Capitalism’s Comforter: The myth that the free-market has liberated humanity
IT’S THE RIGHT’S COMFORT BLANKET. Pressed to present a moral justification for their politics, it’s what they reach for. The unquestionable progress of humanity: out of poverty, ignorance and injustice, and towards prosperity, education and more equitable social arrangements; is held up as proof that their ideology works. They are particularly struck by the global improvements that have taken place in the quarter-century since the collapse of “actually existing socialism” in Russia and Eastern Europe. Capitalism, they insist, is not just good for capitalists – it’s good for everyone.
It’s nonsense, of course, but the weakness of the argument is not always apparent to those lacking a strong grasp of modern history. The Right’s trick is to conflate the dramatic expansion in human knowledge and technological prowess with the rise of the capitalist economic system. Only a fool would argue that the two occurrences were not closely related, but it would be much more foolish to claim that the latter caused the former.
Advances in agriculture, engineering and medicine have indisputably contributed the most to human welfare. The average human-being lives longer and in much greater health than his or her ancestors, not because they had capitalism imposed upon them, but because civil engineers made possible the supply of pure drinking water, and the safe disposal of dangerous waste. The discoveries of scientists and physicians similarly extended human life-expectancy and vastly increased the productivity of just about every aspect of agricultural activity.
The history of capitalism is by no means the story of how these scientific and technological advances were harmoniously integrated into its constant quest for increased profits. Improvements in the quality of life of ordinary people were often made in the teeth of fierce capitalist opposition. Even today, attempts by governments around the world to regulate the worst aspects of capitalist profit-seeking are resisted at every turn.
Nevertheless, the steady advancement of humanity has proceeded apace. Not because the big-hearted capitalists have been demanding that their workers be given the best of everything, but because workers and peasants around the world have insisted on translating advances in science and technology into measurable social progress for themselves and their children.
Almost always this has been achieved by mass political movements harnessing the power of the state to institute mass public education, health and welfare programmes. If the big capitalist corporations sometimes deigned to get out of their way it was only because they realised that the processes of globalisation proceeded more smoothly (and profitably) if the peasants they were enrolling in their vast new sweatshops knew how to read and write, and if the inevitable injuries they suffered could be patched-up at the host nation’s expense.
Nor should the impact of international institutions such as the United Nations, the World Health Organisation, the Food and Agricultural Organisation, the Save the Children Fund, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, and the International Labour Organisation be underestimated. The humanitarian and social-democratic impulses which gave these global agencies of human progress birth, and which for more than 70 years have kept the flag of true internationalism flying, have been the targets of unrelenting right-wing hostility.
It was the capitalist triumphalism inspired by the fall of the Soviet Union, however, that stuck (and still sticks) in the throat of left-wingers the world around. To hear them talk, one could be forgiven for thinking that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had succumbed to a vast horde of right-wing ideologues brandishing copies of The Economist and The National Review. That the Berlin Wall was toppled by Baroness Thatcher – rather than a border guard who refused to open fire on his fellow citizens. Strange, too, how the Right has forgotten that it was Mikhail Gorbachev, not Ronald Reagan, who set the wheels of political and economic reform in motion, and Boris Yeltsin who turned back the coup-plotters’ tanks without a shot being fired.
What they have also forgotten, and what fundamentally undercuts all their boasts about the advances of the last quarter-century being driven by the forces of benevolent capitalist internationalism, is the fate of the Russian people after the fall of the Soviet Union. The United States was quick to offer the new Russian Federation all the advice it needed to apply what Washington insisted was absolutely necessary “shock therapy” to the moribund Russian economy. This was capitalism in its purest form: unpolluted by the slightest taint of socialism, or even social-democracy! And what was the result? What sort of society emerged from this capitalistic “Year Zero”?
The answer is that Russia was transformed into a vicious kleptocracy in which bribery, corruption and outright gangsterism rode roughshod over every economic principle Adam Smith ever enunciated. A system which had only just managed to work under the Communists, very quickly ceased to work at all. Unemployment, homelessness and alcoholism soared and even those fortunate enough to keep their jobs and their apartments were lucky to get paid once a month or keep the power on. Most tellingly, human life expectancy – that great reflector of the advances of the modern era – began to fall.
