Victims of capitalism (please list all you know of!)

[xxxxxx666666]

Ok, it is sometimes used as a tactic to discredit "communism" and "socialism": to cite victims of "communist" regimes. And how socialism is inherently bloodly at least according to *some* people.

So I decided to start a thread to list all the crimes of capitalism.

Please list all you know please.;)

Ok, I'll start with some I know of (in no particular order):

1.)Debt of the "Third World" or "Developing World" (however you call it)
This debt has been cited by some (like John Perkins author of "The Economic Hitman") to be one of the reasons the Third World had been so behind the first world and has allowed the Third World to be exploited so ruthlessly.

2.)Greater wealth gap.
I'm sure some keep hearing the "rich gets richer the poorer gets poorer" well it's true.

"We live in a society that allows one man to make $15 million a day while a low-income mother gets $4.50 a day for food, and much of Congress wants to cut the $4.50."

http://www.salon.com/2013/09/04/8_biggest_victims_of_americas_predatory_capitalism _partner/

3.) Lack of empathy for the suffering.

Look at the above; Congress wants to cut the help for low-income workers!:ohmy: Why don't they tax the rich!:mad:

Also from the same link as the above quote:

"The super-rich want homeless people to get jobs. But they don’t want to pay taxes to support job creation. If the richest Americans – the Forbes 400 – had paid a 5% tax on their 2012 investment earnings, enough revenue would have been generated to provide a full-time minimum wage job for every person who was homeless in America on a January night in 2012."

[RedWaves]

Get real


Everyone is a victim of capitalism.

You should know that...unless we're talking about the exploiter class. The super rich are the only ones that benefit from capitalism.

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

I think there is a Black Book of Capitalism or something like that written by numerous authors that I remember checking out. You should google that.

[G4b3n]

Get real


Everyone is a victim of capitalism.

You should know that...unless we're talking about the exploiter class. The super rich are the only ones that benefit from capitalism.

That is if you define anything less than an offensively affluent lifestyle as not being beneficial. Anyone who has their labor dominated by external forces due to their separation from the means with which they labor is harmed by capitalism, meaning they are exploited.

You don't need to be an ultra-rich CEO to dominate the labor of others, I can walk right around the corner and see labor being exploited in local businesses. This is not to say that small shop keepers and other petite-bourgeois are evil, it is simply a fact in regards to our present material conditions.

[Redistribute the Rep]

Get real


Everyone is a victim of capitalism.

You should know that...unless we're talking about the exploiter class. The super rich are the only ones that benefit from capitalism.

I think he wants to know more specifically the deaths caused by capitalism to use in an argument against people who like to bring up the millions of deaths caused by "communist" regimes.

For example, millions of people died from the famines in India under the British rule. The British empire forced Indians to buy British goods, pay heavy taxes, and enclosed forests which the British would use for shipbuilding, urban construction, railroads, and fuel. Furthermore, the British gave water rights exclusively to landowners, making it difficult for non landowners to obtain water, and they forced Indian farmers to grow cotton, which rapidly depletes soil of nutrients unlike other crops like nitrogen fixing legumes, thereby maximizing short term profits at the expense of long term fertility of soil.

[Redistribute the Rep]

I think there is a Black Book of Capitalism or something like that written by numerous authors that I remember checking out. You should google that.

I believe there's also a Black Book of Colonialism

[SovietCommie]

Humans by far at actually least effected by capitalism, if anyone suffers the most from capitalism it's animals.
Also, stop labeling CEO's and businessmen as pigs, it is... insulting to pigs.
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640x480q90/842/40fc.jpg
Shocking
http://obphorses.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/horsebutchery27.jpg
http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/697597/697597,1296075370,2/stock-photo-slaughterhouse-cows-hanging-on-hooks-in-the-cold-half-of-cows-70279198.jpghttp://www.africa-wildlife-detective.com/images/rhino-poaching-3.jpg

Fishes
http://world.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/ocean-damage-1_18.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JfrH6a7jBIs/TytkxcRQZkI/AAAAAAAAAlE/kJHqt82Nus0/s1600/pollution%2Bwaste.jpghttp://ecology.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/seal-plastic-ring-300x198.jpg
Toxic Pollution in the Ocean (http://www.seaweb.org/resources/briefings/toxic.php)
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2006/03/marine-pollution-how-ocean-became-toxic-waste-dump
http://www.bluevoice.org/ocean.php
Who Are the Polluters? - Capitalism Is Destroying the Earth! (http://www.slp.org/res_state_htm/whopollute.html)

[Sea]

Well, was just reading about human experimentation in the land of the free, so let's see how much I can remember.

