Before we come up with a single thought of our own about why some people are rich and others are poor, some successful others not successful we are told we live in a meritocracy. A society where the rich are rich because they are the most productive people in society. We are told the smartest hardest working people are the ones who succeed. We are told the poor are poor because they’re not very productive. They are lazy and less intelligent.
Furthermore we are told that any effort by the government to redistribute income and wealth from the rich to the poor will reduce economic growth, because it will take money from the most productive among us thereby reducing their incentives and give it to the least productive further reducing their motivations to work hard.
According to this logic, all social programs that redistribute income should be eliminated because they reduce the incentives of the recipients to work hard and provide for themselves and their families. The billionaires deserve to be the ruling class because they are the smartest, most creative hardest working people among us.
This meritocracy notion is further drilled into us as soon as we enter school. We are told the smartest and hardest working students will be getting the highest grades and the less intelligent less motivated students will get the lower grades with no other social or cultural factors relevant.
This story is so pervasive it is very hard to upend. However, every once in a while, something comes along to make us question it. For example, during Covid it was necessary to designate who were the essential workers in society. The billionaires and those whose incomes depended mostly on dividends and stock market appreciation were not on the list.
This raises some interesting questions.
Maybe the real wealth creators are the people actually doing the work of bringing food to our tables, taking our garbage away, caring for us when we are sick, making our clothing, educating our kids, building the roads, airports, harbors, water systems and all the public infrastructure we depend on? Maybe the billionaires got that way by exploiting their workers, profiting from a monopoly, insider trading, political payoffs, fraud or inheritance or something else totally unrelated to their supposed creative genius?
Maybe it’s the working classes who make society and the economy run that are the actual wealth creators and are the vast majority and should be the ruling class?
Maybe they don’t need the billionaire oligarchs or their capitalist bosses? Maybe they could collectively and democratically decide what is produced, how it is produced, and to whom it is distributed?
"Maybe it’s the working classes who make society and the economy run that are the actual wealth creators and are the vast majority and should be the ruling class?"
What you are describing is the perfect communist system. A Marxian critique of capitalism.
As Caitlin is warning us here, the organised capitalist societies - specially the neoliberal capitalism of US/West - condition and brainwash the masses not to think outside the box. Communism was interpreted as the horror that will take away their freedoms. And boy! didn't they lap it up!
well, that's socialism/communism, and if there's one thing truly etched in the american mind, the prime example of this 'how to think'-notion and 'permitted thinking framework', it is 'socialism/communism bad'. they're so worried about it, they're gonna put anti-communist education in the curriculum.
Before we come up with a single thought of our own about why some people are rich and others are poor, some successful others not successful we are told we live in a meritocracy. A society where the rich are rich because they are the most productive people in society. We are told the smartest hardest working people are the ones who succeed. We are told the poor are poor because they’re not very productive. They are lazy and less intelligent.
Furthermore we are told that any effort by the government to redistribute income and wealth from the rich to the poor will reduce economic growth, because it will take money from the most productive among us thereby reducing their incentives and give it to the least productive further reducing their motivations to work hard.
According to this logic, all social programs that redistribute income should be eliminated because they reduce the incentives of the recipients to work hard and provide for themselves and their families. The billionaires deserve to be the ruling class because they are the smartest, most creative hardest working people among us.
This meritocracy notion is further drilled into us as soon as we enter school. We are told the smartest and hardest working students will be getting the highest grades and the less intelligent less motivated students will get the lower grades with no other social or cultural factors relevant.
This story is so pervasive it is very hard to upend. However, every once in a while, something comes along to make us question it. For example, during Covid it was necessary to designate who were the essential workers in society. The billionaires and those whose incomes depended mostly on dividends and stock market appreciation were not on the list.
This raises some interesting questions.
Maybe the real wealth creators are the people actually doing the work of bringing food to our tables, taking our garbage away, caring for us when we are sick, making our clothing, educating our kids, building the roads, airports, harbors, water systems and all the public infrastructure we depend on? Maybe the billionaires got that way by exploiting their workers, profiting from a monopoly, insider trading, political payoffs, fraud or inheritance or something else totally unrelated to their supposed creative genius?
Maybe it’s the working classes who make society and the economy run that are the actual wealth creators and are the vast majority and should be the ruling class?
Maybe they don’t need the billionaire oligarchs or their capitalist bosses? Maybe they could collectively and democratically decide what is produced, how it is produced, and to whom it is distributed?
Maybe a just and sustainable world is possible?
Michael Zimmerman, Thank you for your lucid post.
"Maybe it’s the working classes who make society and the economy run that are the actual wealth creators and are the vast majority and should be the ruling class?"
What you are describing is the perfect communist system. A Marxian critique of capitalism.
As Caitlin is warning us here, the organised capitalist societies - specially the neoliberal capitalism of US/West - condition and brainwash the masses not to think outside the box. Communism was interpreted as the horror that will take away their freedoms. And boy! didn't they lap it up!
well, that's socialism/communism, and if there's one thing truly etched in the american mind, the prime example of this 'how to think'-notion and 'permitted thinking framework', it is 'socialism/communism bad'. they're so worried about it, they're gonna put anti-communist education in the curriculum.
👏👏 Well said!