With massive unemployment touching off riots and international strikes in Europe, the failures of unregulated predatory capitalism have become obvious. Those who benefit from an economic system that is on the verge of collapse have no answers because they refuse to consider the possibility that the system that has worked so well for them can be fundamentally flawed. Even those leaders in government who are earnestly looking for ways to create wider prosperity do not question the basic assumptions of a system that will inevitably self-destruct. The time for reforming the system is over. Given the realities of demographics, it must be completely restructured.
The world population recently reached 7 billion. The population of Africa alone
is projected to double in 40 years. If we continue to assume that prosperity
depends on endless economic growth based on consumption, it is clear that we
will run out of many essential resources long before then. We are already
seeing prices of staple foods soar as investors cash in on the food commodities
market. Water is being privatized throughout the world, threatening access to
this most basic of all resources necessary to sustain life. Is air next?
The world’s population is not increasing uniformly. While developing nations
see an initial dramatic rise in birthrates as living standards rise, birthrates
inevitably fall in developed nations. This drop in birthrate is the reason for
the aging population in the US and other wealthy nations. That is the major
factor leading to fears that Social Security and Medicare will become
insolvent. Both programs depend on contributions from today’s workers to stay
solvent. As fewer young people are made to pay for increasing numbers of
retirees, the system will collapse without fundamental changes. Politicians in
both parties in the US are unwilling to consider these because it would involve sacrifice
on the part of the wealthy donor class that determines who gets campaign
funding.
A just economy that takes into account shifting demographics as nations become developed will have to find new ways to assure that everyone who is capable of working has an opportunity to do so. In a democracy, we can choose to do this. We can also choose to ensure that everyone's basic needs are met. Given the many essential functions of a society, those that are less desirable should pay more than a living wage, and jobs that produce nothing of use should pay less. If all the parasite class of financiers care about is accumulating wealth, let them spend their days playing computerized games in the stock market and running up their scores in electronic bank accounts, but isolate them from the real economy.
The solution to the austerity "crisis" in the US is not to tear at the social safety net, but to invest in it. Funding Social Security indefinitely is a simple matter of making the rich pay into the fund on every dollar they make, just as those who work for a living do. Then the retirement age can be lowered to 55, rather than raised. This will free up jobs that younger people can take, assured that they too will have a retirement fund when it is their time to enjoy the fruits of a life's labor while they still have time to.
If wealth were fairly distributed, no one need work more than 20 hours per week to meet all the needs of society. The rest of the time could be devoted to self-fulfillment for those who choose to use it that way. Volunteering to help those who need it, studying and teaching, creating art, nourishing the spirit, spending time with family and friends; all these enrich society as well as the individual. Love and work are the only two things that give life real meaning. Those who choose to waste their lives on hedonistic pursuits or meaningless work can do so, but they are to be pitied.
We are witnessing the end result of a system based on the idea that some may
prosper while others starve. The endless quest for wealth and power for some
has led to the working class in America and Europe feeling the pain of economic
injustice most of the world has long taken for granted. While citizens of
wealthy nations believe they profit only by virtue of hard work, prosperity has
actually depended in large part on control of the resources of other nations,
oil being only the most obvious example. The idea that one can only profit from
the loss of another is the essence of the zero-sum game. In a planet of finite
resources, an ever-expanding number of players assures that in the end, no one
wins.
The only way out of the trap we have laid for ourselves is to conceive an
economy where all basic needs are met and each of us has a chance to succeed. Such
an economy would be based on principles of sustainability, including conversion
to renewable, nonpolluting sources of energy. To ensure sustainability, the
means of voluntary birth control would be available to all. In such a world
water, food, housing, health care education and even electrical energy would
all be available as a birthright. Collectively we have the wealth. The problem
is that the system is set up to allow it to accumulate in the hands of a few
even as world population continues to grow at a dangerous rate.
If we continue to value individual property rights over the survival of society
as a whole, civilization will self-destruct. The only alternative to working
together to build a just world society is to allow those in power to continue to amass the power and
wealth that will enable them to reduce the population by any means they see fit
when the rest of us become too great a burden.
War, pandemic disease complicated by lack of access to
health care, man-made environmental catastrophes and starvation are all threats to humanity and are inevitable in the current system.
The struggle against austerity in developed nations is one in which the rest of
the world has been engaged throughout modern history. Nowhere has it been more
apparent than in Africa, where North America’s original enslaved people came from. They
have struggled to survive in nations under colonial control, ruled by cruel
overseers of an Empire that has grown to now encompass most of the world. We
must stand with them or we will all become economic slaves in the New World
Order. We are all Africans now.