Why Capitalism is Good Actually

In 1846 Karl Marx wrote in “The German Ideology”:

“It is only possible to achieve real liberation in the real world and by employing real means, that slavery cannot be abolished without the steam engine and the mule and spinning-jenny, serfdom cannot be abolished without improved agriculture, and that, in general, people cannot be liberated as long as they are unable to obtain food and drink, housing and clothing in adequate quality and quantity. ‘Liberation’ is a historical and not a mental act, and it is brought about by historical conditions, the development of industry, commerce, agriculture, the conditions of intercourse.”

Similarly Deng Xiaoping wrote in 1984:

“One of our shortcomings after the founding of the People's Republic was that we didn't pay enough attention to developing the productive forces. Socialism means eliminating poverty. Pauperism is not socialism, still less communism.”

Firstly in the title “Why Capitalism is Good”, the words Good and Bad are always subjective. The fat cat tycoon who lives in luxury on the back of workers will have a very positive view of Capitalism. They have only seen how much benefit it has given to everything in their life and they’ll surely feel that they’ve worked hard to earn it no matter how much work was put in. While the workers that risk their lives with back breaking work to collect that oil for the Capitalist or the child that has to work all day to provide for their family will naturally see the darker side of Capitalism. 

Historically speaking, Capitalism is but a blip in the tapestry of human civilization. Historically as well, humanity is only a blip in comparison to all life on the planet. Capitalism has lingered around for 200-300 years when some societies moved away from feudalism and the employment model encapsulated by it. Compared to feudalism by any means, Capitalism is quite revolutionary. Enabling innovation, providing more services for consumers and more jobs for workers that didn’t involve paying a large chunk of your income or crops to a landlord or king (the relationship turned subtler and now they take your surplus value). Of course Capitalism (or “Crapitalism” as it is called by some) is not without its faults. The spread of capitalism and the drive for more markets, more goods and increased profit at all costs lead to millions dead or enslaved as colonists cut up inhabited lands for their own twisted purposes. The inherent issues with Capitalism as a system must be eliminated if we desire to evolve to a more efficient and equitable society.

Harkening back to the two quotes from the start of the article we can develop our outlook on Capitalism more. The second quote from Deng Xiaoping tells of how the PRC started as a dirt poor developing nation. Any government would have difficulty trying to build a prosperous society with such a basis. There is a lot of history and drama surrounding how Deng got to his position in 1984, feel free to read more into it yourself. He had just taken over a faction that wanted to stay poor but follow a socialist economic model while Deng and his faction brought back market forces to the country in order to raise the standard of living before moving to a more intermediate model of socialism. This is directly following Karl Marx’s quote at the start of the article and also practices followed by the Soviet Union in 1921 with Lenin’s New Economic Policy. Their countries needed to transition from societies where the vast majority of the masses were agrarian farmers or peasants to modern countries capable of competing with the Western Hegemony. We have the benefit of history on our side and know that the Soviet Union went from having a 95% peasant population to putting the first object, man and woman in space and being the main rival of the United States. Similarly China in 1970 had 99% percent of its population living in extreme poverty to where they are now with 0% of the population in extreme poverty and infrastructure, cities, technology and educated populace that developed countries glance with jealousy at. So we can see how successful they were in modernising their respective countries.

The citizens of a country don’t care what economic models in particular the government uses or what the main ideology is as long as their lives and their standard of living rises. Deng Xiaoping has another famous quote “It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice”. If the system betters all the people then that is what matters. You would even be surprised by where we can still wield the tools of capitalism effectively to pave the way for a socialised country.

In Ireland we are a developing nation with a developed nations facemask on. Being used as a tax haven for multinationals means they have their roots firmly planted in the country. They provide high skilled jobs but the rest of the country is left abandoned or forced to emigrate. What high skilled jobs are you to find in rural Ireland? How do they improve the lives of people living outside of Dublin? Dublin is the parasitic entry point from which all the vitals and strength of the country is sapped from. The brain drain from the countryside results in less jobs outside of Dublin and because of this less infrastructure and less housing. What other country in Europe has worse infrastructure than Ireland? Even the eastern Europeans still have metro lines, trains and apartments even if they were built decades ago. Drive through any town in Ireland and you’re guaranteed to see some buildings in ruin or shuttered that were once a thriving focus of the community. How many shops or factories have closed their gates for good in areas that haven’t seen a quality of improvement in generations?

This is where we turn the tide. Ireland must take a firm grasp of their market and wield capitalism as a weapon to build native Irish enterprise and firms for all the people on the island regardless of who they are. Ireland has the skill and talent to achieve this. Building up Ireland’s productive forces in rural areas using home educated talent will take the country away from it’s lop-sided state and increase infrastructure to and from those locations. John the widower farmer living 10 miles from the nearest town should have the same opportunities and quality of life as Hugo from D4 who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

These are only a few of the steps that could be taken. Generating native enterprise and production will give us more leverage against the multinationals that are currently being used as a life support system here. This is of utmost importance when a radical government comes to power. The transnational corporations will tighten their vice and use everything in their arsenal to hold onto the power they were given. 

So of course a chairde, Capitalism is good not as a final destination (Francis Fukuyama’s overquoted words on the end of history fit well here) but as a stepping stone we can use to bring us into the far future. It is still filled with terrors to freeze your soul and rampant problems but as long as we still fight and remember the suffering and sacrifice of those who went before we can still guide humanity down a bright path. In 10,000 years some archeologist will be revisiting life on Earth, find some relic of Capitalism such as a petrodollar and then have a silent chuckle as they teleport back to their 5-dimensional existence without want.