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Essay: Reinveniting America: Socialism's Promise
REINVENTING AMERICA: SOCIALISM’S PROMISE
“From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need”
-Karl Marx
Truer words could not have been spoken. Such a statement was spoken by a man who believed that it was society’s responsibility to “spread the wealth.” Why did he think that way? Because he had a vision for society in which there were no social classes, and no poor; an ideal utopia is what he envisioned. While this reality is distant, we as Americans can take the first step forward by doing the following: redistributing the nation’s highly concentrated wealth. Completion of such a task would yield a renewed infrastructure, the dissolution of the class system, and a higher quality of education; the first baby steps towards a people’s republic as promised by socialism.
Socialism is a builder of nations, for capitalism demands money in exchange for labor while Marxism asks simply for a unified workforce. In foregoing of the bourgeois economic model, America would have in its place a stable Marxist system. Within such a system great deeds would be accomplished. One example would be the creation of infrastructure; an honest replacement to our current decayed framework.
America is rapidly falling apart into the clutches of disrepair. All of our services are wasting away, yet continuously this is allowed to happen; pushed aside as trivial. Bridges, damns, clean drinking water, schools, transit, energy and aviation are but a few of the sectors which received a score no higher than a “ C “ on the A.S.C.E’s 2009 report card. Many experts now describe our situation as “dire,” and envision great tragedy if nothing is done to remedy this problem.
Long has our infrastructure been poorly maintained, for ever since its founding, the scope of the project was never meant to last. Our highways, parks, and railroads were created during the heyday of capitalist development; a sign to the rest of the world to what was possible under capitalism. However, grand though it was, resources to maintain our great creation never was allocated in the necessary quantity (instead these went to the military and large corporations). Soon, waste, the killer of modernity, crept in to our construct. Fast forward several decades later and one can see the true damage of the neglect; a poison which has made America’s “sudden and violent descend into a third world country” all the more real.
Reality, of course, is a concept which is difficult for the capitalists to accept. Never will they realize that throwing petty amount of money at a gigantic problem will never fix a problem.
A problem which needs a tremendous amount of resources to correct is what we now shoulder. Estimates to correct even a small portion of this problem are mind-boggling, and are made all the more devastating when seen for one ’s self.
Dams: $2.6 billion
Rails: $63 billion
Bridges: $930 billion
Did anyone hear that last one? Our system is in such decay that just to correct those three sectors would cost us over $995 billion dollars! However, as cruel as it sounds, there are many other segments of the infrastructure which need attention as well. So the question is: how much is the total bill? The amount needed to repair of nation, our “ D “ graded skeleton, is approximately 2.2 trillion dollars!
Lifting such great numbers of people out of starvation, while simultaneously building a new structure or the American nation, requires great amounts of money (as previously demonstrated). So, naturally it is expected that someone would ask “where is this money going to come from?” The answer is three fold: from the military, profits from legalizing hard and soft drugs, and from increasing taxes on the rich.
Wealthy is but a single word to describe the military. The United States Military is the largest conventional fighting force in the world; nearly uncountable billions flow into this beast’s belly. The total approbations used to finance this giant is, according to the Pentagon’s “Budget Request Overview,” 708.2 billion dollars! This is but the cost for a single year and does not, however, include the price of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. If one includes the price for waging over a decade of imperialist warfare, the reader would see an additional tag of over four trillion dollars (this is including the price for oil, weapons and ammunition, salaries and interest on borrowed cash); vital money wasted on war making!
Frivolous spending is a hallmark of capitalism, however. This even extends to the public sector and “The War on Drugs.” Since the year 2000 (A.D), the national drug control budget has been steadily increasing. Per year, the government has spent upwards of forty billion dollars in order to wage this phony war; what’s more is that they have made no progress-not on curtailing drug use or on the actual sale. Today, illicit drugs are cheaper to buy (when compared to the 1980’s) and easer to obtain (source: The Drug Policy Alliance).
As a result of this failed policy, new prisons were needed to incarcerate the many millions of arrested youth. Of the nearly the million people imprisoned within the U.S (a number more than any other industrialized nation) over 500,000 are “drug offenders.” Building these new prions comes at the cost of cutting other services; services such as education, libraries, colleges and universities, and of course, health care. By slashing the budget of these other programs, the lawmakers are only exacerbating the problem: if one cannot educate himself and locate a job, than it is very likely the said individual will turn to crime in order to feed his family. The continued use of this policy not only cheats the population out of potential benefits, but also out of a healthy-crime free-future.
