The Inequalities Of Capitalism
A good
example of the class division in modern society can be seen when we
look at the wealth of the top 0.1 percent of the population in the USA.
"An analysis by David Cay Johnston in the New York Times found that the
average annual inflation-adjusted income of this group increased by 2.5
times, to $3 million (£1.6 million), from 1980 to 2002. The
average net worth of those on the Forbes 400 list has
mushroomed in the past 20 years, rising from $390 million (£206
million) to $2.8 billion (£1.48 billion)" (Times, 17
August). As for you and your family, "inflation adjusted" how are
you
doing? A little less than $3 million this year I would imagine.
|
Pardon Our French
Nothing
sums up capitalism better than the article that appeared in the
Observer Magazine (27 August) when dealing with the former member of
the Workers Revolutionary Party John Bird, who it describes as an
entrepreneur. We think this might mean con man but we never went to
French classes. This enterprising person may be more familiar to you as
the owner of the magazine The Big
Issue - yes the one you bought
because you felt sorry for the lady outside the bus station.
Here is the owner
of that magazine on the homeless and how he feels about it. "Fifty
years ago a homeless person wasn't allowed to sleep rough or beg.
They'd get a menial job but they were part of society. Nowadays they
pay nothing. They are infantilised. And it costs us £60,000 to
keep each one of them in that state." We must go to French classes.
Perhaps entrepreneur really means "arrogant owning class bastard."
|
Exploitation
It is a
basic premise of socialists that all wealth that is produced inside
modern capitalism is the product of the working class and that the
capitalist class live off the surplus value that the working class
produce. Now we have such pillars of capitalist society as the Observer
and Reuters agreeing with us. "The 20 largest quoted companies in the
UK
make an average of over £96,000 pre-tax profit per employee,
according to research carried out by the Observer. ... BG, formerly
British Gas, made by far the most - approximately £445,000 .."
(Observer, 27 August). Are you understanding these figures? On average
your employer cons you out of more than £1,800 a week and in the
case of BG over £8,000 a week.
Why aren't you a socialist? Are you a shareholder in BG?
The American Dream
There is a
popular misconception about that as the USA is the world's most
developed capitalist country and the most productive the American
workers must be well off. A recent report from the Washington-based
Economic Policy Institute shows that this is not true.
"Adjusted for inflation, average wages in the US are now lower than
they were in 2000 - so the benefits of the rapid increases in
productivity ... are not being passed to the workers. In fact, as the
New York Times reported last week, official figures show that wages and
salaries now make up the smallest part of GDP since records began in
1947.... In 1965, CEOs earned 24 times more than the average worker; by
2005 it was 262 times. ...The
top 20 per cent of asset-holders now control 85 per cent of all
America's wealth." (Observer, 3 September)
|
Bones of Contention
The
National Museum of Kenya is to reopen next year after extensive
renovations. It will feature a special exhibit The Origins Of Man which
will display the key fossil finds of Africa's Great Rift Valley -
considered by many to be the cradle of humanity. All round celebrations
locally, you may imagine. Not a bit of it. "It's creating a big weapon
against Christians
that's killing our faith," said Bishop Boniface Adoyo, who is leading
the hide the- bones-campaign." (Observer, 10 September). This
individual is chairman of the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya, which claims to represent churches of 35
denominations with 9 million members. No surprise there, he is carrying
on the long tradition of Christian suppression of scientific enquiry.
|
Big Brother Is Watching You
George
Orwell's 1984 was a dystopia
where every move of the worker was
monitored, but Orwell's nightmare has arrived. "Learn that truth, and
learn it well; what you do at work is the boss's business. Xora and
SurfControl are just some of the new technologies that have sprung up
in the past two years peddling products and services -
software, GPS video and phone surveillance, even investigators - that
let managers get to know you really well. The
worst mole sits right on your desk. Your computer can be rigged to lock
down work files, restrict Web searches and flag e-mailed jokes about
the CEO's wife. 'Virtually nothing you do at work on your computer
can't be monitored', says Jeremy
Gruber, legal director of the US National Workrights Institute, which
advocates work place privacy" (Time, 11 September). The article goes on
to quantify how widespread this snooping is. 76 percent of employers
watch your use of the Web, 36 percent track the content and time spent
on the keyboard. 38 percent hire staff to sift through your e-mail and
38
percent have fired workers over the last 12 months for misuse of the
email.
|
|
|
