Editor, The Times:
I'd like to respond to the editorial of Feb. 14 regarding comments I made in my previous letter to the editor about capitalism.
Mr. McNeil has mentioned that the capitalist system is defined by "the presence of capitalists." This is quite true but I'd like to expand on that definition. The capitalist system is a world socio/economic system where the means of production and distribution (resources, factories, transportation, media etc.) are controlled by a minority (capitalists) while the rest, (the working class - the rest of us) actually produces the wealth by selling our ability to work in return for a wage or salary. The purpose of production in a capitalist system is to create goods and services that can be sold on the market at a profit. The value of our labor (the market price of goods and services) is always greater than the value of our wages and that extra (surplus) value is the profit that goes to the owning or capitalist class. These people or corporations continue to accumulate wealth extracted from each generation of workers. This is why it is said "the rich keep getting richer while the poor keep getting poorer!" It is a system of exploitation and not one that is geared to the fulfillment of human needs. 'Capitalism' then, is synonymous with 'greed.' There is a fundamental contradiction between profit and the satisfaction of human need built into this system. This is why I said "you can't fix the system, it isn't broken - it's working exactly as it's designed to do which is to make the rich richer." This is why I believe you can't effectively reform the system.
Granted, some reforms will make the lot of the workers somewhat better but at the same time they will also, however, clearly benefit the capitalists and so the system is self-perpetuating - still maintaining the vast disparity between have and have not. Sometimes capitalism does take a small reduction in profit but only so that it can continue to profit! Any market system (despite our calling it 'free') still relies upon the capitalist economic structure and as such will still place profit before people. No matter whether promises to reform capitalism or to make capitalism run in the interests of the workers are made sincerely by economists or by opportunist politicians they are bound to fail, for such promises are like offering to run the slaughter house in the interest of the cattle!
A so-called 'free market' system still advocates private ownership of the means of production and an exchange of labor for wages, in other words -capitalism. The common ownership of the means of production where that production is geared to fulfilling human needs and not the profits of the obscenely wealthy is, to me, the only viable option. This is called 'democratic socialism'. Mr. McNeil is quite right that such a system is 'unproven' but it is not 'problematic' as a truly democratic socialist system has never before been implemented despite a number of so-called socialist countries that were nothing more than state run capitalism under brutally, repressive regimes such as the former Soviet Union, North Korea, China, etc. Many have called this ideal of a truly democratic socialism 'utopian' socialism believing that we as a society are not yet enlightened enough to embrace such a level of global sharing and cooperation. But human behavior is not fixed but it is determined by the kind of society we live in. A capitalist society produces competitive and often vicious ways of thinking and acting. We don't need more competition as Mr. McNeil stated - we need more cooperation! I also must disagree with Mr. McNeil's statement that "the free market system we have works pretty well". Tell that to the 50 million Americans living in poverty in the richest nation in the world and the bastion of the 'free market'. Or to the estimated 700,000 in Ontario, our richest province, who line up for food banks! Today, under capitalism, one doesn't have to look far to see the many victims of competitiveness, profit and greed. Houses sit empty and boarded up while families are homeless and builders unemployed! We spend $1.5 million every minute on waging war while millions starve as food is destroyed to maintain high market prices! But we humans adapt our behavior and there is no reason why our rational desire for security, comfort and the welfare of not just ourselves but future generations should not allow us to cooperate. Recent events around the world prove that positive changes can be brought about when people discover their power of cooperation and solidarity. If there is to be a world for our grandchildren to inherit then we cannot afford not to change the system!
Tom Coles
Clearwater, B.C.