The End Of The World? Capitalism’s Existential Crisis
By: Tristan Graham
Tags: Capitalism, Poverty, Socialism, Debt, Homelessness

Capitalism has generated massive wealth for some (the bourgeoisie), but it’s devastated the planet and has failed to improve human well-being en masse. We as the proletarian and peasant classes of the world are in a race against the clock. The current economic system is heading towards total destruction of life on the planet. This is not a joke.

Just to rattle your feathers , I’ll give you an overview of how capitalist production has and is destroying our livelihood:

The failure of capitalism in the vast majority of the Third World became apparent in the 1960s through the 1970s because during this time countries with high growth rates experienced a myriad of problems, including an increase in inequality and poverty (Sen, 1985; Cornia, 1974), from the 1980s to the present day, poor countries have faced economic stagnation and crises. In the 2000s, capitalism has failed in developed countries. On the one hand, some of these countries, including the United States, have experienced economic stagnation and poverty levels are higher than those that prevailed during the 1970s. On the other hand, other countries, such as those in Europe, have undergone stagnation and minimal poverty reduction during the 2000s. Today, the world is in the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression.

One in seven of the world’s population live in poverty in urban areas, and the vast majority of these live in the Global South — mostly in overcrowded informal settlements with inadequate water, sanitation, health care and schools provision.

At the very top of the capitalist economy, there are trillions of dollars of wealth in the hands of a very small group of people, predominantly men, whose fortune and power grow exponentially. Billionaires have now more wealth than the 4.6 billion people who make up 60% of the planet’s population. Meanwhile, around 735 million people are still living in extreme poverty. Many others are just one hospital bill or failed harvest away from slipping into it.

1.3 billion people in 107 developing countries, which account for 22% of the world’s population, live in multidimensional poverty.

of the world’s population, live in multidimensional poverty. Seventeen firms collectively manage more than $US41.1 trillion in a self-invested network of interlocking capital that spans the globe.

1.6 billion people, more than 20% of the world’s population, may lack adequate housing. Obtaining an accurate picture of homelessness globally is challenging for many reasons. Habitat for Humanity has shown that 1.6 billion people lived in “inadequate shelter”.

Extreme inequality is out of control. Hundreds of millions of people are living in extreme poverty while huge rewards go to those at the very top. There are more billionaires than ever before, and their fortunes have grown to record levels. Meanwhile, the world’s poorest got even poorer.

Inequality is growing for more than 70 per cent of the global population, exacerbating the risks of divisions and hampering economic and social development

Around 9 million people die every year of hunger and hunger-related diseases. ( https://www.theworldcounts.co)

Poor nutrition and hunger are responsible for the death of 3.1 million children a year. That’s nearly half of all deaths in children under the age of 5. The children die because their bodies lack basic nutrients.

Globally, 822 million people suffer from undernourishment.

Species are going extinct at a rate 1,000 times faster than that of the natural rate over the previous 65 million years (see Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School).

Since 2000, 6 million hectares of primary forest have been lost each year. That’s 14,826,322 acres, or just less than the entire state of West Virginia (see the 2010 assessment by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN).

Two-thirds of people in India live in poverty: 68.8% of the Indian population lives on less than $2 a day. Over 30% even have less than $1.25 per day available — they are considered extremely poor.

Contrast capitalist India to that of communist China which have relatively the same population size as well as colonial and independence history.

— These statistics are pre COVID 19

In the capitalist mode of production the poorest are the people who produce all goods and service but cannot enjoy it themselves. Farmers in Africa produce cocoa for the chocolate but will never be able to buy a Hershey’s chocolate bar. Is this your great system?

The passivity of our community and international organization in this generation (Millenials and Gen Z) is something that needs to be addressed. The aversion to socialism and communism is no longer just an ideological stance but rather a stance with humanity. Any theory that puts arbitrary concepts such as money over labour is doomed.

Capitalism is killing itself and the poor are the victims

There is, in the origins of classical political economy, a concern about the downward trend in the rate of profit. Adam Smith and David Ricardo (Foundational Capitalist Economists), among others, have argued in their own way the existence of this trend. The systemic tendency to crisis and insufficient profit generation has also been reflected by other exponents of different economic schools, expressing, on one hand, the eminently real character of the trend, and on the other, the theoretical particularities of these economic schools.

