essays-ccs/capitalism_doesnt_work.md

Does Capitalism Work?

Lets unpack the idea that "Capitalism works". In the US, the most developed Capitalist country, the richest country in the history of the world:

• 1 out of every 7 US citizens needs to visit food banks to survive, despite having enough food to feed 10 billion people. Half of all food produced is thrown away by retailers. Food waste in 2018 enough to feed world's hungry 4 times over.
• Empty homes outnumber the homeless by 6 to 1. Bank foreclosures and housing speculators have left 18.9 million empty homes. 2.5 million homeless children, or ~1 / 30. In the UK, there are 10x more empty houses than homeless families.
• UNICEF, RESULTS, and Bread for the World estimate that 15 million people die each year from preventable poverty, of whom 11 million are children under the age of five. 2.
• In the US alone, 20-40k deaths every year because of lack of health insurance / care. On average, that's 300k over the last decade.
• Average US household carries ~$140k in debt. Median household income only $60k, 40% of millenials live with their parents.
• 8 men control as much wealth as half the worlds population. Anyone wanna take a guess at how this game of monopoly ends?
• Billionaires made enough money in 2017 to end poverty 7 times over.
• 80% of US workers live paycheck to paycheck, 40% cannot cover a $400 emergency.
• US Life expectancy peaked in 2015, is on the decline, and is now lower than in China.
• Suicide rates have leaped more than 33% in the last 20 years. 2, 3
• Committed countless atrocities, killing millions directly and indirectly across the globe. Imperialist network of 800 military bases in 70 countries.
• Most prisoners per capita AND by total. Makes sense, since prison is Capitalism's boarding house. Runs least 54 agricultural slave labor camps.
• More here.

Capitalist hegemony has short-circuited people into buying wildly illogical and ridiculous propaganda like: "Lift yourselves up by the bootstraps" (which shows the almost religious power of capitalist propaganda, that the impossible can become possible), or "Communism doesn't work", when in fact Communism did work extremely well.

Examples from this post by /u/bayarea415, and Stephen Gowans - Do publicly owned, planned economies work, about the USSR specifically:

• USSR had more nutritious food than the US (CIA). Calories consumed surpassed the US. Ended famines.
• Productive forces were not organized for capital gain and private enrichment; public ownership of the means of production supplanted private ownership. It was illegal to hire others and accumulate personal wealth from their labor.
• Had the 2nd fastest growing economy of the 20th century after Japan. The USSR started out at the same level of economic development and population as Brazil in 1920, which makes comparisons to the US, an already industrialized country by the 1920s, even more spectacular.
• Free Universal Health care, and most doctors per capita in the world. 42 doctors per 10,000 population, vs 24 in Denmark and Sweden, 19 in US.
• Had zero unemployment, continuous economic growth for 70 straight years. The "continuous" part should make sense – the USSR was a planned, non-market economy, so market crashes á la capitalism were pretty much impossible.
• All education, including university level, free. 2
• 99% literacy.
• Saved the world from Fascism, killing 7 out of every 10 fascist soldier, bore the enormous cost of blood and pain. Nazis were in retreat after the battle of Stalingrad in 1942, a full 2 years before the US landed troops in normandy.
• Doubled life expectancy. Eliminated poverty.
• End sex inequality. Equal wages for men and women mandated by law, but sex inequality, although not as pronounced as under capitalism, was perpetuated in social roles. Very important lesson to learn.
• End Racial inequality.
• Feudalism to space travel in 40 years. First satellite, rocket, space walk, woman, man, animal, space station, moon and mars probes.
• Housing was socialized by localized community organizations, and there was virtually no homelessness. Houses were often shared by two families throughout the 20s and 30s – so unlike capitalism, there were no empty houses, but the houses were very full. In the 40s there was the war, and in the 50s there were a number of orphans from the war. The mass housing projects began in the 60s, they were completed in the 70s, and by the 70s, there were homeless people, but they often had genuine issues with mental health.

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Now let's take a look at what happens after the USSR collapse:

• Life expectancy decreases by 10 years. 2. 7.7 million excess deaths in the first year. 2
• 40% of population drops into poverty.
• GDP instantly halves.
• One in ten children now live on the streets. Infant mortality increases. Was 29.3 in 2003 which is around (current) Syria and Micronesia, 7.9 in 2013. Infant mortality in USSR was 1.92, literally the lowest in the world.
• 1996 election rigged by the US, Yeltsin sends in tanks to disperse the supreme soviet.

For an overview of the soviet experiment, watch this brilliant talk by Micheal Parenti, or read his article, Left anticommunism, the unkindest cut.

Also read this great article by Stephen Gowans, Do publicly owned, planned economies work?. Audio on youtube

Bonus vid about cyber-communism: Paul Cockshott - Going beyond money.

More sources: Socialism Crash Course, Socialism FAQ, Glossary.