This is what happens to a country to which the principles of pure free-market capitalism are applied.
So, the next time a right-winger reaches for this spurious comfort blanket, remind him that while Capitalism may be correlated with the economic, social and political progress of humankind, any and all claims that it is the cause of our species’ advancement must be rejected as historically and morally unsustainable.
Nice work Chris, but Yeltsin was an asshole, and the coup, like Suharto’s conveniently cemented him in place.
Nice comment Stuart, but Reagan was a Wall Street patsy and super pacs, like Obamas conveniently cemented his second term.
You don’t quite get it – prior to the Russian coup, Yeltsin did not lead the Russian government – but he did afterwards. Likewise Suharto was not the head of state of Indonesia prior to the coup he claimed to suppress, but he was afterward. That said I’m sure it’s true that Reagan worked against the interests of the American people – but not by using force to displace the current head of state.
These kinds of things happen when significant portions of your population are starving. Probably still are
“but not by using force to displace the current head of state.”
nope he saved that for the south americans/Caribbeans
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan_Doctrine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Grenada
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contras
Yes…. interesting to note that Nikoloai Tesslers Wardenclyffe Tower was financed by J.P. Morgan at the turn of last century… but when Morgan realized that Tesslers long term term goals were to produce a cheaper system than the Marconi system and more efficient wireless communications which could be extrapolated to what we now call ‘TV’…
And that many of the inventors ideas could eventually provide free energy …
He suddenly lost interest.
Its also interesting that Tessler’s financial manager by the name of George Sherf was also involved in German financiers setting up a series of banks based in Germany in the USA in the early 1900’s , as well as the Amerika/ Hamburg shipping Co. And that these German ‘ bankers’ falsified their DOB , place of birth , and nationality constantly…
These financial institutes and the shipping line were shut down in the USA in 1942 as they were found to be laundering stolen wealth and money from Europe back to the the Nazi’s…
This chap George Sherf had an alias… Prescott Bush.
And then we see are photos from Hitlers personal bodygaurd Otto Skoeznzy of a family photo of the Sherfs in Germany. They show Martin Bormann , Dr Mengeles among other future leading Nazis when they were in their late teens. We then learn that a particular young member of the Sherf family was groomed to be a spy in the USA…
And while George Sherf may not ring a bell the name Bush should .
Because it was this family that G.H.W Bush came from as did his son… George W Bush.
Oilmen. Texas.
And it was through this family that came the 1rst and 2nd war in Iraq, …using the now proven ruse of ‘weapons of mass destruction’… as a justification…
And the fruits of that grasp for middle eastern oil has resulted in the de stabilization of that region today.
So much for the benign, peaceful end goals of lifting humanity out of suffering and raising the quality of the human experience by the far right wing capitalist…. it is no co-incidence that someone once said ” all wars are bankers wars”…..
The countries in which there has been the greatest improvement in living standards and the greatest falls in poverty, China and India, do not have welfare systems, which negates your claim progress has been driven by the masses demanding them. Progress in these countries has been caused by the state getting out of the way of human ingenuity.
Orly – no infrastructure requirement then?
Well, Matt, at least if you are in China and disagree with the system, your family gets to pay for the bullet they execute you with.
I presume you get a receipt to remember you by.
Great system eh.
What they do have is our exported pollution. I mean your claims of capitalism being some how technologically superior?
In terms of what?
Hiding factory wast in China maybe?
Yes….but the counterpoint to the neo liberal is we do not like to beat around the BUSH … particularly G H.B Bush to which that man who was a senior rank in the CIA was arrested by the Dallas Police force in Dealey Plaza and then quietly released and driven away in a squad car as the crowd booed and jeered… , no record of the arrest, no record of questions asked, nothing….
Arrested while trying to escape from the Dal Tex building directly behind where JFK was murdered…
Also present at the scene was E Howard Hunt… senior CIA black ops man who listed the main instigators on his death bed…
And while you say this has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the topic at hand, no relevance to NZ whatsoever , no bearing at all….. I will have to say , ‘ Oh yes,… but indeed it does ‘…
Why?… because it demonstrates clearly and graphically that whole takeover bid by nameless faceless financiers using deep govt individuals to direct and control media narratives, weaken western democracy’s and their economy’s with the main objectives of bringing about a cashless, western global political and economic system that doesn’t recognize any one nations exclusive democratic sovereignty…
Sound like the disjointed rantings of a mad man?
