Capitalism is the Cause of Social Evils

Throughout its existence, the Socialist Party continually refers to capitalism as being the main cause of the evils which exist to-day. Those evils are almost too well known to need recapitulation. They are widespread poverty and semi-starvation in the midst of an abundance of wealth, lying advertisements—part of the enormously wasteful method of distribution, with its myriads of shops and salesmen and deliverers, the colossal waste of human effort in the building of battleships, aeroplanes and armaments, the fussy and useless activities in the circularizing of letters and the faking up of news as an adjunct to the advertisers, the waste of valuable human labour in ministering to the whims and caprices of wealthy idlers—these, and the evils which arise directly from poverty itself, such as prostitution, robberies and murders.

If capitalism is the cause of these evils, then it is obvious that any party which maintains that this is the case must constantly refer by name to that order of society. In all sciences, there are words which indicate certain basic ideas or principles, and if any discussion upon any section of that particular science is to be understood at all, those words must be used whenever that particular idea or principle is referred to. For instance, in physiology one constantly has to refer to the heart and the circulation of the blood. In the same way, in sociology, one has to refer to the elements which constitute a particular society, and the particular form of society in which we are living at the present time, and which therefore interests us the most, has been given the name of capitalism. It is, therefore, frequently necessary to use this word, and no apology is required for doing so.

That capitalism is the cause of the evils enumerated above, besides many others, has been abundantly proved in the previous posts of this blog. It is not proposed to go into this in detail here, but it is sufficient to point out that the characteristics of capitalism are—the private ownership of the means of production and the production of articles for profit. It is not very difficult to perceive that those evils arise from this fact of private ownership and the efforts of the few people who own them to dispose of those commodities.

Does it not logically follow that if the means of living are owned by one class, then any other class can have no other relation to the first class than that of slaves? But if a logical deduction is not sufficient, then what are the facts? Unless he or she steals or begs, a person without capital has to work in order to live. We have to find a master. That master is generally some big corporation or other. During the time that we are with that company we have to work hard, we have to do what we are told, we frequently have to smile back when we are insulted, humiliated and bullied, and if we dare to stand up for ourselves, we endure the torments of unemployment. We are now “free,” but as it is difficult to live upon the dole, quick as though we have to start searching for another master. Whilst on the dole we are constantly being summoned to interviews for our case to be “reviewed”; an investigator comes round to see if we have managed to put by any savings or if he has earned a few pounds surreptitiously, and if we have and has not disclosed it, then woe betide us. Is this person not a slave to the class which employs him or her and which, when out of work, administers the relief and the unemployment benefit?