The Communist, the Capitalist, and the Black President - Essay Example

The Communist, The Capitalist and The Black President Capitalism is synonymous to the rightof the people to own private property. The people are given the liberty to choose what to produce, how to produce and at what costs. The subject of capitalism is incomplete without the incursion of the Marxian Philosophy. Karl Marx believes that the changes in the modes of production are determined by the changes in law, politics and governance and philosophy in the society. His well-known work, the Communist Manifesto, was the first systematic statement of modern socialist doctrine and was written partly on the basis of a draft prepared by Engels. Marx contributed the central propositions of the Manifesto, which embody the materialist conception of history, or historical materialism. This theory was later explicitly formulated in Marx’s Critique of Political Economy in 1859. He emphasized the major periods he perceived in history to begin with primitive communism, then slavery, feudalism and capitalism. He thought that eventually, these various stages in history would end in the stage of socialism (Marx). Karl Marx argued that socialism would provide economic equality, eradicate poverty and provide a utopian society where people could live in social solidarity. How to lay the foundation and eventually operate the structure of socialism that would abolish the so-called latest mode of production which is capitalism is something that Karl Marx wasn’t able to explain in details. Many disgruntled elements of a capitalist society have been attracted to Marx’s philosophy. They view the Marxian doctrine as the best way out of the cruel exploitations and dog-eat-dog jungle associated with the free enterprise economic system. Marx promises an (Last name) 2 economic system where no one takes advantage of another and where everyone is on equal footing with everybody else in society. Who can ask for more? It is in this regard that capitalism will survive even with the temperament of the economic environment. It is not too difficult to identify the dangerous features of Marxian philosophy. Marx downgrades a human being by regarding him as a mere material being. The root of Marxian philosophy is materialism. According to him, only matter matters. Nothing else exists but matter. Man is completely conditioned by the material facts of life. Thus, there is nothing sacred about human life. Every man is merely a pawn that can and should be sacrificed if the good of the communist party should so dictate. Marx’s vision of pure communism is the height of utopia and completely disregards the basic traits of human nature. It is indeed quite difficult to visualize ourselves as unselfish saints who will willingly work for the common good without being motivated by economic rewards. Man is not just a material being. He is both body and soul, flesh and spirit, mind and matter. An economic system is not something that cannot be changed overnight or even by a philosophy of a man whose place in the economic history cannot be denied. An economic system is a response to concrete circumstances faced by the people. Since circumstances vary from one place to another, it follows that there is really no ideal economic system. The best economic system, however, is whatever suits the unique needs of a country, as long as the principles of natural law are respected. (Last Name) 3 Capitalism is also regarded as the free market system and the best expression of this market system is globalization. Globalization is the process of interaction and integration among the people, companies and government of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology. This process has effects on the environment, on culture, political systems, on economic development and prosperity, and on human physical well-being in societies around the world (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, par.1) This current wave of globalization has been driven by policies that have opened economies domestically and internationally. In the years since the Second World War, and especially during the past two decades, many governments have adopted the free market economic systems, vastly increasing their own productive potential and creating myriad new opportunities for international trade and investment. Governments also have negotiated dramatic reductions in barriers to commerce and have established international agreements to promote trade in goods, services and investments. Taking advantage of new opportunities in foreign markets, corporations have built foreign factories and established production and marketing arrangements with foreign partners. A defining feature of globalization, therefore is an international industrial and financial business structure (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, par.4) In the past decade or so, globalization took its rightful place in the heart of the free market system. It gave more meaning to the term “free market” in the sense that it transcends boundaries, culture, language and even the political preferences of the nation state. Entrepreneurs of many different countries are able to have the world at their fingertips, so to speak. Companies that were once operating domestically are now competing with other companies halfway around the globe. They are operating in far-flung countries where the arms of (Last Name) 4 high federal taxes can no longer reach them. In turn, these other countries welcome them with arms wide open and with a promise of some sort of tax relief. It is also important to note that aside from the tax relief, these multinational companies are able to save huge sums of money in terms of production and management costs than operating at their home country. However, these advantages are being opposed by some economists. As there are limitations in the political system of some receiving countries that are more often than not, less privilege and more underdeveloped than the home countries of these multinational companies, there are issues of mistreatment with regards to the culture and the common good of local people. They also argued that multinational companies in the Western world have benefited so much from this free market system at the expense of local enterprise. There is also the issue of declining federal taxes in their home country that would mean less revenue for the welfare, employment and social obligations of their government. (Last name) 5 The IMF was created in the midst of the war, at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, which convened 44 country delegations at Bretton Woods in July 1944. IMF, the global enforcer of economic behavior, became largely a capitalist club that helped stabilize market-oriented economies (Boughton, 6) The IMF was forged by embracing the Keynesian Philosophy of John Maynard Keynes, who, at that time is the head of the British Delegation. This theory is highly critical to the Marxian philosophy. As implied earlier, Karl Marx was not a supporter of the capitalist system. Greatly disturbed by what he saw in the 19th century capitalism, Marx predicted its downfall and the emergence of socialism. He was referring to the continuous exploitation of the working class which he called the proletariat. He argued, on the one