A popular and specious argument against Socialists is that — “if all the wealth in the world were shared out equally amongst the world’s population,” (a) all the individuals would still be poverty-stricken and (b) in a short time the “clever” people would be rich again and the “not-so-clever” would once more be poor. Both arguments reveal a total ignorance and misconception of the scientific Socialism as elucidated by Marx and propounded by the SPGB and its counterparts in other parts of the world.
To start with, Socialists never make the slightest suggestion that we shall “make people equal” by giving them equal amounts of the world’s wealth. We mean that they’ll take not an equal amount of that available, but an amount desired and needed by each one as an individual. Each will take freely according to his or her needs. Under these circumstances it is absurd to say that “after a while the clever will get a lot and the not-so-clever only a little.”
The argument about the “share of the cake” each would receive under present economic circumstances is equally irrelevant. There certainly is not enough to go round under capitalism, because its production is geared to what can be sold for profit and not what is needed by the world population. But just consider how big "the cake” could be were capitalism abolished and a sane, benevolent order of society substituted.
First, look at the teeming millions of the world's population who, at present, are completely unproductive, or, outright destructively employed. Armies of clerical workers adding up wages, profits, rents, interest on investments, or employed in advertizing, insurance, customs and excise, salesmanship, real estate, banking, stock exchange, shops, stores and supermarkets, or in millions in armies, navies, air and police forces, and many more besides — would be liberated from these useless and degrading occupations to do something creative and productive of their own choice and enjoyment.
Food and other wealth would not be destroyed on a gigantic scale the world over in order to preserve high prices, nor vast tracts of land laid waste in peace and war, as is the case under capitalism. Moreover, products made for use, rather than for sale, would be made to last rather than to wear out by the time the guarantee expires. Only the best and most durable would be produced, no effort being wasted on the manufacture of the cheap and nasty for “the poor people”.
We are aware of the fact that many inventions capable of enormous increases of wealth and energy are not made available to the community because patents have been bought by capitalists in order to suppress their potential rather than to utilize it. Just how many more wonders of science we are denied we do not know. It could be that we only see the “tip of the iceberg”.
Quite right, under capitalism there isn’t enough to go around. But the potential size of the cake is staggering in its super-abundance.
R. B. Gill
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