First off there's the chemical experiments in the Holmesburk Prison where a bunch of people were injected with dioxins, for years and years.

There's that wonderful incedent where "negro prisoners" from Florida were selected to be fed nothing bot molasses for 45 weeks, because in manufacturing molasses an itty bitty bit of sulfuric acid is used, and our just government was worried that it would be harmful to (presumably white) consumers.

During WWII mustard gas was tested on lots of soldiers. Oops!

There's the infamous LSD experiments of the 50s.

There's the Tuskegee syphilis scandal where poor (again mostly black) syphilitic sharecroppers were monitored under the guise of free medical treatment and free meals but where really just being monitored to see how the disease spreads untreated. This went on until 1972, well after penicillin was discovered.

There's Albert Stevens.

There's this:

http://books.google.com/books?id=cr81ZHY-6H0C&pg=PA99&dq=human+radiation+experiments&cd=2&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false

[DasFapital]

4 million people die in India every year because they can't afford medical care. India is a big fan of ol' capitalism.

[tuwix]

You can add to that hunger and lack of clear water. Millions die due to that every year. The famine was specialty of Somalia - the only country were no taxes at all...

[bill]

Every violent political or economic death that occurs in an advanced, industrial society is technically the result of capitalism--including those of the Soviet Union, which was more of an eccentric, badly-managed corporate conglomerate than ideal socialism (like Koch Industries would be if they had their own territory, flag, and 300 million employ).

Assuming that roughly 70 billion people have ever been born since the dawn of humanity, and that I wanted to be a frankly morbid, left-wing version of Herman Kahn, I'd set the figure somewhere pretty high in the tens of billions.

[tallguy]

Everyone apart from a tiny minority are victims of capitalism, either physically or spiritually or, more likely, both. Even that tiny minority do not live the lives they are capable of living because of the system they so assiduously seek to maintain. But, they just don't realise or care.

[1789]

These body count arguments are totally stupid.

[Michael22]

More people have died in capitalist wars and in the third world from starvation (when we have enough food to feed the world three times over) than have in any of the fascist and communist regimes and wars in the 20th century when humans were trying an alternative.

The triumphalism of liberal capitalism in the latter half of the 20th century and the idea of "The End of History" is a swivel eyed fantasy based on outright lies about history.

The thing to remember about capitalists is that they are narcissists and prolific liars. They cannot deal with those who do not adhere to their system and admire them and they will lie about anything as long as it furthers their cause. They accuse communist regimes of being oppressive yet big business wide boys are just as intolerant as any dictator, the only difference is they "sell" the idea of "freedom" to the working class and defraud them through manipulation instead of dictators who are honest and direct about the fact they don't believe in freedom.

[ArisVelouxiotis]

I dont think crimes can be a counterargument but anyway.Just look at the 3rd world countries

[Captain Red]

