In a recent discussion the idea was put forward that capitalism is a good system: every person has a right to manage their own self and in making contracts between employer and employee both stand equal before the law. But how can this be? Under capitalism, millions of people (the vast majority) are forced to sell their labour in order to gain bread and shelter, or else live miserably if they cannot. In the UK it means life on benefits: a subsistence level, a life lived in scorn under the label ‘claimant’. In other countries it means begging or starvation.
This alone makes the suggestion of equality before the law nothing more than pious empty words, even more so when it is considered how and by whom those laws are made. Not by the disenfranchised people struggling to find employment, for sure, but by those with wealth and social influence. The law is skewed in the favour of the capitalist, and under capitalism it will always be the case.
This is why we seek a more equal society, without the social control of government and state, and without the private ownership of capital. A society in which we can all associate freely, as individuals and communities to meet our needs and maintain the dignity of the individual.
Equal under capitalism?
In a recent discussion the idea was put forward that capitalism is a good system: every person has a right to manage their own self and in making contracts between employer and employee both stand equal before the law. But how can this be? Under capitalism, millions of people (the vast majority) are forced to sell their labour in order to gain bread and shelter, or else live miserably if they cannot. In the UK it means life on benefits: a subsistence level, a life lived in scorn under the label ‘claimant’. In other countries it means begging or starvation.
This alone makes the suggestion of equality before the law nothing more than pious empty words, even more so when it is considered how and by whom those laws are made. Not by the disenfranchised people struggling to find employment, for sure, but by those with wealth and social influence. The law is skewed in the favour of the capitalist, and under capitalism it will always be the case.
This is why we seek a more equal society, without the social control of government and state, and without the private ownership of capital. A society in which we can all associate freely, as individuals and communities to meet our needs and maintain the dignity of the individual.