Industrial
development & technological advancement made materials goods easily
available but only in abundance for the privileged few- the elite class luxury
always had a secondary purpose to distinguish the elitists from the followers
thus social classes begin to take shape & divide the haves from the
have-nots & the idea of poverty was born. In the early days the poor was
forcefully controlled by local authorities later they were controlled
psychologically by emerging religions that helped in maintaining social order
in an unjust social system All of the major faiths have historically placed
community above the individual & emphasized spiritual virtue over material
possessions which were seen as a temporary vanity of earthly life as opposed to
the hereafter believed to be superior & everlasting. When religion was the
dominant social influence it reinforced the masses’ willingness to be satisfied
with the minimum necessities because what matters most is life after death Not
wealth & corruption here on earth.
But as the human race evolved, innovated & expanded in the
world their views diversified other than their faiths & beliefs. When new
trade routes opened up a new class of merchants & entrepreneurs discovered
ways to exploit people’s desire for worldly goods so business fueled the growth
of banks that financed & profited from these global journeys to exploit the
world's riches the bankers & merchants became so wealthy that they overtook
the kings now lending them the money they needed to fight their wars &
maintain power. The bankers & merchants made it socially acceptable to
consume in excess & began to flaunt their wealth.
Discovery, innovation, expansion & economic growth was
generally welcomed but organizations such as kings & churches believed any
change to the traditional way of living might lead to disaster because they
feared losing their privileged position of wealth & control. Abused of
power by religious authorities & monarchs compelled philosophers to reject
& challenge those powers being based on myth & paved the way for the
rise of physical sciences. Belief in this overall worldview or nature of
reality as purely physical rather than invisible view freed the individual from
moral constraints & allowed for an unlimited accumulation of wealth under
the guise of legal ownership backed up by the authority of the court system
which itself favors the wealthy since the best lawyers cost the most money.
Capitalism promotes & justifies the pursuit of selfish pleasure since the
universe is conceived as nothing but a collection of physical objects &
empty of any higher ethical order thus this promotes an attitude of
accumulation of wealth as much as you can & as early as you can if you
don’t die early keep all these for your later age. As Adam Smith believed the
best way to enhance economic growth is to unleash individuals to pursue their
self-fish economic interests
Initially, oligarchies a.k.a capitalists came out from the masses
& in the early days, it was part of the people & they played a
revolutionary role in defeating feudalism & kingships, creating the first
democratic state & bringing an industrial revolution to the world but with
time this wealthy group of people got the same position against which they
started their struggle when they turned into a ruling elite & their wealth
continued to increase and their ideology & thoughts were also changed. Now
they started to fear revolutions but also ideologically retreated from all the
liberalistic ideas & ways which were created by them. That section of the
wealthy elite who defeated & broken kingdoms & dictators now
transformed themselves into an imperial state whose core purpose was to invade
other countries kill & loot them & make those countries into their
colonies (Like East India Company). All the military campaigns were done with
the sole objective of expanding for exploitation now, these colonial states
occupied other weak states and oppressed their resources & laborers for
increasing their wealth from now onward capitalism transformed itself from a
revolutionary force to an oppressing force that is known as imperialism which
is the highest stage of capitalism.
When the concentration of wealth occurred in the hands of a few
people & these families have monopolize all major industries for example
even after the independence of Pakistan at the time it was Pakistan state well
thought out economic policy of president Ayub Khan to create the conducive
environment for the development of capital for 22 elite families & also,
help them to generate funds from people so that industrial developments could
be triggered in Pakistan however it had opposite results poverty &
unemployment spread in the country it was not because people were ill-fated but
because it was the government’s policy.