This was taken from a previous thread



Extermination of indigenous Americans 1492-1890: 100 million
Atlantic slave trade of Africans 1500-1870: 15 million
French attempted repression of Haiti slave revolt 1791-1803: 150,000
French conquest of Algeria 1830-47: 300,000
The Opium Wars in China 1839-42 & 1856-60: 50,000
Irish potato famine 1845-49: 1 million
British suppression of the Indian Mutiny 1857-58: 100,000
Massacre of the Paris Commune 1871: 20,000
Famine under British colonialism in India 1876-79 & 1897-1902: 29 million
Military and police repression of labor strikes in the United States 1877-1938: 700
Blacks lynched in the United States 1882-1964: 3,445
Belgian exploitation of the Congo 1885-1908: 10 million
United States conquest of the Philippines 1898-1913: 250,000
British concentration camps in South Africa 1899-1902: 28,000
French exploitation of Equatorial African rainforest 1900-40: 800,000
German extermination of the Herero and Namaqua 1904-07: 65,000
The First World War 1914-18: 10 million
White Army pogroms against Jews 1917-20: 100,000
Italian fascist conquests in Africa 1922-43: 600,000
Japanese imperialism in East Asia 1931-45: 10 million
Fascist terror in Spain 1936-39: 200,000
Nazi terror/concentration & extermination camps 1939-45: 25 million
Allied bombing of German and Japanese civilians 1942-45: 1 million(inc. over 200,000 Japanese in atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki)
Kuomintang massacre in Taiwan 1947: 30,000
French repression of anti-colonial revolt in Madagascar 1947: 80,000
Israeli colonization of Palestine 1948-present: 30,000
British repression of the Mau-Mau revolt 1952-60: 50,000
Algerian war of independence 1954-62: 1 million
Military juntas in Guatemala 1954-96: 200,000
Papa and Baby Doc Duvalier regime in Haiti 1957-86: 50,000
Vietnam War 1963-75: 3.4 million
Massacre of communists in Indonesia 1965-66: 1 million
Tlatelolco massacre in Mexico City 1968: 400
US bombing of Laos and Cambodia 1969-75: 700,000
Nicaragua civil war(s) 1972-90: 80,000
Pinochet dictatorship in Chile 1973-90: 3,197
Angola civil war 1974-92: 500,000
East Timor massacres 1975-98: 200,000
Mozambique civil war 1975-90: 1 million
Argentina "Dirty War" 1976-82: 30,000
El Salvador military dictatorship 1977-92: 70,000
Kwanju massacre 1980: 1,000
Bophal Union Carbide disaster 1984: 16,000
US invasion of Panama 1989: 3,000
UN embargo against Iraq 1991-2003: 1 million(inc. 500,000 children under the age of 12)
Destruction of Yugoslavia 1992-95: 200,000
Capitalist coup de tat in Russia 1993: 2,000
Rwandan genocide 1994: 800,000
Congolese civil war 1997-present: 6 million
Indian farmer suicides 1997-present: 199, 132
NATO occupation of Afghanistan 2001-present: 30,000
US invasion and occupation of Iraq 2003-present: 1.2 million

TOTAL: 221, 641, 874 victims of capitalism, and counting............*

[Criminalize Heterosexuality]

Everyone apart from a tiny minority are victims of capitalism, either physically or spiritually or, more likely, both. Even that tiny minority do not live the lives they are capable of living because of the system they so assiduously seek to maintain. But, they just don't realise or care.

What does it mean to be a "spiritual victim"? Someone is victimised, but the harm to them is ineffable and no one is able to prove it?

[SovietCommie]

This was taken from a previous thread
Most of those wars you have Corporatocracy to blame.

[Criminalize Heterosexuality]

Most of those wars you have Corporatocracy to blame.

So, what is "the corporatocracy"? How is it different from the usual capitalist government subservient to the interest of the bourgeoisie? Most people who talk about "corporatocracy" and "corporatism" are liberals who think capitalism would be just fine were it not for "evil" corporations - as if inefficient small business, "green" firms, or whatever, are better.

[TheSocialistMetalhead]

This may be a little close to home for some people but this is seldom mentioned: depression and other mental illnesses. One of my close family members recently fell into a depression after years of trying to cope with the stress and pressure his job caused him. Proper communism could help solve this problem.

[Remus Bleys]

Most of those wars you have Corporatocracy to blame.
what is corporatocracy?

[SovietCommie]

what is corporatocracy?

When the government acts in favor of corporate interest. I.e. corporatism, corporatocacy is a buzz-word.

[Remus Bleys]

When the government acts in favor of corporate interest. I.e. corporatism, corporatocacy is a buzz-word.
is this different than what the bourgeois state did before corporations? The government has always acted in the interests of capital.

[DDR]

25,000 nameless kids die of starvation, every single fucking day, according to UN data.

[bill]

These body count arguments are totally stupid.

So stupid it's not even an argument.

[Sea]

I'm going to be edgy for a moment:

Osip Mandelstam

[tallguy]

What does it mean to be a "spiritual victim"? Someone is victimised, but the harm to them is ineffable and no one is able to prove it?
When I refer to "spiritual victimisation" I am referring to the the dissonance between how people are forced to perceive the world and how the world really is.

In other words, the vast majority of humans are forced, to a greater or lesser extent, to live non-authentic lives as Ayn-Randian, atomised, alienated individuals because the system they exist in demands it of them. And yet, so many of them still wonder why, despite their plasma TV and their holiday in the sun once a year, they feel so bad inside so much of the time.

I guess Marx might have described such a cultural dissonance as "false consciousness".