By Gary Marbaniang
My Facebook friends must be tired of seeing me write about Capitalism and Socialism in their newsfeed. This is the last time that I’ll be writing on this subject. Most will probably be thinking that I’ve caught the Capitalism bug since I’ve been going on a tirade against Socialism. Nothing could be further from the truth. I don’t support Capitalism in its current state but I support the free choices that an individual can make under Capitalism. Capitalism is inherently unjust but Communism is inherently tyrannical. Capitalism is a system which can be reformed while Communism is almost incapable of being reformed.
The Industrial Revolution started the great divide in society. Mass production led to a spurt in revenue but the revenue was not equally divided between profits and wages. Profits went off the roof but wages grew at a snail pace. In 2018,CEOs made 287 times more money than their workers did in the US. America’s CEOs earned a whopping $14.5 million in 2018,on average, compared to the average $39,888 that ordinary workers made. This sounds really unfair. Most ordinary workers today are finding it hard to make ends meets. In fact, so many of them are living on the financial precipice. If democratically elected governments around the world do not do anything to reform the system then people like Karl Marl, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Alexander Kerensky will step into the picture and incite the workers to start a revolution to take over the companies and also overthrow democratically elected governments. When the government is overthrown, then people like Stalin and his comrades will take over the reins of the companies and thus start a new era of State Capitalism which will be much worse than Capitalism.
Communism is nothing but State Capitalism. I remember vividly a scene from an American movie whose name I cannot recall but it was probably made by Cuban Americans who fled to the US when Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba. It showed a young Fidel Castro visiting his beloved wealthy uncle when he had just seized power. When his uncle saw Fidel Castro he rushed to embrace him and offered him something to eat but Castro refused the offer and simply told him that the Cuban revolution had overthrown the government and that his estate would be taken away from him. Upon hearing this news, his uncle collapsed on the ground. I don’t know whether this story is true or not but just imagine a situation where you’ve worked really hard to become wealthy and then one day someone just comes to your house and tells you that everything will be taken away from you. How would you feel?
I remember a story that my father told me about his great grandparents. My father’s great grandparents were extremely wealthy. They earned their wealth by working really hard. There were seven sons in the family and they were all oranges growing farmers. They would stay in the oranges plantation for around nine months and they would live in their own village or only 3 months. In Khasi tradition when someone dies, food is usually offered to everyone visiting the house of the deceased. When my father’s paternal great grandmother died, all the sons in the family mutually agreed to continue to serve food to visitors for months on end. This was their way of showing respect to their deceased mother. It was their hard earned money and they had the freedom to spend it in whatever way they wanted. They were also strict observers of the Khasi Matrillineal system. Since there were no females in the family, it is against the system for a male member of the family to inherit the wealth even if they were the ones who earned the wealth. So continuing the feast for months on end after their mother died was one noble way of spending the family wealth.
But now things have changed as far the distribution of wealth is concerned in some Khasi families. More and more Khasi families have also started sharing the family wealth with the male members of the family. This story takes me back to my point that Capitalism can be reformed if there is a desire and a will to reform.
Covid 19 has created the perfect storm and we are seeing disgruntled workers all around the world. If governments around the world do not do anything to redress the plight of the ordinary workers, then don’t be surprised to see new Joseph Stalins emerging in different parts of the world.