Keynesian Economics
When the barbaric exploitation of resources and humans & inequality in the distribution of wealth started to create uproar & unrest in the west & America whilst socialism gained popularity & spreading around the world. John Keynes who was an economist & a visionary assessed the underlying distressing situation of the masses & came out with a theory that Governments must have in their power to solve the greatest ills of capitalism he neither believes in communism nor in the wisdom of the free market instead he hit the middle ground & suggesting governments could with a careful injection of money here & wise regulation there & flatten the peaks & valleys to which all economics seem fatefully inclined. He believed what mainly holds back countries is corruption, mindless policies & shortsightedness. so if these evils are corrected then humanity can look forward to an age of incredible & lasting wealth. Keynes believed most difficult economic problems could be overcome & it would take humanity to the point where the biggest challenge for human beings would be how to live their leisure time in conditions of mass prosperity. According to him, economics is not a dull science but a tool with that to bring about economic security for all. Keynes was an unusual economist of his time for having extensive interests in art & literature. Good economics is fundamental to well-being as good painting or literature. In his work, he highlighted the causes of unemployment in the hope to reduce the difficult problem caused by capitalism as classical economists give three reasons for unemployment1. Workers are temporarily unemployed when they move jobs 2. People are not interested to work particularly if they can support themselves with some form of welfare payment 3. Unemployment arises when wages are too higher than what employers can afford. In capitalism, it is assumed the free market will correct this last course automatically & the supply of labour & demand for labour will come to equilibrium but Keynes rejected this theory & he believed the true reason for unemployment is lack of demand classical economy theory assumed demand for goods would return by itself when wages & labor had equalized but according to Keynes this process might simply take too long he argued it was insufficient for economists & policies makers to advise people to accept suffering in the short & medium term when this phase was over things would return to normal. What was needed in the situation was the intervention of the government to break the cycle of economic depression & restore prosperity. In any economic downturn, governments would return to matters of supply to provide an economic boost encourage growth & create employment. If market mechanisms were unable to stimulate economic recovery, then it was the job of the state to step in to create demand. After the 2nd world war, Keynesian policies were adopted across the capitalist world. Economies saw record lows in unemployment & record high levels of economic growth. Keynes’s ideas became the new orthodox & particularly attractive to leftwing politicians.In the last few years, civil liberty has shrunk in many counties despite being parliamentary democracy. Polarization & racism are being on the rise due to social media as some experts claim & now people showing their concerns over the liberal democratic framework as they have lost their trust in this system. After the end of the cold war & the socialist system ended massive privatization took place in Russia & this whole phenomenon took place in different parts of the world which are known as neo-liberalism in which all the units that were in control of government should be privatized & brought into markets and all the trader & labor unions should be dissolved. So there was a wave of privatization/neo-liberalism/free market economy in the world as a result of billions of people's income & lives were massively affected & destroyed.
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is the political ideology that seeks to transfer control of the
economy from the government to the private sector. In 1970 the economic
stagnation & high debts economists suggested reviving the classic
liberalism that supports individual freedom & democracy as the right of the
people to choose their government which was restored by rightwing politicians
Margaret Thatcher (UK) & Ronald Reagan (US) however at that time social
liberalism was practiced in the world which focuses on removing the things that
were seen as obstacles to individual freedom like poverty, wealth inequality,
and social injustices like racism & discrimination because of this many aspects
of the early welfare state like government provides healthcare, benefits to
unemployed & elderly & regulations or rule on working conditions were
formulated by social liberals like John Keynes in the early 20th
century. Whereas neoliberalism gives its emphasis on the values of
classical liberalism that protect the economic right of individual above all
else because these neoliberals believe that government policies such as
taxation & regulation reduce the freedom of individuals to do what he or
she wants with their own money. Neoliberals also believe competition also
improves businesses as a result of that governments implemented what is called
laissez-faire economics Or Leave alone which means government stays out of the
economy as much as possible with major deregulation, reduced taxes as well as
removing barriers to free trade & cutting subsidies to manufacturing
industries opposite to John Keynes economic approach that pushed for the
government intervening in the economy to ensure everybody had a job & spending
lots during recessions to deal with unemployment.
According to
Neoliberal’s best government is that which stays out of the economy as much as
possible & thus believed the best way to stabilize an economy was to
control the money supply as opposed to spending more. Under a neoliberal
system, inequality or some having more than others is inevitable. Because of
the stress neoliberalism places on individuals over the government, there is
less of the emphasis on democracy that social liberalism shares. Now the
governments supported the interests of banks & businesses contrary to what
people wanted them to do effectively subverting democracy. So establishing
nexus between politicians & capitalists is natural which is happening
around the world politicians need money to come into power & industrialists
need government leaders to go beyond laws & regulations. But the worst of
its situation is when the capitalists become politicians now future of that
country is utter bleak because now leaders only protect & blindly follow
its capitalist’s interests & will be least bothered about its voters'
interests Pakistan is one classic example.