A destiny which the super-rich know all too well as they have never known financial suffering. Not only do these individuals lead a lifestyle which grants them perfect medical treatment. As George has said, “class effects more than lifestyle and material well-being. It has a significant impact on our physical and mental well-being as well (314).” However, they also hold a key to our future. The super-rich billionaires control over 50% of the nation’s wealth, using that immense amount of resources on pointless toys such as yachts, mansions, personal servants, and large amounts of land. Under a socialist government, where at least 60% of the elitist’s wealth is taken, one could expect a surge of hundreds of billions of dollars.
What we see here is staggering: a mere ten percent of the population owning the entirety of America, yet leaving it to rot. Redistributing wealth, while simultaneously implementing drug and military reforms, would grant a revolutionary government, on average, over 1.5 trillion dollars per year; an amount of money which is more than enough to improve the lives of the American citizenry.
Creating such an effort would be a mammoth accomplishment when finished; thereby creating a entirely new structure for the United States. This new structure would manifest its self as several new creations. Creations such as: building modern schools to replace the old ruins of the past, paving new roads, and erecting desperately needed houses and recreational centers. Those, along with many other necessities, would come into existence as a result of the new distribution of wealth.
The existence of such an undertaking is nearly impossible under capitalism, due to the entrepreneur’s main objective: make money. No capitalist willingly hands over free resources to build shelters for the homeless. The same goes for public works projects and other life enriching activities. Only through tax breaks do the bourgeoisie let go of a petty portion of his amassed capital. He does this not to be a good person, but to save money, and to appear as beneficial to the remainder of society. As a result, our society stagnates, as great portions of our population live in unrelenting poverty.
Depression, which if left unchecked, can grow to be such a cancer that it consumes all of society. Obviously cancer cannot allow to prosper, and yet, year-after-year we citizens allow it to spread. In George Mantios’s essay “Class in America” he commented on the accommodation to this disease.
“Approximately 13% of the American population- that is nearly one out of eight people in this country-live below the official poverty line…an estimated 3.5 million people-of whom nearly 1.4 million are children-experience homelessness in any given year.(306)
Such a fact has remained an unchanging feature on the social landscape of America. All of this unrelenting poverty could be ended under a socialistic system, yet, as of now, continues to be forced on the middle and lower classes.
Within socialism, the money based caste system of capitalism would be a thing of the past. Thus, is how the disbanding of the social economic system would begin within the United States. Currently, American society is invisibly divided into artificial constructs called “classes.” These parasites anchor themselves on every human and feast off their race, nationality, religion, and sexual orientation in order to keep themselves alive.
However, capitalism would never allow such an event to transpire, for its very existence depends on people being divided. Abraham Lincoln once said, “A house divided cannot stand.” Currently, the working class does not even have a house, and as such, it is impossible for them to do anything but grovel for leftovers. To survive, capitalism demands everyone bicker amongst themselves regarding superficial occurrences. Occurrences which have no real basis in reality, or within human behavior; monetary occurrences, is the exact problem in other words.
Release from wage slavery would carry enormous benefits for the working class. No longer would people be forced to work strenuous hours for little pay and even less respect. No more would co-workers feud over petty differences, no more would bosses and employees tear at each other throats, arguing over management; and finally, no more domineering overseers screaming the impossible.
All of those results bring nothing but progress. Progress for workers, progress for families, and progress for humanity is all delivered. Socialism brings into existence order where before there was chaos. It does this but using another transformation used in conjunction with the elimination of classes; the absolution of poverty. According to George Mantios’s “Class in America” essay “The wealthiest 1% holds 34% of the national income. (306)” An astronomical statistic for anyone who ever saw one! Redistributing wealth for use towards more social oriented purposes not only would halt this gross misdistribution, and halt “…the level of inequality…(308)” but germinate productive citizenry as well.
Without the need to possess an occupation which subjects the worker to grueling hours, every person would be free to spend their time as they wished. Play, family rearing, and independent education would inevitably grow exponentially, which in turn would create happier more productive workers during their shifts. The beneficiary to this change would be the gross national output, a statistic which would grow to incredible heights since more people would be working and producing more. This would, in turn, provide a higher quality of education to everyone, instead of to a privileged minority. No more would humankind exploit one another- such a destiny is impossible under capitalism however.
