As we trudge toward accepting the fact that consumerism and capitalism are the new norms, we gradually forget that it’s just another human-invented system, not some god-delivered commandment. Which only means that these laws are not impeccable. Many renowned personalities and thinkers are staunch disbelievers of these well-established theories.
Malcolm X said, “ You show me a capitalist, and I’ll show you a bloodsucker.”
The reason for this global collective approval of an erroneous system that pervades our general conscience is that the majority of social classes fall into, or, I should say, depend on, the whole notion, directly or indirectly.
Capitalism, recently in its brightest glory, has taken numerous human lives and is on its way to tying a knot around this habitat too. It is not just the grim and despondent view of numerous sweatshops and various financial maneuvers played by the leading financial organizations that are jeopardizing and pushing countless lives to the edge of the cliff. But the world, as our distant predecessors saw it—the world which was ever more violent with war and pestilence yet a healthy and sustainable place to live in—is in grave danger. As I am writing this, my country has taken a turn for the worse, both environmentally and in various socio-economic conditions.
Even while capitalism appears to be a fantastic mechanism for economic expansion, the system as a whole will fail if some fundamental parts are corrupt and there are no boundaries protecting integrity. If the government and those in charge of large enterprises simply care about themselves and their own benefit, capitalism cannot function. For starters, capitalism by itself, if all the policies and regulations are maintained, couldn’t harm as much as it does now.
To give some historical context so as not to be bogged down by narrow framing. According to a research journal, about 90% of the global population was below the poverty line until the 1800s. And we all know how industrialization in the West and colonialization in the East brought about the revolution. Although some argue it is the other way around, like in Barioch’s work “Economics and World History”. This is a topic for another time. As the West basked in the looted (as Shashi Tharoor claims) glory of industrialization, many private institutions sprung up and employed millions.
First off, it is improbable that, before the advent of capitalism, 90% of the world’s population experienced terrible poverty. In the past, unskilled urban laborers in every region often earned enough money to work 250 days a year, or 12 months, to maintain a family of four over the poverty line.
The gross exploitation is felt with greater intensity in this 4th industrial revolution than ever before. As the world of finance becomes more complex and incomprehensible. There are instruments like derivatives and a whole assortment of compound debt instruments. An average person will only understand so much so that he can protect himself from such vulnerability. As the global financial shocks come knocking at the door, out goes the derivatives and bond issuers and also their cronies. All that is left in the wake is devastated and shocked onlookers. This is not just in the West but the ripple effect ultimately destitute the already impoverished and underdeveloped parts.
Global financial structures have forced austerity and privatization and siphoned enormous sums of money out of poor countries into rich ones, depriving the former of public services and leaving them strapped for cash and medical supplies. These structures include the trade regime, the “structural adjustment” policies pushed by international financial institutions (IFIs), debt servicing, and tax havens. The money is flowing upward only. Regardless of our economic endeavors, there appears to be a consistent trend wherein financial resources gravitate towards the affluent, reinforcing the notion that wealth tends to accumulate among the privileged echelons of society.
Although there are twelve to fourteen billion people on the planet, there are only about two billion who are chronically hungry or malnourished. More paradoxically, almost 70% of these are small-scale farmers and agricultural laborers in the Global South who grow food.
Ruse in the name of free trade?
The whole parody of neoliberalism has silently yet efficiently helped the global rich in achieving their means. The organizations like WTO have been imposing tricky and paradoxical policies on developing countries in the name of opening up the market and showering them with trade benefits while in reality capturing them in the Sisyphean cycle. Under the auspices of neoliberalism, and driven by these and other Washington Consensus (so named because of its D.C. headquarters), structural adjustment policies, or SAPs, have been implemented to guarantee debt repayment and economic restructuring.
However, the process that has led to this has forced developing nations to cut back on spending on areas like health, education, and development in favor of prioritizing debt repayment and other economic measures. Essentially, impoverished countries have been forced to reduce their citizens’ level of living by the IMF and World Bank.
It is quite unnoticeable when these organizations so good-heartedly proffer to these third-world countries with very gracious sums of loans and trade advantages like slashing off of tariffs and granting FTAs. But we all remember the unprecedented and quite relentless and aggressive growth in the post-Cold War era called the “Japanese Economic Miracle”. With heavy industrialization and the devaluation of currency, the export market boomed. The US and its ilks took it as a threat to their global monopoly. So, they arranged the very debatable “Plaza Accord” to curb the growth of the Japanese economy. The policies and frameworks imposed by the West were acquiesced by the very polite and amenable Japanese leaders in 1985. The ultimate result was the devaluation of the Dollar against the Yen, resulting in the export barrier for Japan. This was a boon for the United States, leading to an increase in exports and a lowering of its trade deficit with many Western European countries.
The point is, that these global giants have been utilizing their self-made agreements to their benefit manipulating global trade. And I don’t hold these recipient countries culpable for assisting the West to implement its policies on their soil. Because the fluctuations, discrepancies, and deficits in the finance sector are maneuvered by global organizations, they come with utmost goodwill to help these poor countries come out of poverty, or so they say.
This way they have redesigned it into a modern-day plundering and looting. This cycle will continue until the economically impoverished and gullible countries learn to make their economy self-sufficient through industrialization at their own expense and embolden their stance against such subterfuge that the North employs on the global South.
Is a nice article to realise the democracy. Every individuals & politicians speak for democracy, but not working as they like.