Trump and Clinton would have you believe that there is one America, with everyone in the same boat and everyone pulling toward the same goal. This is a conscious deception. As socialists, we recognize that the 99% and the 1% -- those who produce all of the nation's wealth, versus those who, through various schemes, collect, control and oversee the disposition of that great mountain of wealth -- have opposing and conflicting interests. The interests of Wall Street, the giant insurance companies, and corporate conglomerates are different from those of working people. Socialists argue that our current economic system is fundamentally undemocratic because those who produce all of the wealth have no say in how it is put to use, and those who control most of the wealth had nothing to do with creating it.
Trump and Clinton say they care about the "middle class." This is a term used is to blur economic distinctions in our society. In their view, everyone is "middle class," except those at rock bottom (our so-called underclass) and the few at the very top (the 1%, or the top 10 percent of US households possess 76 percent of the total wealth.) Actually, the overwhelming majority belong to the working class. Those in the working class produce the goods and services that, taken together, are the sole source of wealth produced each year. However, by law and tradition, the wealth produced by working people does not belong to them and is not controlled by them. Rather, the wealth produced by so many is deemed to belong to a small class of capitalists. Because stealing from the poor to give to the rich is not a popular policy, the capitalists launder their wealth. This is accomplished by classifying the riches that the capitalists steal from working people as profit. When Clinton, Trump and other mainstream politicians pay homage to the "middle class", it's their way of muddying the water, trying to hide the fact that our country is made up of producers and exploiters -- workers and capitalists. You will never hear Democratic or Republican Party politicians say that their first priority is the working class. Socialists side squarely and proudly with the working class.
Under capitalism, full employment is impossible. Why? Because if everyone had a job, the balance of power between workers and employers would be significantly altered. Workers could demand higher pay and the boss would have no choice but to agree. Workers could go out on strike, and there would be no one to use as strikebreakers.
In a rational system, if there was anything society required, if there was any public need not being fulfilled, people would be put to work fulfilling it. And if putting everybody to work full time would result in too much being produced -- if full employment at 40 hour per week would produce more than what society needs -- then the sensible thing to do would be to reduce the work week dividing the necessary work among everyone. If you put human needs before profits, it's easy to have jobs for all. But if your first loyalty is to profits, as is the case for Democrats and Republicans, then these simple, rational solutions can't be considered. Democrats and Republicans are for creating jobs only if it's profitable to do so. That's why their proposals always involve giving money to corporations and the rich.
Trump and Clinton point to the current recession to explain why unemployment is so high. But what they don't tell you is that regular, recurring crises, such as the one we are currently suffering through, are themselves a direct result of putting profits before human needs. The way our economy is organised, there's an economic crisis every five or 10 years. No Democratic or Republican proposal has ever changed that.
Trump and Clinton will try to tell you that these economic recessions just kind of happen, like thunderstorms. But that's not true either. These crises occur when the economy produces more than can be sold at a profit. It's then that businesses cut back, close down, lay off workers, and wait until profit potential improves. No consideration whatsoever is given to whether there are unmet needs; whether people are hungry, or homeless, or jobless, or poor.
Trump doesn't believe that climate change is a serious threat. Clinton’s party are criminally incompetent environmental stewards. Within capitalism, there is room for reform, short of dismantling the entire economic framework. Every wage increase, union victory, advance in civil rights or civil liberties illustrates this. But some issues, like climate change, are different. Addressing climate change is not a matter of dealing with one power plant or one factory or even a single industry; it's a globalized, systemic problem. With enough pressure, you can get the powers that be to clean up a particular river, ban a particular toxic chemical or right a particular injustice, but there's no way to end systemic pollution, poisoning of the environment or generalized injustice without ending the incentives that encourage those behaviors. Under capitalism, those behaviors are profitable, and profit is deemed to be the highest measure of success. Socialists are for taking critical industries and resources out of private hands. Revolution, not resignation, is our only hope. Capitalists blinded by profit, cannot embrace the environment. Marx wrote that:
"Even a whole society, a nation, or even all societies together, are not the OWNERS of the globe. They are only its POSSESSORS, its users, and they have to hand it down to the coming generations in an improved condition, like the good fathers of families."
Only an enlightened working class can liberate the means of production, build socialism and ensure the survival of life on earth.
Living as we do in a class society, where the class you are a part of is determined by your place in the economy -- whether you need to work for a living and produce value, or whether you're able to get rich living off the value produced by others -- we can see that the scourges of racism, sexism, xenophobia, poverty, environmental destruction and endless war only benefit one class. Where wealth is so unequally distributed, where political power is concentrated in the hands of a few, where the government and the media are sold to the highest bidder, society is like a pencil, balanced on its point. It's a very unnatural, unstable arrangement. In a true, open democracy, the inequality and minority rule we have today would not be tolerated. The only way a minority can enrich itself at the expense of the majority is by keeping the majority divided and disoriented, and by using force, where necessary, to keep the majority in line. This is the role played by racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination in society today. Their goal is to keep us fighting amongst ourselves rather than uniting against our common foe.
Socialists intend to do about this? We will continue to do what we've been doing: organizing and working to win a majority to the understanding that to solve the critical problems that we face, the capitalist system must be replaced by one that puts human needs before profits; urging the labor movement to break with the two parties of Wall Street and form a party of its own that can extend the fight for workers' rights beyond the shop floor and into the political arena
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