Planet of Plenty (1/3)

Capitalism is very poor at the just distribution of necessities.  The end of capitalism is at hand, but there is much to do to save the economy and assure the long-term survival of the population. If survival as a human species is our primary long-term goal, then deep changes are necessary to the way we organise ourselves socially. It is artificial scarcity which threatens future survival by siphoning wealth to an infinitesimally small percentage of people thereby depriving the majority of people a sustainable living standard. Artificial scarcity is the engine of wealth concentration under capitalism and its logical antecedent: poverty. With austerity measures increasing and economic growth decreasing across the West, poverty is on the rise. It is the goal of this essay to outline a plan to eliminate poverty by instantiating socialism through a number of pragmatic measures.

Eliminating poverty by ending artificial scarcity is what is called socialism. Real socialism (or just socialism from this point forward) seeks the end to artificial scarcity of all essential commodities irrespective of social class such as the free distribution of food which are designed to end poverty and upholding the common good. It is the only way to create a sustainable future that ends deprivation of the poor and the profit-seeking of the ruling-classes. Socialism, as Karl Marx argues in his famous work The Communist Manifesto, replaces failed capitalism.

Capitalism has failed to provide the basic needs of society.  Even the “social welfare” state as only manages to mitigate deprivation. Capitalism fosters tautology; the rich are seen as successful by virtue of being rich and the poor are seen as unsuccessful by virtue of their poverty. This is a “Social Darwinist” view of human achievement which makes implicit that having money (with little regard to how the money is made) correlates with a greater right to survive and therefore entitles one to greater receipt of community benefits. Socialism begins with the assumption that monetary status is inadequate determinate of entitlement.

Universal essential commodity entitlement provides an opportunity for equality by eliminating desperation. Taken to its full potential, socialism not only eliminates desperation, but also encourages increasing levels of satisfaction, gratification and enlightenment. Through the arts and sciences (and all the sub-disciplines of the humanities paradigm), humans seek greater and greater fulfilment, but such striving for more has been, at least in the West, driven by the vehicle of capitalism, a system which promotes the capabilities of those belonging to legacy wealth whilst ignoring the potential contribution of those belonging to legacy poverty. Hence, terms such as “starving artist” define those individuals who must sacrifice security of food to pursue their talent. Conversely, terms such as “fat cat” describe those people who, through a system which rewards unethical and unsustainable business practices, exploit the labour of a desperate workforce and profit off the irrational decision-making of the easily-duped consumer. Unlike capitalism, socialism supports the individual – no matter his or her background – in the pursuit of a better life and therefore exploitation of labour and unethical consumerism cannot be used for wealth generation. And so, there are no longer any starving artists, nor are there any fat cats. -

 Automation should both require fewer people to work AND enable people to work less. In a world where a minority, historically known as the capitalists own the physical means of production like factories, robots and patents this will result in greater inequality as labour becomes less and less important as an economic factor. The owners of capital will be able to produce to satisfy market demand with little labour input. This will result in more former labourers leaving that field and becoming dependent on welfare.

In theory, physical labour may become totally obsolete. If every house has a decentralised energy source like solar panels and reliable energy storage, as well as an advanced 3-D printer or molecular assembler that can produce almost physical object imaginable from a few basic recyclable chemicals then human poverty will essentially have been abolished. We can just spend the vast majority of our time doing things that we enjoy, while spending only a few minutes or at most hours a day programming our machines to fulfil our material desires. As we proceed through the 21st Century and as the technologies of superabundance — solar energy, nuclear energy, wind energy, cybernetics, genomics, the internet, 3-D printing, molecular manufacturing, desalination, etc — create more and more wealth.

That is the more optimistic vision. In a less optimistic vision, only a small minority of people will have access to such technologies as while the technology may exist, the costs of mass distribution remain too high (at least for a time). The vast masses, will be stuck in impoverished material conditions — dependent on welfare, and charity — without any real prospect being able to climb the ladder through selling their labour. Only a lucky few — who have an inimitably good idea, or a creative skill that cannot be replicated by a robot — will have a prospect of joining the capital-owning upper class. And for the others who are left out in the cold, political action may look attractive. Simply have the government take a larger chunk of the capital-owning class’s income or wealth, and redistribute it to the poor. Ideally, this would be done with the intent of abolishing poverty through making cheap electricity, internet access and molecular assemblers available to all. Less ideally, rather than giving the poor the means to fish (so to speak), it might instead take the shape of a giant welfare net, keeping the means of production in limited hands and simply confiscating and redistributing some wealth. These issues unresolved could create a lot of tension between the two classes. In a worst-case scenario, that could lead to social breakdown or even revolution.

The most cited objection to socialism is incentive. Capitalism argues that without money to motivate, there is no reason to go to work, let alone innovate. However, that people will become ever more sedentary if their basic needs are fulfilled is a dogmatic supposition perpetuated by profiteering propaganda. There is no genetic basis that determines the superiority of money – or rather the threat to withhold money – over social incentive. In fact, cash is only a means to an end – a symbol of one’s contribution – and as such this symbol can change. Under capitalism, it is insecurity that motivates people to go to work. Eliminate insecurity and the result is that incentive for work upgrades to what this essay calls “additive benefits”. Additive benefits are those benefits in life that exist on top of the essentials.

The benefits of work itself – social interaction, credit for one’s work output and access to luxuries – provide incentive to go to work. Although everyone is entitled to essential commodities, a job provides greater diversity for the palette. Thus, choose to stay at home and thus eat a basic nutritionally-balanced food handed out freely to citizens; no one starves, but unless one goes to work, then luxuries are, for the most part, out of reach. And so, work is no longer equated with access to survival, with the alternative being starvation and homelessness, but rather access to luxuries.

In short, the incentive for turning up to work under socialism is the means for getting something more than the basics, and thus, no one need suffer the indignity of being identified as poor even if relying purely on the basics. It is uniform society, as it were, with the option of not wearing the uniform. Would most people decide not to go to work and sit idly in front of a television if all their basic needs were provided for? Socialists argue that the human compulsion for activity and striving for more motivates one to contribute to society in one’s best capacity if only one is provided dignity and the means to pursue one’s full potential.

Hence, the incentive for productivity is the benefit attached to working to one’s full potential. One might say that people lose their “free time” when going to work, and should therefore not have the full burden of supporting those who choose not work, but the human compulsion to fill the hours with more than idle tasks – the boredom that comes of doing nothing – motivates one to do work if only there is more to it than a means to mere survival. The compensation need not be cash, as such, but rather the knowledge that one’s contribution is valued for the work itself and all the social benefits that come from the recognition of one’s contribution. There is bound to be a small population of people who seem comfortable with doing nothing, but these people should be treated as having a psychological problem and referred to a doctor or psychologist, not threatened with a withholding of livelihood.

More specifically, the incentive for turning up to work is to receive social advantages, such as meeting potential partners for dating/marriage, friends with whom to go out for meals/drinks and the gratification of social advancement for having performed to a high standard and being recognised formally as having done so. Everyone has the opportunity to perform to their highest potential and formal acknowledgment of one’s work contribution – as opposed to cash in the bank – satisfies the craving for professional accomplishment. The Marxist phrase “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs” is not merely an ideological argument, as if truly exercised, life satisfaction is a standard, as opposed to merely an ideal. The only way to achieve this ideal is converting the incentive to go to work from the fear of starvation to the positive reinforcement of additive benefits when work is completed to standard. Socialism requires first and foremost a change in thinking from the idea that some people must always lose to the idea that everyone can win if given all of the basic necessities for survival and allowed to pursue their best potential unfettered by desperation.