A Societal Flaw -1 : Capitalism

The amount of people who misunderstand socialism, communism and capitalism is insane. People think Capitalism is a gift from god because the free market dictates the price and consumers have every right to be able to vote with their purses, but here is the thing: when an economy is based on infinite growth and built on the backs of labour exploitation, environment exploitation and market manipulation, you’re just not paying with your wallets, you’re paying with you’re future and here is why;

There are three main reason as to why Capitalism is one of the worst forms of economic systems, and mind you, I am talking about capitalism the way we have it today. To understand that, we need to know how the economy works. Basically, every economic system is designed with infinite growth as its base, and hence, economists desire inflation, but in a controlled way. 2% is accepted generally as the perfect rate but a healthy economy usually has somewhere between 3-6% per year. The entire concept is based on the fact that prices of goods need to be continually rising so that it gives companies an incentive to produce more goods to make more profits (foreshadowing). That is why in a healthy economy, interest rates are relatively lower to encourage people to borrow money, in turn spend more money to buy products, and in turn help companies sell more and make more profits and.. well you get it. But here is the kicker, this works on products that is considered a want, or in other words, luxury products. What happens when the price of basic goods like food and shelter is so high that consumers borrow to survive? You can’t really chose whether to discourage a badly priced product when it comes to things you need for survival, right?

Well, we need not look too far because even without our beloved inflation, we have a huge data set to answer those questions, the poor. Since the beginning, the low income class do things to feed themselves and that includes borrowing money with no plans to pay it back (worse things can be done but let’s just keep this legal). This causes a vicious cycle where any little income they get is gone to feed themselves and pay interest to these lenders and they forever remain poor. The argument capitalists make is that the selling of these products creates jobs so such people can dig out of poverty and make a life for themselves by learning specific skills. That is noble, Mr. Elon, but have you ever thought about how in the world they are going to learn those skills when THEY ARE STRUGGLING TO PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE YOU DONUT?

Lets come to the “capitalism creates jobs” fallacy. Imagine an unskilled low income person wanting a job, they have no means to get skilled so naturally they go into unskilled labour, they work in sweatshops and barely get paid. The money they get goes in repaying loans they took for basic necessities and for food. Can you figure out any way they can break from this cycle without some luck? We are sitting here reading this on our phones and laptops that are probably the worker’s entire year’s salary. We use these products with great costs and more than 50% of that goes to the guy sitting at the top, working tirelessly to keep the status quo and buy more assets.

Here is the second thing - the actual cost of a product. You may wonder how that amazing dress on Shein looks so good and yet, costs the same as a cup of coffee. Remember, that dress needs raw materials, a processing plant, someone to make it, someone to pack it and a transport to deliver to your doorstep. Now think about it, if you are paying such a price for a dress, do all the people in the supply chain get paid enough? Are the raw materials they use really attained with care, and what really is the price you paid? Let me answer it for you, although you will hate it… the workers are slaves (or someone who gets paid peanuts), the raw materials are artificially made with great cost to the environment and the price you are paying is the the future.. the future of the world with a terrible environment crises, children being forced into child labour, and capitalists feeding off the profits. The actual cost of the product is never what goes out of your bank account - it is the life you have ruined by buying that dress, it is the river you have polluted by choosing the colour and material, and it is your own kid that you have choked by supporting the toxic machine. (Never buy fast fashion, always buy local. Re-wearing clothes is not bad, our ancestors used the same loins for years).

The actual cost of your product is money + energy+ exploitation

Lastly lets talk about this infinite growth system we are so entrenched in. Back in the 19th and 20th century, there was a lot of these ‘revolutions’ where we could get raw materials and products easily. We didn’t know if cutting trees and polluting the rivers would cause long term issues and hence, we continued doing it until a few years years ago when we (at least most of the world) realised we’re indeed dying from this. The current economic system originated when we had ample raw materials but the earth is finite, the resources we have are finite. How can we follow a system designed to purge the resources we have and expect to have no consequences?

There are a lot of innovations that have come from capitalism, surely. A free market does allow for people to do anything they want without high oversight and and regulation but there has to be a way that the best parts of socialism and capitalism can co-exist right? In an ideal world, people have morals and ethics and share their resources with communities and corruption in the government is non-existent but in today’s world, especially in a country like India where most of the population don’t have the luxury to think of how they get the money, not when they can barely put food on the table, and where corruption is not only an open secret but is actively defended by citizens and courts of law due to their loyalty to image of the rulers and not the shadow they cast, an economic system as revolutionary as a mix of capitalism and socialism is highly unlikely. We have to help people understand that it has never been about which religion or race is superior. It has never been about which corner of the world you are born in or what your values and beliefs are. it has always been about money and greed. It is up vs down - rich vs the poor, not left wing vs right wing. We need to understand that those who have power will never let it go without a fight and this time, its not going to be a fight to share resources, it is going to be a fight for our very survival.