hand, that the desire of the capitalists to continually increase their profits; result in downward pressure on labor wages. On the other hand, the introduction of new capital, especially in the form of machinery though technological advancements, displaces many workers and aggravates the problem of unemployment. With this in mind, the assumption is that Marx would accuse IMF of promoting exploitation and selfish interest where multinational companies benefit a lot from slavery and oppression of the proletariat. Stepping into his mind fame, which is not very easy considering the complexities of how his mind worked, he would assume that instead of equally distributing wealth to the nation states, IMF is supporting an economic system where there is unequal distribution of income, where man works not on the greater good of all, but purely for economic rewards. And instead of a classless society he has envisioned, a super nation, the United States was the predominant leader controlling most of the lending decisions in this so-called capitalist club otherwise known as IMF. (Last name) 6 In Communist Manifesto, published in 1848, Karl Marx refers to the modern bourgeois society that conjured up such gigantic means of production, as like a sorcerer who is no longer able to control the power of the nether world that he has called upon his spells. He envisioned that with these crises, it makes the bourgeois society, each time more threatening. Society will suddenly find itself put back into a state of monetary barbarism. This is largely in contrast to the scientific socialism where there is equality. The efforts of the International Monetary Fund to promote globalized economy are the crises that Karl Marx has envisioned. These are the crises that will tend to demoralize the wages and living standards in the industrialized society, all the while bringing little but pandemonium and neglect to the developing nations, impoverishing the many as it rewards only the chosen few. Despite the regional cooperation that the IMF promotes, some national governments lose much of their ability to be in charge of their own economies as corporations move out of reach of local sovereignty. This would also mean the decline in the power of the ordinary citizen’s ability to maneuver their own economy thereby driving the individuals he called as “workmen” to revolt. Had he been alive, Karl Marx will surely despise the domination of the few privileged member of this capitalist club. But while he would despise the IMF, this would also be a means of proving that his Communist Manifesto is not a distant dream thereby he would surely live up to his public image of being cunning with a tendency to violent revolt. But as it is, Karl Marx is unfortunately dead and though his philosophy tends to make a comeback every time a financial crisis threatens the very foundation of capitalism, it is, without a doubt, just a passing fancy. The economic system which a society, or a regional confederation for that matter adopts, should consider man in his entirety. The system should not distort the concept of man by reducing him to pure matter. Here is where philosophy and theology come in once more. (Last Name) 7 People who are unemployed, worried about the prospect of being unemployed, or struggling with racing inflation have an outlet to express their dissatisfaction—the polling booth. Ample evidence indicates that voters pay attention to economic trends in making up their minds on Election Day, and that they will consider not just their own financial situation, but the economic condition of the nation as well. In a careful analysis of two decades of election study, Linberry, Edwards and Wattenberg in their book Government in America People, Politics and Policy cited the analysis of Roderick Kiewiet that voters who experience unemployment in their family are more likely to support Democratic candidates. It is not only a voter’s personal experience with unemployment that benefits the Democrats; employed voters who feel that joblessness is a serious national problem can lean strongly to the Democratic Party (Lineberry, Edwards and Wattenberg, 255). True enough, the super nation that had been hit by the strongest global financial crisis since the Great Depression, elected the senator from Illinois, Senator Barack Hussein Obama as its 44th President and the 1st African-American to sit in the pinnacle of American power. When President Obama assumed the highest position in United States, the world watched. People, not only from America, but also from other countries await for the economic strategies of his administration to ease the burden of the global financial crisis that gripped not only the most vulnerable of all nation in the East but also the once thought formidable economy of the West. President Obama said he would enact a windfall profits tax on oil companies to give families rebates. He would give financial package to states for health, education, housing, and heating assistance. Obama would allocate budget for public works projects. He would provide tax credits and eliminate income tax for seniors making less than $50, 000 per year. (Last Name) 8 Obama would also eliminate capital gains taxes for small business investors, and extend write-offs for small business equipment purchase. The economic philosophy of the Obama Administration is no secret. Democrats lean toward the Keynesian theory that government spending could help the economy weather its normal ups and downs even if it meant running in the red. The above mentioned economic policy of his administration proved that the good old philosophy embraced by the Democrats is still the major philosophy being embraced by the young Democrat President in the face of the impending economic doom he inherited from his Republican Predecessor. The Keynesian Theory by John Maynard Keynes is simple. In times when GNP is low and therefore private spending is low and private investors are timid, government may deliberately increase its spending. Government spending on projects dusted off and taken from the impending files, which normally are capital projects, generates multiplier effects on income on the same way that private investment does. This spending at such times can prime the income and economic stream and, in fact, lift the whole level of economic activity. The tax credits, rebates and the elimination of per capital gains taxes for small enterprise, and heavy funding in government projects are all efforts to put the money back in the consumer’s pocket so they could spend it and thus increase the demands and in turn increase the production of goods. This General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes provides that if business were not able to expand it, it would be up to the government to pick up the slack. And true enough; the administration of President Obama is picking up the slack as the whole word continues to watch. ENDNOTES Boughton, James. The IMF at the Force of History: Ten Events and Ten Ideas That Have Shaped The Insitution. 2004. Web. 24 Sept 2009 “Carnegie Endowment for International Peace”. Web. 24 Sept 2009 Lineberry, Robert, George Edwards, and Martin Wattenberg. Government in America: People, Politics and Policy. Harper-Collins: New York, 1991. Print. Marx, Karl. Communist Manifesto. 1848. Print Read More