Anti-trust laws, graduated
taxes, limits on the number of television or radio stations one could own, laws
against conflicts of interest, and other measures designed to limit power have
been gutted. Why do Americans take no notice of big money but worry about big
government? Is it that making it big is more important than social justice? The
message seems to be, "Do not mess with anyone's game, it will be our turn
someday." And indeed, a shocking percentage of Americans do believe that they
will be wealthy someday, which helps keep our current "winner take all" system
in place.
Propaganda has created
mistrust of government to such an extent that many are prepared to commit the
suicide of destroying it. The result would be the absolute rule of money
enforced by its own police force--victims everywhere.
Natural selection determines
what survives on the basis of efficiency. Those who process energy with the
least expenditure of resources prevail. The synergy of merit- based divisions
of labor provides an advantage in the competition for resources. Subsidies for
those left out of production are cheaper than police, jails, and emergency
rooms. Making the most of individual talents requires access to education,
health care, and equal opportunity.
We are what we adapt to. If
we adapt to making money at the expense of those adaptations required to
survive in nature and those that serve social justice, much damage will be done
in the name of profit. Entrepreneurs are the backbone of economies that
require people to buy things they
do not need. Creating markets of no intrinsic value does not preserve wealth.
Using technology merely because it is there and profitable exhausts the planet.
Allowing unlimited wealth will defeat democracy. Socialism provides the only
answer.
See, Natural Selection's
Paradox: The Outlaw Gene, the Religion of Money, and the Origin of Evil , by Carter Stroud, for the
bases of these assertions and related matters, including how survival of the
species may provide the basis for a sustainable morality.
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