Think again.
And then view the Farewell Speech of Dwight D Eisenhower Jan 17th , 1961.
And there you will find Eisenhower specifically addresses the incoming President ( JFK ) to our ( USA and by implication the West ) democratic society’s need to guard against the threat of an unwarranted , over-powerful and covert military industrial complex.
Possibly Eisenhower was among one of the last great advocates for open democracy of the American Presidents.
Since the death of JFK there has been a steady decline in governmental openness , a famous example being the Watergate scandals… and who just happened to be present ?
E.Howard Hunt . Ex CIA senior operative… who also ?… Frank Sturgis , CIA ,…Sturgis , who JFK’s lawyer Mark Lane listed as one of the assassins of JFK…as well as E Howard Hunt later on in his death bed confessions…
( Interestingly , both Hunt and G H.B Bush both set up office in the White House under Nixon…no other CIA or ex CIA official had ever had that privilege before…)
The rest is history . And the point of all this?… the point is simply that these characters were but bit players , ruthless totalitarian style hatchet men for someone else…and that someone else has no interest whatsoever with either the advancement in a benign fashion for humanity nor any desire to allow democracy to thwart their plans of globalization and geopolitical hegemony … this historical example serves only as a reminder of the type of caliber of people we are dealing with…
With their murderous yes men lackeys allegedly endorsing the ‘ free democratic world ‘ and the ‘ free market’… these ‘someone else’s’ idea of human advancement , altruistic ideals and democracy is only useful so far as it serves its immediate purpose , – and after that it is simply discarded as unnecessary baggage that would get in their way.
And with the advancement of the Chicago school of economics during the 1960’s and travelling ambassadors such as Milton Freidmann ,… the advent of Reaganism, Thatcherism , and in NZ – Rogernomics – during the 1980’s.. a more sophisticated method of dealing with troublesome democratic world leaders and social democracy’s evolved… neo liberalism.
Far more subtle, far more vexatious, far more insidious than any one snipers bullet could ever be… falsely virtuous in its presentation , pervasive in its reach into every corner of a society’s economy and thus its control of the public,… it was the perfect front for those ‘someone else’s’ to finally put their globalist plans into action.
I notice in your defense of neo liberalism you cite India and China as examples of a country using the ‘ rugged individual’ approach to pull themselves up by the ‘ bootstraps ‘…. yet deny the massive discrepancy’s in wealth and social class ( particularly India) in those country’s despite your beloved free market dogmas.
But typically ,…like most neo liberal apologists you omit the greater picture – that both China and India are part of the BRIC nations – India, China, Russia , Brazil and South Africa.
All who have totally different versions of governmental styles yet all prospering broadly by being part of that Bloc. This is one of the reasons leaders of the West oppose it…because it makes those nations beyond reach of those nameless, faceless, ‘someone else’s’ that seek to control western notions of national sovereignty through ‘trade agreements’ such as the TTPA and TTI …
And as the OP has stated … it was never those ruthless financiers and bankers , … those ‘someone else’s’ who advanced a society – (whether they chose to back communism or fascism or somewhere in between) – it was always when ‘the harnessing of the state ‘ by truly democratic means by the people was achieved that true humanitarian advancement could ever truly and properly be made.
And that , …. my dear Mr Hooten ,…. was essentially the whole point behind Dwight D Eisenhower’s Farewell Speech of Jan 17th , 1961.
The ever vigilant guarding and preservation of democracy both from without and from within of those forces that would seek to undermine the democratic processes…
And just to remind you , … that I , – and most other rational thinking people would never consider that you , – a mere paid PR consultancy firm CEO for the National party of NZ could EVER in any way shape or form – EVER – be compared to the exemplary credentials of Dwight D Eisenhower , President of the United States of America , 20TH January 1953 – January 20th , 1961.
History ,… can be such a great teacher.
Thus Mathew Hooton neatly proves Cris Trotter’s point in regard to the right wing confusion over causation and correlation.
A simpleton’s remark.