Capitalism not only encourages concentration of wealth &
creation of monopoly but also supports all this capital should also be
deposited in a few banks so that banks create their monopoly in the financial
sector as you could see two third capital of the entire world is deposited in
hardly 50 banks & the world economy is being run by these banks that
resulted in the creation of capitalists who neither own any industries nor
involve in any form of labor but they only invest their capital in stock
markets or deposit in the bank to increase them. A handful of people divided
the world’s markets among themselves for this purpose they utilize their
countries’ political clout & financial or military influences to abolish
any country which creates hindrance in their investments & profits
generation no matter if millions of innocent people are killed or human right
violated these capitalists don’t care at all what they need access to the
country’s raw materials & manpower for their greedy pursuit of increasing
money. For making this happen these oppressive groups utilize
people/politicians of that country for creating hatred against the government
(who created obstacles to their capitalist's goals) through overwhelming
propaganda & by giving false promises as they are the saviors & getting
rid of government is in the best interest of people simultaneously shaping the
favorable opinion in the world by intensive media’s brainwashing that helps
them fast track attaining their objectives. But have a look in the history even
a single country on which they appointed their head of states couldn’t give the
slightest benefits to the local citizen of those countries (Not mentioning
these countries names you know which they are) what to speak about uplifting
the living standard of those people they are miserably failed to maintain peace
in those countries despite their military presence but YES they immensely
plundered the resources of those countries So this is what we called an
oppressive system that grows from the roots of capitalism. Hence we will never
be able to uproot an oppressive system until we eradicate capitalism. As we are
on the onslaught of this imperialistic system that crippled us to flourish.
As a result of capitalism top, 1% of the world's richest
people have half of the world’s wealth. In the history of mankind such
concentration of wealth couldn’t be recorded but today this inequality of
wealth is being witnessed & the irony is with each passing day this
inequality is being increased at an alarming rate. So in this heinous system,
how could a democratic system could function or impossible to maintain equality
in the world. Laborers Or Skillful people that are 70% of the world population
their total wealth is 2.70 % of the entire world. It isn’t country-specific but
it is on the global stage. What does it mean One person has more possession of
wealth than two or more countries collectively have. Companies like Walmart,
Shell & Apple combined have more wealth than 180 countries in the world.
Even the total value of Netflix is more than some countries' GDPs. You would be
surprised to know Amazon has more wealth than Kuwait & Apple is one of the
biggest company in the world Its net worth is more than Portugal only 16
countries in the world that have more wealth than Apple. Walmart has more
wealth than Belgium now you could imagine how much capital has accumulated in a
few people.
In the past year, these billionaires have increased their total
worth by 900 billion dollars which means they increased their income by 2.5
Billion per day additional than last year. Only 26 persons have the same amount
of money that 4 corer population of the world have & if you are thinking
these billionaires have to pay a good amount of money to their government what
our politicians claim they will collect tax from rich communities but the
reality of the world is entirely different as these billionaires on a global
level only pay 4% of taxes collectively so irrespective of the countries 90% of
taxes are paid by middle & working class of their countries that these
billionaires don’t pay there are some countries in which the highest tax
proportion is 10% which they pay as this rich elite is not even a 1% of
the world population but they own 46% world’s resources so where are 70 % of
poor people in the world statistics of the world showed 90% of poor people
reside, in Africa, & South Asia. United Nations calculated to provide
necessities (Foods, Clothes, shelters, education, basic health facility,
drinking water & sanitation) to the entire poor population of the world for
spending a normal life UN only requires 1.25 Billion dollars which means only
Apple could afford from its profits to eliminate poverty, unemployment of the
world. The budget of the Pentagon is more than 600 billion so a few weeks of
the pentagon’s budget would be sufficient for poverty alleviation in the world
so it is not very difficult for the elite class some portion of only one-person
wealth is sufficient to do that but they invested 10 times more for invading
countries & indulging in futile which have zero positive impact on
marginalized people of the world.
