Capitalism and Socialism, the Ying and Yang of Economic and political theory

Watching the current state of Capitalism, with the ever increasing amount of wealth going to the top 1% of billionaires, while more and more people are pushed into poverty, and while the middle-class is finding it increasingly difficult to afford a house, even with a lifetime of mortgage, I'm convinced that there will be an imminent collapse. Some of you may be skeptical, but hear me out.

While it's difficult to accurately pinpoint when that may happen, nature has shown that unbalanced systems do not last very long, and the forces that bring it back to equilibrium are often swift and violent. We live on planet with finite natural resources, which have been decimated to the point where not just species, but entire ecosystems are collapsing, and the amount of CO2 pushed into the atmosphere is causing fires and storms to grow larger and larger. 

We've also as of 2020 hit another deadly enemy with COVID-19. Not only has this highlighted the fragility of the current system, but has also clearly shown that the middle-class are the pillars that keep it going. We saw how important, some of the most underpaid workers, such as teachers, nurses and farmers are to the economy. We even came up with a new term for them: "Essential Workers".  We also saw how even with their immense wealth, billionaires couldn't or perhaps wouldn't do anything when something like a pandemic, or Climate Change itself shook these pillars. So we quickly forced them back to work, to ensure we could keep things going.

Before I go much further, here's a graph from Wikipedia(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribution_of_wealth) showing the level of global inequality   as it's gotten worse between 2010 and 2015, and which has been getting progressively worse since about the 1970's.

And here's another chart(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos), showing how Jeff Bezos's wealth, which has doubled since as late as 2017, bringing it to a whopping 185 billion as of this writing.

If you've read this far, you might be thinking that I'm a Socialist, as much of what I've said aligns with Karl Marx's(founder of the tenets of Socialism) who also believed that Capitalist economies were unstable and would eventually be replaced by Socialism. 

While I do agree with that last statement, I'm not a fan of Socialism, because I've previously lived in a Socialist country, and noticed how it decimated trade that would've naturally occurred, ultimately resulting in long lines for basic commodities such as food and gas, and the general population longing to escape to richer lands. In the 90's we witnessed first hand how the last of the Socialist countries converted to Capitalist ones.

I do like the theory of Socialism, in that no one person can hoard large portions of wealth that were created by society as a whole. Or that you don't need to worry about losing your job and becoming homeless. Or worry that you can't afford healthcare. Growing up I never had to worry about my parents losing their jobs, or our home, although the waits in queues for food or gas could be hours long. I also like the theory of Capitalism where someone who is ingenious and creative can bring about products that benefit society and through hard work establish a better life for themselves.

In its implementation however, Socialism especially is very quickly corrupted by those who seek money and power over kindness and humanity. You don't need to look far back in history to see that in leaders such as Stalin or Mao and the damage they caused. Even if you look at the modern pseudo-Socialist country of China, which ironically has become the center of manufacturing for the worldwide Capitalist system, it's easy to see how democracy and freedom-of-thought are stifled by that government.

Capitalism is slightly less prone to corruption, because initially the power and wealth is well distributed in the hands of people that are competing against each other. Once they start to conglomerate through Mergers and Acquisitions, it doesn't take long for a monopoly to form in the form of large corporations that can spend billions to put any startup competition out of business or to swallow them up, and continue to drive prices into absurd levels ,pushing more and more people into poverty.

I believe both systems, Capitalism and Socialism, when first initiated serve the will of the general public. That same general public is very aware and vigilant about not allowing the system to be manipulated and corrupted. With time however, the greediest and most aggressive learn how to take advantage of the system to twist it to benefit them and put ever-increasing money in their pockets, depriving those who work legitimately within the system. As a result, the general public becomes disillusioned with either system, and stop caring about making it better, or at least keeping it beneficial to society as a whole. It is at this stage that increasingly dictatorial leaders come about to try and force both systems to stay afloat through force and fear-mongering. Once that starts happening, it is a sign that the system will collapse.

So in conclusion, as I said at the beginning, we're very close to the collapse of the current Capitalist system, and the instability in the natural environment, and the large scale inequality we're witnessing will inevitably bring it about. If I had to guess I'd say within a couple of decades. What it will be replaced by will be interesting, as many people are wary of pure Socialism. If Socialism is implemented, it will corrupt as well, and the cycle will continue.

There is a way we could avoid this cycle, and especially the violent transitions between the two systems, but that's a topic for my next blog post.