How We Could Live (2015)

From the April 2015 issue of the Socialist Standard

Already, working together, we produce a great deal of wealth. But most of us don’t get to see or benefit much from it. Imagine how much more needed things could be produced and useful services provided if the 200 million unemployed people in the world were allowed to work.

It is not laziness stopping them. The barrier is profit. The people who own the world’s factories, machines and tools must make a profit or they won’t hire. If we owned these resources together, we could use the fruits of our labour for our own benefit. We could share out the wealth we create together.

We wouldn’t need markets and the waste that goes with them. We could directly produce enough for all. We could save all the work and effort that goes with buying and selling and shuffling money around and instead create more of what we need. No more tax  collectors, benefit officers or bankers. It would be more efficient to simply share out our produce freely and according to need.

Working together, we can free up our time so we can take control of the communities where we live. We could have democracy at work too. We would be able to control the real decisions that affect all our lives. There would be no privileged, rich elite able to buy their way to influence and power

We need to organise ourselves to demand common ownership and democratic control of the productive wealth of the world. It will take all of us, standing together, debating, discussing and planning in order to make the change possible. It can be done.