REALITY OF CAPITALISM

REALITY OF CAPITALISM

To most of the people in any country, capitalism is a kind of religion. That capitalism is essential to the happiness and well being of the general population is taken as an article of faith. The very idea that someone would question its basic tenets is considered heretical. Such heretics are quickly marginalized by the people in the mainstream, if not completely shunned. So though many may agree with the thoughts in this blog, you would never see any of them expressed in the mainstream media.

The thoughts and ideas in this page are not original. Most of them have been borrowed from various writers and political commentators from the web or been read from articles.

Also before you proceed. SIO would like to mention that it does not think much of Capitalism and so are Communism and Socialism. SIO wants to brings an alternative for all these systems. If nothing else, we should at least recognize capitalism for what it is - a predatory economic system based on greed and selfishness, rather than think of it as God's gift to mankind as it is often made out to be.

The economic caste system

Any society has historically been divided into the propertied (One who owns property) class and the non-propertied class. With a little bit of luck, there was always the opportunity for a member of the non-propertied class to work hard and eventually join the other class. The capitalistic thinking has made it all but impossible for the non-propertied to enter the propertied class. Blue collar workers who could formerly relatively easily buy a home and enter the propertied class will no longer be able to do so in the capitalistic economy. Those in the service industry and the working poor can not afford to even think about it.

The classes have become so separated by the work they do, the company they keep and the neighbourhoods they live in, that they more and more resemble a caste system - a caste system determined by birth and circumstance rather than any other merit or qualification.

This 'caste system' consists of six basic castes - four working castes and two non-working ones:

The first Non-working Caste

• Those who don't (cannot) work [The Outcasts] -the uneducated, unemployable, addicts, handicapped poor, elderly poor. Many of these outcasts are minorities or in jail.
  

The Working Castes

(Group 1). Those who work primarily with their hands [Unskilled manual workers] - minimum wage, service industry (most of these are barely making it) .
(Group 2). Those who work primarily with their hands [Skilled manual workers] - blue collar workers, trades people etc (many of these are insecure and constantly worried that they may fall into 1)
(Group 3). Those who work primarily with their heads [White collar, mental workers] - office workers, engineers, first line supervisors, journalists, teachers, academicians, other professionals etc (many are struggling to get into 4, shocked when they fall into 1).
(Group 4). Those who work primarily with their mouths [Management, verbal workers] - managers (middle and upper), newspaper/magazine editors, politicians, independent business owners, self-employed lawyers and doctors etc. These often imagine that they rule the world without acknowledging (or even realizing) that they have been bought and paid for the other non-working caste.

The Second Non-working Caste

• Those who don't (don't need to) work [The CAPITALISTS] - Some of these actually do choose to work, but their income is primarily 'unearned' and comes from their invested capital. They essentially live off the labor of 1 through 4. (Owning a few stocks does not make you part of this group, it should be the principal source of your income.) The capitalists' main job is to remain invisible (unless they are politicians) and use their power and influence (they own the media as well as government leaders - both elected and appointed) to keep the four working castes suspicious and distrustful of each other and together learn to hate the other non-working group or some foreign threat ('evil empire', terrorists, drug traffickers, immigrants etc.).

There is of course some overlap, the very top people in (group 4) also belong to the capitalists group. These, who do work, are directors and CEO's of corporations, rich politicians, regents of universities, bankers etc. Even when they work, their income is principally 'unearned', i.e. derived from capital which utilizes other people's labor to generate wealth. In the case of CEO's and directors of corporations even their salaries and perks are disproportionately large compared to the actual work they do.

The caste you become a member of is primarily determined by the caste of your parents. Sometimes with luck and hard work, you can climb into a caste higher than your parents', but this is becoming more difficult everyday. By the time you are in your late twenties, your caste has been determined for life. Most of the mobility that exists after that is between castes three and four. Members of three are the only ones who can move up in the caste hierarchy within their own lifetimes. (Professional sportsmen, musicians and other performers are of course rare exceptions).

This possibility of upward movement, is the main reason that group three which consists of the intelligentsia of society, helping to form public opinion and initiating changes in society, remains loyal to the system. (The other reason is of course, that they may even be thrown out of the one they are in, as occurred in the McCarthy days.) They are busy trying hard to get into the managing group and dream of the wealth and prestige that they would acquire by moving into that apparent ruling class and eventually into the actual source of power which is that of the capitalists.

As for the other castes, the very things that would help them to move up - affirmative action, student loans, affordable colleges are constantly under attack, making the caste system ever more difficult to break out of. Instead there are things like school vouchers, regressive taxes (especially payroll taxes), crime and drug infested neighbourhoods that ensure that the next generation will remain in the same caste or fall even further if that is possible.

Nice to see that you have read upto here. If u are reading this then you are most likely not to be a Capitalist. As Capitalist arrange others to read such stuff for them. You are probably into group 1 through 4 and most likely to be in group 3