Within a socialistic system these indispensible people-teachers-would be treated with the respect, and wages, that they deserve. All educators would belong to a union, one which fights for better wages and tenure. Also included would be a failsafe system which protects these vital peoples from unjust right-wing attacks. These promotions would increase classroom learning, thereby giving even more spirit for teachers to better their pupils. Pupils would, in turn, begin formulating new ideas about the world around them, instead of recycling the old ideas of the past; as Mantsios said, “In primary and secondary education…formulating new issues in terms of class is unacceptable, perhaps even un-American. (306)” Such a belief would be eradicated under socialism, and all would be free to develop as they pleased.
Bettering would also extend to the school itself, not only to the students. Modern school systems are in a dismal state of disrepair. These are the buildings which literally collapse on the students’ heads, holes in bathroom walls, no heat, and an infestation of roaches and other unwanted pests. These events occur because within a capitalist society racial demographics make up a sizable reasoning behind funding for districts. For those who possess prejudice, it is an easy task to give predominately back and Latino schools less funding than overcrowded white schools.
The solutions to these problems lie in the creation of a new state; a just system which gives to all, instead to but a few. Erecting such a future will not be easy, for there are bound to be many challenges to overcome from reactionary conservative and fascist forces. The will of the people, though, is unstoppable, and such elements will be quickly defeated as will be their lies concerning money. The resources to fulfill these dreams do exist, and must be used for the people. The reward for doing so is a great one: a socialized America, a peaceful America- a reinvented America.
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So,what do you guys think about this? My teacher liked it enough, and graded it as an A- .However,I think that it could be a bit better. What do you suggest to add?
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The beginning is bad.That was a reference to Louis Blanc, and that was at best a very long-run view of Marx, and some (myself included) would even dispute that.How is that true, it is a wish, and what about the context? To me, it's like saying this: Yo, I believe in ghosts, coz Karl Marx believed in ghosts, he saw a ghost, but not some stupid booboo ghost, a political ghost, and that's where he got his ideas from.
FIGURE: THIS IS HOW THE GHOST "SPECTRE OF COMMUNISM" PROBABLY LOOKED LIKE.
He envisoned very little. He made fun of such visions like people today make fun of old Star Trek episodes, while contributing practically nothing of that sort.Saying socialists want to spread the wealth around is how conservatives represent the left, as people who want to take from the productive gifted übermenschen and give to the lazy idiots.
Where does the inequality in wealth usually come from? Is it true that most of the rich are truly different from the rest like top athletes as conservative pundits claim, or are top athletes the exception within the exceptionally rich? If what Marx says about where wealth usually comes from is true, when we look at different slices of the population grouped into different income levels, going from the poor end of the population to the rich, we should find that a rising proportion of income comes from owning assets. If what Marx says about where wealth usually comes from is true, socialism is not so much spreading the wealth around and more about giving back to the actually productive people.
One should be doubtful about how well redistributing a bit here and there can work as first steps towards ending capitalism. If cappies believe political talk about completely changing society is serious, why shouldn't they be motivated to fight it tooth and nail? Even market socialists like Oskar Lange saw this problem.Somebody is falling into the clutches of the creep of rapidness of the poison of decay of the mind from cheesy writing, the killer of not sounding lame.Wait, what? Where does that come from, you were just talking about bridges and infrastructure.Education doesn't turn a black man white. Besides, any Keynesian hack can tell you that when the number of vacancies is way below the number of people who want a job, education programs can't do much. I'm not questioning your intent here, but that point with education is often used by liberals and is also a subtle way of victim-blaming.
I am very sympathic to the ideas of spending more on infrastructure and shrinking the US military and decriminalizing drugs, but the way you present these isn't good. It's true that the US infrastructure is pretty bad compared to many European countries and Japan, but why put so much weight on numbers from the civil engineering lobby? I also find some instances of monetary pseudo-measurements offputting. How many people are in the military, what could these people achieve if employed in other activities? How many died in Iraq? In the future you should stick more to talking about people, like with when you said how many people are in prison for drug stuff. It feels more concrete.
Okay,thanks for your insights! There was definitely some things in here which need to be changed and revised, and I will take your suggestions into consideration when writing the new draft.
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Hi Revolution: Perfect,
I think the paper's fine and certainly deserved an "A," if written for an undergraduate English or Civics class.
We're not Marx criticizing "the Gotha Program" here. Every line does not have to be programmatic.
The paper passionately points out some major problems in the United States, correctly blames them on capitalism and points toward socialism as offering a solution. That puts it ahead of 99% of the political papers and statements one is likely to find on the internet or in a college classroom.
The opening line “From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need” comes originally from Saint Augustine and ties communism in its higher stages to the ideals of early Christianity. This is not necessarily a bad thing to do in a country dominated with a Christian consciousness.
