We are constantly told by those at the top that wealth trickles down, enriching everyone who works and contributes to our economy. We are also told that if we just work hard enough, we can “pull ourselves up by our bootstraps” and become business owners and wealthy entrepreneurs. This individualist attitude implies that we only have ourselves to blame when we can’t afford to heat our homes or buy groceries. However it does not account for the fact that under capitalism, working people only see a fraction of the wealth that their labour produces. This unfair distribution of wealth is the main reason we socialists believe that capitalism is fundamentally unjust and does not benefit working people in any shape or form.
Unfair distribution of wealth is not the only consequence of a system that values profit over people. Capitalism is also directly responsible for climate change and the destruction of the world’s habitats. Under capitalism, corporations are incentivised to pursue growth at any cost, which inevitably leads to them plundering the world’s resources. Oil extraction and its burning for energy is one of the worst contributors to the climate crisis, yet the global economy relies on it. Access to this most precious commodity has motivated many imperialist wars in the Middle East. Meanwhile renewable alternatives aren’t profitable so investment is nowhere to be found. Mitigating the damage already done to the environment requires investing money and resources too – but what’s in it for the capitalists?
Exploitation of workers, particularly in poorer countries, is a key feature of capitalism. For example, Amnesty International reports that in the production of smart phones, companies such as Apple and Samsung have sourced the cobalt used in their phone batteries from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where an estimated 40,000 children work for next to nothing in cobalt mines. The conditions in these mines are widely considered a human rights violation, with workers subject to extremely unsafe conditions and sometimes made to work for 24 hours at a time. This dirt-cheap labour supply from the global South allows the billionaire class to rake in ever-increasing profits at the expense of human lives.
To cover up their crimes, capitalists attempt to redirect our attention to anyone but themselves. Asylum seekers and migrants have become key scapegoats for the elite, who claim that they are stealing jobs from white British people. In fact asylum seekers have a limited ability to work, whereas other migrants are treated as an expendable resource. A working week of 80 hours or more has been reported to UNISON, the largest trade union in Britain, by some migrant care workers. Others have been made to do 19-hour shifts without a break and forced to be always available for work. They also face the threat of deportation when a care company goes bust because there is no safety net to protect them financially or help to find a new employer.
Capitalists would have have you believe that the reason people struggle is that they are lazy and workshy. This criticism often gets levelled at young people in particular. The truth is that most young people want to work or study, but are facing a crisis. One million young people in Britain are currently not in education, employment or training (NEET for short) and youth unemployment is at its highest level in over ten years. Young people have been hit hard by years of austerity which has left public services understaffed, cut to the bone, and in many cases on the verge of collapse. Most young people today will have only ever experienced a world blighted by needless cuts and austerity. Is it any wonder that many fear for their futures?
It is clear that capitalism has many systemic flaws: wealth inequality, environmental destruction, worker exploitation, and lack of opportunity, to name just a few. The first of these – wealth inequality – could be addressed with common or worker ownership of the means of production, which would result in wealth being distributed more fairly. Worker-managed cooperatives would allow employees to democratically decide pay scales, leadership, and policies. Public control over key sectors like healthcare, utilities, and finance, would enable us to prioritize human needs over profit margins, leading to reduced environmental destruction and worker exploitation. Properly funded public services would lead to more opportunities for young people.
None of these changes will occur under our current system because the rulers of this system are incentivized to make sure they don’t happen, as an exploited and immiserated working class is easier for them to control. If we want to see these changes we have to fight for them. Thankfully there are signs that this is fight is already beginning to take place. A wave of student protests is currently sweeping across Europe, the likes of which has not been seen since 1960s. And on 20th November there will be an international day of walkouts and protests to build momentum for a new socialist youth movement. With every major party is promising more austerity we know that change is not going to come from within our capitalist system. We demand better.
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