If you want ingenuity look at Cuba:
http://www.cuba-solidarity.org.uk/news/article/2911/a-year-of-achievement-for-cuban-healthcare#.VpahzSmRn8M.facebook
“In June, Cuba became the first country in the world to receive validation from the World Health Organisation (WHO) to successfully achieve the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.”
“Cuba has created a world-class healthcare system and is at the forefront of biotechnology and medical research, despite being under blockade for over half a century, which prevents access to many crucial medicines and equipment.
According to the World Bank, the United States spends almost 20 times what Cuba spends per head per year ($8,553 to $431) on healthcare and yet Cuba has a lower infant mortality rate than the US and a similar life expectancy.”
“Cuba’s vaccine development continues to be among the best in the world. Cimavax is a lung cancer vaccine that can suppress the growth of tumours in the lungs allowing for a stable stage of the illness, prolonging life.
The Molecular Immunology Centre of Havana, a Cuban state-owned organisation, is the creator of Cimavax and has also developed vaccines for meningitis B, hepatitis B and dengue fever. These drugs are free and universally available for patients in Cuba.”
Any increase in GDP in either India or China has been the result of greedy international corporations making good use of the cheap labour in both these countries, but despite this poverty is still rife.
I do hope you don’t believe the garbage you write.
132,000 girls aged 1-4 die in India from sex discrimination every year and 39,000 die similarly in China. This is the wonderful improvement in living conditions that happens when the state gets out of the way.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sex_ratio
Matthew, you could just as easily assert that Western progress was at it’s highest during imperial expansion into North America, Africa, Latin America, etc, by Britain and other colonial powers.
As for your laughable claim that “progress in these countries [China?] has been caused by the state getting out of the way of human ingenuity” – you’re being a bit disingenuous, Matthew. You know as well as I do that many Chinese corporations are SOEs or part-owned by the Chinese government. (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_government-owned_companies_of_China)
Of these these SOEs is China Southern Airlines, which received a handout from National in 2011. (I could provide a link to that, but Key’s statement seems to have been removed from the National Party website. However, it still exists on Scoop.)
ref: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1104/S00190/pm-greets-inaugural-flight-from-china.htm
So, Matthew, the “state getting out of the way of human ingenuity” seems to be heavily funded by taxpayers the world over.
Personally I think that the average steel factory worker in Guangzhou would have been better off in 1975 — given that under the ‘iron rice bowl’ system, he would have got a wage, free health care, subsidized accomodation, and 3 square meals. He may not have been able to buy iPads or what ever, but he would have been comfortable.
The same worker in 2015 wouldnt be so lucky.
“Progress in these countries has been caused by the state getting out of the way of human ingenuity.”
Lol
dont you mean
“Progress in these countries has been caused by the state getting out of the way of Corruption, environmental degradation, human rights abuses and sometimes out right murder”
But i suppose if you gauge living standards by how much wine and popcorn sales have improved your all good …
‘China and India do not have welfare systems’ – neither does America. Fragmented. Fickle. Subject to the needs of politicians to ‘look good’ with donors. And America seems to lack enough ingenuity to improve the minds and lives of its workers. (It was ever thus…)
Both these countries – India and China – are now moving into a stage of development where their populations are surviving longer. Some form of ‘welfare’, as you term it, is looming. Hopefully, they will do it better than we have.
One critical step will be avoiding the machinations of ‘insurance’ companies. Parasitic entities inevitable in capitalist environments. (Fund managers. Ha! If they had to invest their own capital and live on the earnings they’d perform miracles. But they don’t. Do they.)
Thank you for an illuminating article, Chris. I have always disliked the right-wing meme that ‘socialism is a failed policy’. The test has never been fair. All the already-rich, advanced, industrialised nations have always been capitalist, as well as imperialist, colonialist, and inclined to dominating other countries, and blackballing plus sabotaging any socialist economies.
I once had an economist tell me that Argentina had been one of the richest countries in the world in terms of wealth per capita, but had squandered it all through socialism. When I looked the facts up for myself, I found that Argentina was not a heavily industrialised country: its wealth had been based on primary industries only, and it seems to be a truism that primary-industry-based wealth never lasts long. NZ should know that. The middle-men will always screw over the primary-producers: only the big industrial magnates can control and use the middle-men.
All the countries with our ‘democratic’ tradition happen to be capitalist.
