In response to the 1995 Oklahoma bombing and the threat of more terrorist activity, the lawmakers are giving the law-enforcers more power and the courts swifter and more severe punishment for those found guilty. There are those who fear this will infringe on the “rights” of the average citizen; rights guaranteed by the constitution.
We have all heard the expression, “fight for your rights.” The question I have is fairly obvious: if we are guaranteed our rights, why must we fight for them? … This deserves a derisive chuckle, don’t you think?
How many laws have been enacted in the past 200 years? For whatever reason, a law compels you to refrain from some activity or at times compels you to do something against your wishes, such as paying your taxes each year or perhaps serving time in the military. If you are bent on breaking the law about killing people, military service may be your cup of tea: the more people you kill, the more medals you get. Extraordinary, but true.
In the world today there are millions of folks who rely on profits, interest and rents for their livelihood; these people are called capitalists. Most of them are akin to “Mom and Pop” establishments, but there are others who are multi-billionaires. (You can guess who are the real lawmakers in their respective countries.) In their quest for profits they are twisting arms all over the world, bolstering their bankrupt neighboring nations so that the capitalist system is not jeopardized – a great system that leaves little concern for the average citizen’s “rights.”
The average citizen, however, has at his disposal a very powerful lever called the ballot box. If the majority of the eligible voters agreed on one course of action and expressed themselves at the polls, they could mold the world into a fit place to live, devoid of war’s machinery, poverty and exploitation.
Someone once said, “Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains and a world to gain.” He said this about 150 years ago, but you were not listening then. Your time to take action may be running out. There are those who wonder if the human species could survive a nuclear conflict; in the cosmic scheme of things our demise would matter little. The planet would continue its orbit around the sun for many more millions of years, unaffected by the antics of puny earthlings.
Job competition
Some thoughts occurred to me in regard to the inability of workers, young and old alike, to find jobs providing an adequate livelihood, and one that does not degenerate into something less than adequate. Their quest is destined to be an insurmountable task, firstly, because the capitalist system has been noted for relentlessly grinding jobs down to monotonous, degrading and ever more distasteful work of the most mundane nature. The dawn of the computer age has accelerated the process immensely.
The laws of economics can not be ignored. The value of a commodity is reduced in direct proportion to the amount of socially necessary labor time used up in its production. The capitalist must sell more at reduced prices. Production is ultimately curtailed by the inability of the market to purchase. No sale, no production … no jobs. Around the globe, capitalism (capital and wage labor, for one cannot exist without the other) continually produces a large army of unemployed workers who must survive on welfare. Those who are not on welfare must starve; millions die each year of capital-induced poverty. In this country, since the Kennedy era, many people, mostly black, have been forced off the welfare rolls and “mainstreamed” into even worse poverty and insecurity. Another factor to consider is the fact that since 1960 the number of women entering the workforce has increased by 50 percent.
Competition among the world’s capitalists requires that commodities be produced as cheaply as possible — in spite of which the markets become saturated; sales are limited by people’s ability to buy, while warehouses threaten to burst at the seams. Such are the effects of production for profit. The writing is on the wall: large corporations are merging; others are declaring bankruptcy; cities, counties and states are crying poverty. Little by little, the topmost ranks of the capitalists are being depleted through consolidation — “the expropriators become expropriated.”
Sadly, the young folks today are faced with a “tougher row to hoe.” Conditions must worsen: more and more jobs will require less and less skill, and wages (or salaries) will respond to these changes. I recall an author who forecast this problem some 150 years ago, who said, “The forest of outstretched arms entreating for work grows ever thicker, and the arms themselves grow ever leaner.” He also had a solution: “Workers of the world, unite!” You have nothing to lose but your chains, you have a world to win. Sadly, you were not listening.
Perhaps it is not too late?
A world of abundance
All work done in this society called capitalism can be classified as necessary, because no employer would pay for unnecessary work. We must assume that all the work we do is “useful” — in the defense industry, the prison system, advertising, banking, brokerages, the judicial system and many more activities that do not produce “wealth.” I regard wealth as something tangible, like a jumbo jet or silk stockings.
Socialists advocate the establishment of a system of production for use rather than the present system of production for profit. It would result in all the above work becoming unnecessary. These workers could then spend their time building jumbo jets or perhaps making silk stockings … or whatever.
I dare say that there are millions of folks engaged in professional sports, music, movie making and many other fields of what we call entertainment. The boss obviously thinks that this is a useful part of his system. I would think that it makes the worker’s life more tolerable, and this is the main reason for its existence, though I’m sure the boss likes to be entertained also. The socialist has no objection to being entertained. Since there would be no money involved in a socialist society, the entertainers would be truly dedicated to what they do.
In a socialist society, as in any other society, mankind must, as the first requirement, produce necessities such as food, clothing and shelter; after that, anything goes — perhaps a trip to the moon? It all depends on your priorities.
I urge you to give some thought to the establishment of socialism … where fabulous salaries, dividends, landlords and bosses will no longer exist: no wars, no countries, no national boundaries. Instead, a worldwide community of people who for the first time will be able to control their destiny (within the limits of time and space).
With the aid of nature, the workers of the world produce everything you see around you, everything, I mean everything. Why must we buy what we produce? Socialists want free access to all goods produced, owning everything in common with all five and a half billion of our neighbors: true democracy, an administration of things, not a governing of beings.
Raise your sights, folks. Make it happen….
–W.H.
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