“It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” This quote, originally stated by political theorist Fredric Jameson and reintroduced in the 21st century by the late writer Mark Fisher, encompasses our modern understanding of our economic and political condition.
We are often taught that the only functioning economic system — the only one that can, has and will work — is capitalism. Capitalism is an ideological position that relentlessly values profit over people; as a result, we have started to see the world through a lens of profitization.
When debates about minimum wage, universal health care and other social programs that exist in almost every other nation of the United States’ economic standing take place, the same arguments against them are invariably expressed — they would raise taxes or, especially in the case of health care, negatively impact the profits of those industries, resulting in more expensive products.
We are at a point where 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, according to a recent LendingClub report cited by CNBC. Some people claim that it’s because people are getting lazier, but workers have been more productive than ever.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states that between 1979 and 2020, worker productivity has grown by 61.8%, while wages have increased by 17.5%.
Along with this, a Federal Reserve Economic Data report reveals that the Consumer Price Index — a unit used to measure costs of consumer goods such as food, housing, clothes, taxes and more — has increased from 69.9 points in 1979 to 259.57 points in 2018, an increase of 189.67 units. Our lives are getting more expensive, and we are working harder; however, our wages are staying stagnant, widening the gap.
Raising the minimum wage, improving work benefits and implementing programs like free health care and free college tuition do raise taxes. That’s a fact that no one can hide. However, instead of using taxes for outdated infrastructures such as the prison-industrial complex, the military-industrial complex, controlling borders and militarized policing, what if we were to put our effort toward programs that are necessary to sustain life?
Along with that, what if instead of living under what is essentially a dictatorship of our labor power for eight or more hours a day, we democratize the workplace?
The phrase “dictatorship of labor” will yield reactionary responses, but that’s what it is. We, the working class, have little to no say about how our wages are handled, how our work is handled, or how any real decisions at our jobs are handled.
We go to work, follow instructions for eight hours a day, and have little say in how we do our work and what is done on the premises of our jobs.
We lack control over how profits from our labor are spent and how much we earn. Then, we have the threat of getting fired at any moment if our bosses want us gone — while we are expected to give more than a two-week notice before leaving. The standards set for jobs are one-sided and unjust.
Workers are expected to give their all to their jobs, yet they get a fraction of their effort back in benefits. We think of these dictatorial ideas of labor as fundamental concepts to how we live, but we don’t have to. Jobs can be run democratically, with elected boards of workers who can manage jobs in ways that factor in the needs of workers.
Workers can collectively own companies’ profits, instead of workers’ wages being stagnant regardless of how much companies are making.
No, this isn’t as profitable for corporations that pay minimum wage to every employee, from an entry-level 15-year-old minor to an experienced 75-year-old employee. Nevertheless, when our purpose is used to create profit, we lose what makes us human.
Honestly, I am not satisfied with how little I’m able to communicate within the confines of a single column, but a few things remain clear. Workers are working harder but earning less. At the same time, every aspect of life costs more, and Americans don’t have complementary benefits like free health care, higher minimum wages or anything to hold our society together as a collective.
Instead, we are left as poor individuals fighting for our own lives in an economy that does not value us. The effects of capitalism run deeper than any valley, longer than any river, contain more words than any book and have effects that may just cost us our world.
The class contradictions are sharpening, and capitalism can’t be fought with a dull blade of electoral politics and peaceful protests. Capitalism is not geared to us; capitalism is not geared to the betterment of society. A future is possible, and a better future is not capitalism.
Zachary Weiser is in the 11th grade at Warwick High School.
