Working-Class
Capitalism
Many arguments against socialism in America
hinge on the claim that bringing socialism into our nation would mean to
radically transform our society in a way that has never been done before. These
types of arguments fundamentally miss the appeal of American Socialism because
they ignore the development of socialism in America. As a socialist, my values
are deeply rooted in American history; a history that many people have been
deeply misled about. There was a long process of labor movements making
substantial improvements to our economy first represented by Republicans from
the time of Abraham Lincoln till the time of Theodore Roosevelt then championed
by the Democrats with FDR’s New Deal thru Truman’s Presidency till the 60s when
multiple labor leaders including MLK Jr. were assassinated leaving the movement
in disarray. After that, mainstream American politicians and media succeeded in
rebranding greed-is-good trickle-down as the only form of capitalism while
continuing the decades-long vilification of the working-class labor movement as
radical socialism; “Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance
the people have made in the last 20 years… Socialism is their name for almost
anything that helps all the people. When the Republican candidate inscribes the
slogan ‘Down with Socialism’ on the banner of his ‘great crusade,’ that is
really not what he means at all. What he really means is ‘Down with Progress”
(Harry Truman, 1952). That progress Truman was referring to was created by
working-class capitalist values represented by Theodore Roosevelt’s New
Nationalism that took over the country at the turn of the 20th
century; “I stand for the square deal. But when I say that I am for the square
deal, I mean not merely that I stand for fair play under the present rules of
the game, but that I stand for having those rules changed so as to work for a
more substantial equality of opportunity” (Theodore Roosevelt, 1910). Those
values heavily influenced FDR’s New Deal and it was the economic reforms
spearheaded by working-class US labor movements that created the middle class
and made America great.
For the last 50 years, the mainstream
media has repeatedly misconstrued the interests of workers as socialist and the
interests of the economic elites as capitalist. What has been labeled a
dichotomy of socialism versus capitalism is really better termed corporate
capitalism versus working-class capitalism. As a socialist, I support the
interests of labor which I believe were best served by the early 20th
century American values. Those government-is-good, people-over-profit values
shaped American policy in a way that greatly improved our society. American
Socialism is not a form of imported authoritarianism; it is a return to the proportionally-taxed,
well-regulated version of free-market enterprise that respects human welfare
and the role government plays in an economy. That role consists of establishing
the rules of the economy as well as enforcing those rules to maintain a fair system.
Government legislation represents the will of the people so it also represents
the most potent method of collective bargaining at the disposal of labor.
Government is good, but corruption of our government is holding us back; “The
government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to
execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the
people can act through it” (Henry David Thoreau). Money in politics has been
the main source of the corruption of our government. Americans would benefit
from forcing lobbyist money out of politics so that our representatives do not
serve special interests. Then our representatives need to rewrite the rules of
our economy to establish a more reasonable income and wealth distribution and
hold businesses accountable for their actions; “The Constitution…does not give
the right of suffrage to any corporation…There can be no effective control of
corporations while their political activity remains…Corporate expenditures for
political purposes.., have supplied one of the principal sources of corruption
in our political affairs.” (Theodore Roosevelt, 1910). Socialism isn’t anti-business; it’s against a
type of government corrupting, anti-regulation, “prosperity at any price”
(Theodore Roosevelt, 1910) corporate culture currently dominant in America. We
need to fix the problems of today with the same tools used to fix those same
problems a century ago, “Now, this means that our government, National and
State, must be freed from the sinister influence or control of special
interests…special business interests too often control and corrupt the men and
methods of government for their own profit. We must drive the special interests
out of politics” (Theodore Roosevelt, 1910).
My goal is not to end Capitalism; it is
to return to the working-class Capitalist principles which actually made the American
economy great. To accomplish that, we must end the culture of wealth-worship
and the greed-is-good, taxation-is-theft mentalities which have overtaken our
society. Taxation is a necessary part of a political society according to the
father of capitalism; “The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards
the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their
respective abilities…” (Adam Smith, 1776). I don’t like paying taxes any more
than anyone else but I recognize that the welfare of the state requires public investments
in things like police forces, fire forces, sanitation services, public
education, a military, and infrastructure; all of which require funding. But
not all taxes are equal, “Every tax ought to be levied at the time, or in the
manner, in which it is most likely to be convenient for the contributor to
pay...” (Adam Smith, 1776). I think taxes should be minimized for human beings
struggling to afford living expenses and maximized for businesses and
individuals most able to pay a substantially higher progressive tax rate. In
2021 the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy found that Amazon paid a 6%
tax rate on $35 billion in profit after factoring in tax breaks down from the
21% corporate rate in America; as an individual, you’d pay a higher tax rate
after earning $40,000 a year than some of the most profitable companies in our
country. This is backwards; I want to shift the burden completely away from the
lowest earners in our economy and onto the Fortune 500 companies with billions
in annual profit. Additionally, “I believe in a graduated income tax on big
fortunes, and in another tax which is far more easily collected and far more
effective-a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded
against evasion, and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate”
(Theodore Roosevelt, 1910). Taxation is not theft; but the government needs to
maintain responsible oversight on how tax revenue is utilized so we can
minimize how much is collected.
Today, we inherit 50 years of rising
income inequality with the same level of wealth inequality as before the great
depression. In a 2020 Rand Corporation study, “researchers analyzed American
incomes between 1975 and 2018 to determine who is earning less money, who's
earning more money, and where the money has gone… Each year, $2.5 trillion…has
been redistributed from the bottom 90% of Americans to the wealthiest 1% of all
Americans. That's roughly $50 trillion…that used to go to middle-class and
working-class Americans that has instead been rerouted to the pockets of the
top 1%” (Rand Corp., 2020). Which makes it all the more troubling that in 2018
a Government Accountability Office report found that 70% of welfare recipients
in America worked full-time mostly at low wage corporations. The top 5
employers of welfare recipients were Amazon, Walmart, Kroger, McDonalds, and
Dollar General; companies with around $30 Billion in combined profits that same
year. I believe that “No man can be a good citizen unless he has a wage more
than sufficient to cover the bare cost of living, and hours of labor short
enough so after his day’s work is done he will have time and energy to bear his
share in the management of the community” (Theodore Roosevelt, 1910). I think
that the best way to achieve that goal is significantly raising the minimum
wage for corporations with over $100 million in profit, as well as bind
executive pay to average worker pay at a maximum ratio of 50:1, and create a
hefty welfare tax for corporations with more than 1% of their full-time
workforce on welfare. Corporations are a vital aspect of the developed world;
but their executive class and shareholders do not deserve such a large
proportion of the wealth created by collectivized labor and economies of scale;
“To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as nearly as
possible, is a worthy object of any good government” (Abraham Lincoln, 1842). Greed
is not good; the results of Reaganomics are in and it is a disaster. We need to
reframe the economic debate to culturally value labor instead of just capital,
“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of
labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is
the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration” (Abraham
Lincoln, 1861). I am not attached to the term socialism; it would probably be more
accurately called working-class capitalism. But these values are shaped by
American history and should be utilized to truly make America great again. I
believe modern Democratic Socialism is the New Nationalism of the 21st
century; “The object of government is the welfare of the people” (Theodore
Roosevelt, 1910).
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