I’m Anti-Capitalist — Five Reasons Why

by Hank Pellissier

Seven million people marched on No Kings Day, mostly neoliberal Democrats. I marched too, I want the end of the Trump regime, but I’m more cynical than blue team protestors because I believe:

Capitalism —> Oligarchy —> Tyranny

I’m not a Democrat. Its ridiculous to view them as saviors of democracy when they’ve manipulated their last three primaries, but more than that, its insipid to not realize at this point in USA history that the very reason we ended up with the horrible orange fascist is because most Americans, especially in the two major parties, have been indoctrinated to accept hyper-capitalism.

Any nation that values profit over people and greediness over egalitarianism is destined for autocracy.

Open your eyes, fellow citizens. Rupert Murdock, Jeff Bezos, and a small handful of jumbo corporations control most of our major media. Political campaign financing overwhelmingly favors the wealthy. Foreign wars are promoted to enrich the bloody elite. Our politics are manipulated by psychopathic hoarders who don’t care about the well-being of you and I and rest of the 99%. The USA is the richest nation in the world with 735 billionaires and a military larger than the next 10 nations combined but we don’t have public health insurance, our colleges cost a fortune, our life expectancy lags behind most developed nations, and 42% of our adults are obese. We’re sick, but our disease is easy to diagnose: Unchecked Capitalism.

It disgusts me to watch gullible Americans fall for the same shenanigans utilized by Hitler, Mussolini, Franco and Pinochet. In their nations, economic insecurity was created by capitalism, but social revolution never had a chance because tyrants distracted them with fake bogeymen issues like immigration, law & order, and religious morality. The dictators were aided, of course, by rich pigs who bankrolled fascism to crush the left - and protect capitalism.

Hannah Arendt observed that a society atomized and alienated by capitalism will seek community in totalitarian movements. Marx and Engels predicted the capitalist elite would abandon democracy to preserve their wealth. Herbert Marcuse notes that consumerism primes citizenry for authoritarianism because both breed conformism. Rosa Luxemburg wrote: “Bourgeois society [will] either transition to socialism or barbarism.”

Here’s five simple, obvious reasons why I am fervently anti-capitalist:

Capitalism Creates Extreme Inequality. In the USA the top 1% own 30% of the wealth, the bottom 50% own 2% of the wealth. This is the result of ownership creating more wealth than labor, with wealth flowing upward, not down.

Capitalism Corrupts Democracy. In the USA, money makes the rules. Corporations manipulate media and invest billions in politics to create laws that elevate their profits. The government serves capital not citizens, and “democracy” is inaccessible to the poor.

Capitalism Distorts Human Purpose. Americans are brainwashed to believe human value can only be measured by wealth, and happiness can only be purchased. We seek careers with high salaries and zero fulfillment. Our lives are directed by the marketplace.

Capitalism Undermines Human Solidarity. We are trained to exploit each other in our competitive culture. We view each other as customers and every relationship is seen as a transaction for profit. Rivalries and isolation replace the joys of cooperation and community.

Capitalism Destroys the Planet. Forests, rivers, and oceans are treated as commodities to be stripped for profit. Pursuit of economic growth threatens us with ecological collapse. To save Earth, we need an economy focused on regeneration, not extraction.

What is the alternative to laissez-faire capitalism? I have two suggestions that aren’t much considered yet:

1. Limitarianism. Dutch ethicist Ingrid Robeyns believes no one needs, or deserves to have, more than $10 million. Individual wealth greater than that should be redirected to serve the public’s needs: education, health, infrastructure, housing. This proposal goes far further than Thomas Piketty’s suggested “no billionaires” reform.

2. Ambedkarite Buddhist Socialism. India’s social reformer B. R. Ambedkar wanted an egalitarian society based on his own reinterpretation of Buddhism. Unlike Marx, he believed his utopia could be achieved non-violently via moral transformation of the public. His economics prioritizes human welfare over profit and prabuddha samāj (enlightenment, i.e., compassion, liberty, equality, fraternity, rationality) over material accumulation.

Either of these solutions would steer the USA populace into a truly gracious democracy, where we’d be far happier than we’d ever be under the capitalist reign of either today’s blue or red team.

“We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable - but then, so did the divine right of kings. ‘ - Ursela K. LeGuin