Why are there so many social problems?
Because present-day society is not organised primarily to serve human needs. We all live in a world economy which is based on the competitive accumulation of wealth, and this has some bizarre consequences. Food is not produced directly to be eaten, houses are not built directly to accommodate people and clothes are not made directly to be worn. They are provided, if at all, through the market to be sold at a price and for a profit. And our access to them depends on our ability to pay.
To get the things we need, most of us are compelled to sell our working abilities to an employer. We have to get the best price (wage or salary) we can on the market. But our employers have an interest in getting as much out of us for as little expenditure as possible during our time in employment. So our present-day organisation of society is founded on conflict, and this gives rise to specifically capitalist problems of society.
Don't recent events in eastern Europe show that socialism doesn't work?
No, they don't. Many people in eastern Europe and elsewhere are unhappy for much the same reasons as we in the West are. They too live in countries based on conflict. But they had the additional problem of living in police states. Now those countries are being organised more along the lines of Western liberal-democratic capitalism.
We, as socialists, have always maintained that centrally-controlled economics have nothing whatsoever to do with socialism. We argue that Lenin and his followers set up dictatorships to develop stale-run capitalism. Those countries were — and still are — all part of the world economy. There too human needs come second best, behind a parasitic ruling class.
We have always been opposed to the opportunist and dangerous ideas and practices of Lenin and Trotsky. We welcome you to check our record on socialist opposition to all regimes that call themselves socialist.
Why do we keep having booms and slumps?
Because they are necessary and inevitable given the way present-day society is organised.
A slump or depression does not mean that something has "gone wrong" with the economy. What happens is that industries go into a boom period when most of them are working to full capacity and unemployment is correspondingly low. Encouraged by high profits, however, some industries produce more than can be profitably sold in their particular market. A crisis may then occur. And, if the combined effect is large enough, it is followed by a slump as other industries get sucked into the downward spiral of unsold products and falling profits.
Industries then curtail production, or close down altogether, and lay off workers. Eventually the conditions for profitable production are restored and business booms . . . but only to repeat the cycle.
No theory of the free market or of economic management, when put into practice, has been able to prevent a slump. Given the profit-seeking nature of the economy, slumps are as necessary to capitalism as hell is to Christianity.
What is the cause of war?
Capitalism is the cause of the rivalries that lead to war in the modern world. In general, these struggles between states are over property. Specifically, it is competition over markets, sources of raw materials, energy supplies, trade routes, exploitable populations and areas of strategic importance. Within each state in the world there is a conflict of interest over social priorities. But all over the world there are conflicts of interest between states which lead to war when other means fail.
Of course wars took place before capitalism existed. These wars, however, can be attributed to the absolute shortages of the past. Of food in particular. In our own age the problem is a different one. Now the means exist for producing enough to supply the needs of all. In world capitalism, however, we have the problem of artificial scarcity created by the capitalist form of production. Social production takes place for profit, not directly for human need. It is this global system of competitive accumulation that creates the rivalry which leads to war.
How did our environment become so polluted?
Because under the present world economic system, states, enterprises and even individuals are encouraged to dump their unwanted waste products into the environment. It reduces costs. Moreover, not only are basic needs far from satisfied but much of what is produced is pure waste from a rational point of view. For example, all the resources involved in commerce and finance, the mere buying and selling things, and those poured into armaments. The whole system of production, from the methods employed to the choice of what to produce, is distorted by the drive to accumulate wealth without consideration for the longer-term and global factors that ecology teaches are vitally important.
The overall result of an economic system governed by blind economic laws is a pressure on decision-makers, however selected and whatever their personal views or sentiments, to plunder, pollute and waste.
Are there too many people in the world?
No. There are those who argue that population growth tends to exceed the increase in food supply. The result, it is claimed, is a periodic check in population growth by famine, disease and war. Of course, this is a very popular apology for the poverty of capitalism. However, since the industrial revolution technological developments in the means for producing food have allowed for a growing population. The continuing existence of famines focuses attention on population size rather than on food production. It has long been technically possible to adequately feed every man, woman and child on this planet. At the same time we have butter mountains, milk lakes and so on. Why, then, is there poverty amidst plenty? Because the poor do not constitute effective demand in the market place. They simply cannot afford enough food.
The real issue is not overpopulation, nor is it really a question of poverty but whether the organisation of society can allow people to produce the wealth they need.
What can I do about these problems?
Before anything practical can be done there needs to be a majority with a working knowledge of how capitalism operates, and an understanding of what the change to socialism will mean. Social problems such as those above are the result of a divided society. They arise and persist because there are different interests at work. If you agree with what we say, help us to bring about a society based on common interests, with production directly to meet human needs. It is only on this basis that we can all set about solving social problems. If you disagree with what we say, tell us why.
No comments:
Post a Comment