Pakistan & Implication of Capitalism
Above is the current
state of the world & worst of its situation Pakistan is confronting some
richest families live like modern-day kings they made their colonies or
constituencies they couldn’t remove poverty though but they did reduce the
poor. In the political landscape of Pakistan apart from industrials or politics
we couldn’t find the masses' point of view, in short, there isn’t a single
mainstream political party that truly represents the working class. Only a few
families you can count their names on your fingers belonging to different parties
are the ruling elite of Pakistan. This section of people has a monopoly not
only on politics but also in shaping opinions because they control the media as
well & Pakistani media is the lapdog of this ruling elite because this
media doesn’t care about content or what implication it has on its audience but
they only care about interests of these industrialists who most are also
politicians in Pakistan must give advertisements to these media houses &
that’s all. The entertainment industries & media are flourished in a
capitalist environment & they need each other to meet the objectives they
work in close collaboration as capitalists never want people to come to know
how much money they have & how they manipulate their affairs & media
help them divert people's attention by making them indulge in frivolous things
that are telecasted. Because the political elite wants people never to realize
the biggest problem that they are facing in their daily lives. Why is wealth
concentrated in a few hands & how are societies compelled to spend their
lives in an inhumane system? It is rightly said mental slavery is the worst
form of slavery because you even refuse to accept you are a slave. Over the
year Pakistani politicians have also developed a technique for diverting people's
attention, particularly in Karachi that keeps entangled masses into basic
necessities (Water, Electricity Crises, Sui Gas, sanitation & lack of
infrastructure) that are required for spending a normal life so that their
mental energy should be engaged in it. Pakistan's political elite is corrupt
inside out so they also have to infuse the corruption in the whole government’s
machinery so they targeted institutes like the judicial system, leading
state-run organizations & bureaucrats by appointing their stooges at the
august echelon of the institutes with for the smooth sailing of their vessels
of corruption. Whereas the Country’s defense institute has its own vision &
wants Pakistan to follow that direction even if the ruling elite wants to
change its direction but they through these politicians out like trash from the
system. Pakistan’s leading stock market Karachi stock exchange is a wonderland
this place is a trading spot though but it functions against the fundamentals
of the stock market so if you are a student & learning stock analysis you
will end up thronging your book out of the window because this puzzle is so
complex in nutshell robbery in broad daylight is being done with small
investors for the generation of crony capital.
As Poverty breaks down all moralities & self-esteem. If you
befall into the pit of poverty you lose your value tremendously &
capitalism drags people to the point where they need to earn money by hook or
by crook in short everything is sealable as long as it has some commercial
value. To challenge this system is the need & responsibility of all of us
because capitalism prevents people from being a crown creation Or Stops working
on their full potential rather makes them into selfish animals & cause
conflict among people for money because when you are desperate you fight with
other people even with your family members & this system is creating great
desperation among people & We Pakistani people are at the bottom of this
system. The regressive effects of capitalism do affect most of the countries of
the world but things are still in order in them because they are literate
people another problem of Pakistan is illiteracy which turns this country into
organized chaos.
So how should we come out of this problem? We must learn how not
to distract by external information based on religions, politics, nationalism,
sect, cast, creed, language & cheap entertainment but raise questions about
why there is inequality & injustices. To fight against this injustice &
unequal economic system we must come out from our emotional attachments to
things & get clarity of thoughts & visions through struggle, ideology
& education then we will be able to comprehend how the ruling elite
manipulates people & deviate them from their real mission which varies
country to country because each country has different psychology & history
but it is being done in almost every country for making up the mindset or
clarity needed to create this mentality in people to realize why & how
money has not been equally distributed in this country or the world. As all
wealthy people have the same objectives similarly all the working class have
the same objective irrespective of the country or religion we need to organize
them so that there should be justice in the distribution of wealth &
resources. So it doesn’t matter even if an honest leader is governing your
country things will remain the same unless this system not be challenged &
changed it will only be achieved by an organized & collective effort of
people that create leaders who represent the middle & working class.
Let’s fight with these capitalists, feudalists & politicians
on intellectual, societal, economic & political grounds for a bright future
& a system of equality for our children.
Writer doesn't support the right or leftwing political ideology & believes the world is filled with incredibly genius people who could solve this problem. But will it be acceptable to capitalists?