Socialism and Communism have been tried only in under-industrialised countries with a) a high poverty level (this includes Russia) and b) a tradition of despotic, tyrannical government. (This also includes Russia.)
Russia is so big that its industrialised sector can actually compete with most Western countries, but it was eventually exhausted by the arms race with the much more powerful USA.
Neither Socialism nor any other well-meant method of government is likely to suddenly succeed in such countries. With hindsight, the great ‘Communist’ leader Stalin can actually be seen as the latest in a series of despotic, cruel Tsars. Whether he was Communist did not matter – he ruled Russia with a rod of iron just as every previous great Tsar had had to do.
Right-wingers are often wilfully ignorant of the more intricate points of history: they prefer simple slogans that promote their cause.
Yes China may be a rough justice place but at least we see the situation as it is but do we know how we are being screwed in the back here?
Here we just have government rob our taxpayers money to allow foreign Corporations to come here to rape pillage. destroy lives and families right?
It had very little to do with the arguments presented here.
The real reason western nations prospered and why the ‘peasants’ in western nations got a share of the action was:
a. the theft of resources from militarily weaker nations and conquered nations during the colonial period
b. the increasing availability of fossil fuels (mostly stolen)
c. the manipulation of economies and currencies by the winners of wars.
Those games that were built on those foundations are rapidly coming to an end.
Global conventional oil peaked over 2005-2008 and unconventional oil is in failure mode.
Western nations can still steal from weaker nations and manipulate economies and currencies, but without an expanding energy supply the global economic system game comes to an end.
The manipulation game also comes to an end when a revitalised Russia and a revitalised China decide they have had enough of western bullying and imperialism.
Expect a return to normality (14th century-style living) over the next decade, with the added hazard of abrupt climate change to make life just a bit more miserable. But at least we won’t have television, corporatized sport, cars, helicopters, consumerism, obesity etc. to contend with.
Some of it (industrial civilisation) was nice while it lasted but there was more bad than good.
Personally think the best ideology for people is social democracy, i.e. what we used to enjoy in NZ and is being eroded by neoliberalism.
Socialism/Communism under Russia and China with the lack of freedom Vs USA where under capitalism apparently town water is not considered a human right and a significant percentage of the population lives in poverty. While the US has the most high powered weapons and occupying the middle east for 15 years also being unable to assist their own people from starving to death during Cyclone Katrina. Priorities are clear. Inequality is accelerating in the US in the last few years.
“In the NELP’s report “The Low Wage Recovery: Industry Employment and Wages Four Years Into the Recovery,” researchers found that there were now 2.3 million more of the lowest-paying jobs, 700,000 fewer middle-income positions and more than a half million fewer higher-paying jobs.
“And while Yellen and her colleagues, with their Inspector Clouseau magnifying glass, are unable to find inflation, there is plenty of evidence of deflation of the wages Americans are earning. NELP found this past Labor Day that wages in the 800 lowest-paying occupations they surveyed had actually declined by 5.7 percent from 2009 to 2014. Mid-level wage-paying positions saw a 2.6 decline in the real median wage while the best-paying jobs saw a 3 percent slide.
We are settling into a new feudalism where income disparity and wealth inequality are actually accelerating, and hardwired into the economy. ”
Capitalism is now turning into Feudalism.
http://linkis.com/Yip5I
Capitalism has always been feudalism. The difference isn’t due to capitalism but due to democracy. Even the half-arsed version that we have has brought about significant changes. You’ll also note that neo-liberalism has been emplaced against the will of the people in most places.
That’s actually wrong:
What we’ve seen is an decrease in child mortality and that’s been mostly since WWII. In other words, what the RWNJs claim as something to do with capitalism has far more to do with the socialism that was brought in after the Great Depression.
“made possible the supply of pure drinking water, and the safe disposal of dangerous waste”
Even in this country we’re still waiting.
Landfill. Send it out to sea. How short-sighted can you be???!
And the funny part is – though there’s money to be made, private enterprise is still too cautious to proceed.
It’ll have to be government backed and promoted – as usual.
C’mon the left-of-centre (particularly the Greens) – rattle your dags.
There is no such thing as a “free market” it always comes at a huge cost, as the ‘free market” has only enslaved humanity for the wealthy, power hungry elites.