Marx established, as the most important law of political economy, the law of the falling tendency of the rate of profit. Ricardo sustained this trend on the increase of labour costs due to decreasing agricultural productivity, recognizing the necessity to expand production on badlands. However, the Ricardian assumption of diminishing marginal productivity in agriculture (that neoclassical extrapolated to all productive activity) has proved unreal. The rate of profit shows a downward trend, not because productivity decreases, but precisely because it increases in historical terms.

The downward trend of the rate of profit, its empirical confirmation, highlights the historically limited nature of capitalist production. If the rate of profit marks the vitality of the system, the logical conclusion is that it approaches further to an endpoint. In 1870 the global rate of profit was 43%, since the 2000s it is 17%. Essentially, profits are drying up. Which then leads to a consolidation of capital. Once it collapses guess who feels it the most?

Do you think student loans are bad? Wait till you find out how much debt capitalist economies have racked up. We might not even have to pay back our debts given how the world will go into ruin.

The United States on its own has 1.3 trillion dollars of debt owed to China. By 2030 China’s GDP will surpass that of the US. Within that context , use it to analyze anti China rhetoric in major news cycles.

The debt crisis now engulfing poor countries is just one manifestation of the profound structural crisis of the global economic system, a crisis from which there is no capitalist way out. One person’s — or one country’s — debt is another person’s asset. Cancellation of debts owed by the many to the few is the only possible solution, and this is necessarily a revolutionary solution since the cancellation of debts owed by the poor majority means cancellation of wealth owned by the super-rich minority (which they’ll never allow).

Global debt loads surged during the second quarter as households seized on low mortgage rates and governments continued borrowing heavily to revive pandemic-battered economies.

The amount of the world’s outstanding debt swelled during the three months by about $4.8 trillion to a record $296 trillion, according to a report by the Institute of International Finance. — all while lockdowns ease in 2021.

The economic crisis -which has been exacerbated by the COVID pandemic- is expected to contribute to the global unemployment of more than 200 million people next year. Compared to 2019, an additional 108 million workers worldwide are now categorized as “poor” or “extremely poor”. Let's not even mention the relatively poor who are just about able to sustain themselves.

Homelessness and eviction is a staple in capitalist societies.

In the home of the free and the land of the brave, homelessness is as prevalent as there are police departments. The United States is facing the most severe housing crisis in its history. According to the latest analysis of weekly US Census data, as federal, state, and local protections and resources expire and in the absence of robust and swift intervention, an estimated 30–40 million people in America could be at risk of eviction in the next several months. Many property owners, who lack the credit or financial ability to cover rental payment arrears, will struggle to pay their mortgages and property taxes and maintain properties. The COVID-19 housing crisis has sharply increased the risk of foreclosure and bankruptcy, especially among small property owners; long-term harm to renter families and individuals; disruption of the affordable housing market; and destabilization of communities across the United States.

Eviction isn’t just a condition of poverty; it’s a cause of poverty. Eviction is a direct cause of homelessness, but it also is a cause of residential instability, school instability [and] community instability. In capitalist societies, your local police department will drag you out by your teeth if they have to, in order to fulfil their duty to the state or private owners.

Fun Fact: By the 1930s, the USSR declared the abolition of homelessness and every citizen was obliged to have a propiska — a place of permanent residency. Nobody could be stripped of propiska without substitution or refuse it without confirmed permission (called “order”) to register in another place. If someone wanted to move to another city or expand their living area, he had to find a partner who wanted to mutually exchange the flats. The right to shelter was secured in the Soviet constitution. Not having permanent residency was legally considered a crime.

But hey what do I know I’m just a 20-year-old brainwashed socialist who wants an economy centred around humanity.

Have you ever wondered what the chances are of becoming rich? Well, for a start, it depends rather on what you mean by “rich”. If you’re talking Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates level of wealth, then I’ve got some bad news for you: according to Investopedia, you’re about as likely to be hit by lightning as you are to become a millionaire or billionaire. Reject capitalist myths of meritocracy and luxury. It's unstable and unsustainable. Keynesianism has failed to regulate capitalism and allows it to continue its needs for infinite growth on a finite planet. IT CANNOT BE REFORMED.

Hopefully, this brief article has been able to show you just the surface of the internal and external contradictions facing capitalism in its current state. It is fascistic in nature and respects no God, no religion or any human relation except that of capital regeneration. Take an anti-capitalist stance at worst but at best read the revolutionary theory and use praxis. We are the torch carriers for a humane world. A world where homelessness is abolished, hunger is eradicated and the greatness of the human spirit can flourish. This is not utopian idealism but rather scientific realism.

AGITATE, ORGANIZE AND MOBILIZE TOWARDS LIBERATION.