An alien world

Imagine a being from Outer Space visiting Earth. The alien would observe our scientific, technological and medical achievements, but would then notice the plight of billions with no access to these accomplishments. Then s/he/it would notice a small minority of Earthlings who are not only indifferent to this suffering but directly benefit from it.

The number of wealthy individuals in the world has reached 10.9 million - more than existed before the 2008 banking crises. Their collective wealth, $42.7 trillion, has also topped the levels it reached in 2007, before the crash and recession. This elite group represents 0.15% of a world population of over 7 billion. The super-rich were hiding at least $21 trillion in tax havens at the end of 2010. This is an underestimate and could well be as high as $32 trillion.  Oxfam estimates that  $7.18 trillion - is sitting in accounts in British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.

The above wealth exists in a world where 870 million people were suffering from chronic undernourishment in 2010-2012, 16 million of whom were in the developed world.   Poor nutrition plays a role in at least 5 million deaths of children each year. Additionally, more than 3.4 million people die each year from water, sanitation, and hygiene-related causes.

The alien being would also notice all the resources used to patch up this broken system. The social work profession is in charge of administering the minimal resources provided by the state to smooth over the sharpest edges of  capitalism. Profit maximisation is the fundamental principle of capitalism. Social work operates within the dictates of a ruling class who sees the protection and expansion of profit, and thus the exploitation of humanity, as the primary objective.

Capitalist development forges a working class out of conditions of suffering and deprivation. Homelessness, poverty, mental illness, hunger, and other social ills are inevitable machinations of the capitalist system. Social workers are hired by the state and/or ‘non-profit’ private enterprises to stabilise capitalist exploitation. Capital employs social workers to provide mental health, addiction counseling, and case management services. These services address the social ills of capitalism without challenging the profit motive or the entrenched principle of private property that creates inequality in the first place. Social workers work toward the “stabilisation”  rather then the “liberation” of masses of people from the exploitation of man by man. Social workers manage exploitation rather then challenge it. The social work values of self-determination, empowerment, and dignity are empty rhetoric in the midst of a capitalist political economy that plunders the world at the enrichment of the few.

The great economic power of the world is the product of the labour of countless people in this land and around the globe. But while the working people created this wealth, they do not own or control it. The capitalist system has concentrated the ownership of the tremendous productive forces in the hands of a small group of big capitalists. Workers are wage slaves who survive only by selling their labour power to the capitalists. Capitalists own the means of production and pay workers for their labour power. But the working class produces far more wealth than it receives in income. The difference is the source of capitalist profits. The worker is employed only as long as he or she helps create profit. When the capitalist has problems maximizing his profits, he does not hesitate to throw workers out into the street. The capitalist system exploits the working class and creates the poverty and economic insecurity of society as a whole.

The capitalist system is a system of economic anarchy and crisis. Capitalism is plagued by periodic economic crises, such as recessions, which are becoming more serious and complex. These crises are built into the economic system. Each capitalist enterprise tries to profit in the short run, but because of this competition the economy is thrown into turmoil.

The system of capitalism wastes a great amount of social wealth. Even technological advances often are delayed or even suppressed due to profit considerations. And when technological innovations such as “industrial robots” are introduced, they are at the expense of workers who are discharged from their jobs. The colossal development of capitalism in the post-war years is evident enough. The rapid growth of technology, the electronic and informational revolution in the recent decades, the unprecedented expansion of the application of robots and computerised systems in production and distribution point to the this development.

There is a hoary old argument that ‘in any society someone has to do the nasty jobs’. New technology raises the very real possibility of a society in which robots would do all the nasty jobs. Technology could do away with toil and tedium of much work for ever. They could produce a society in which mining accidents only ‘maimed’ robot miners; in which clerical workers turned into the office for only a couple of hours a day and engaged in leisure pursuits while machines did the rest; in which shift-work was unknown except for a very narrow range of occupations like nursing and firefighting; in which the tedium of the assembly line was a nightmare from the past; in which even the handicaps associated with natural afflictions like deafness and blindness were overcome.

The vast array of communications technology that is becoming available could provide a ready means by which those who produce the wealth could democratically adjudge how it should be used, with the information about what different alternatives would mean literally at their finger tips. The final death blow would be dealt to the claim that somehow human beings are  incapable of obtaining the information needed to make rational decisions as to how to use resources to satisfy their material needs.

Nowhere in Marx’s writings is there to be found a detailed account of the new social system which was to follow capitalism. Marx wrote no “Utopia”. The terms “socialism” and “communism” are used more or less interchangeably The first essential feature of socialism is that the of production are taken from private ownership and used for society as, a whole.  The objective  is classless society. The people as a whole own the means of production (factories, mines, etc.). Production is for people’s use, not for  profit. The principle of the operation is “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”. Production is of such a high level that there are abundant commodities for every member of the community and each member helps him or herself according to his or her needs.

Computers, automation and robotics are making it possible to build a new world, a world in which the robots do the “work” and people set about the task of culturally and socially enriching their lives.