It is generally accepted that the have-nots will sooner or later stand up against the rich, since they have no choice. Unlike the rich, they have nothing to lose. However, this logic doesn’t apply when there is something called a “safety net”. It is this safety net that stops the poor from getting back what they deserve, because they now feel, well — safe. They don’t have to starve, or worry about their basic living needs, because the government will take care of them. Together with the the middle class reticent to lose what they possess, the poor, who have no choice but to revolt or remain sedate, become silent sheep. What a brilliant tactic! You only need to surrender $5 from your billion-dollar bulge, and it generates untold returns for you. You can’t help but give credit to the free-market capitalists for their successful penetration. Conclusively, the middle class and the safety net are to capitalism what arms and legs are to us.
Historically, anarcho-capitalists detest government. Ironically, they cannot help but resort to government to provide a safety net for the poor to maintain their position. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the system that perpetuates free-market capitalism is exactly its natural adversary, socialism. Free-market capitalism is forced to face the fact that if it had really been so purely capitalistic, it would not have survived to this day; it would have been destroyed as early as the nineteenth century. Owing to the mercy shown by socialism, anarcho-capitalists are able to walk among us while hypocritically proclaiming socialism to be the devil’s whore. In 2008, but for the historic bailout by government, free-market capitalism would have met its demise at once, globally. What saved it? Socialism. It’s fine for the government to hide away when they’re looting the poor, but bad to try it when the poor are resisting. What sort of people are they? It’s madness!
The government needs to take a stance. If government chooses to reflect real free-market capitalism, why won’t they abolish every sort of social safety net, so that the essential spirit of pure capitalism, ”survival of the richest”, can be carried out from A to Z? It’s because the upper class knows that if they did kill socialism, their own status would be the next one set for extermination. So, they deftly orchestrate a position for socialism towards which they are most favorable. Most of us genuinely agree that socialism is the deadliest rival of free-market capitalism. If a proper arrangement, however, were introduced, it might function in a completely different way, just as it is now. It could be a perfectly calibrated enslavement machine in the hands of the few. In the future, there ought to be no win-win situations for the rich. If freedom is to be the core of our society, it should be carried out in every corner, not just in the domain of economy. Likewise, the enslaved should have the mobility to free themselves from the oppressors.
It is estimated that the expense of the safety net in America will approximate $100 trillion in 2020. Apparently, it is the reason that Obama felt compelled to promote his reforms, so that America wouldn’t go bankrupt. (In fact, America would have gone bankrupt had dollars not been tied to oil.) Where does this massive amount of money come from? In order to garner support, Obama vowed that he would enforce tax hikes on the rich, not on the middle class. Unluckily, the whole system still would not be affordable. Obama tried to provide Americans affordable medication by using utterly unaffordable money doled out by those who had enslaved us from day one. Where is the logic here? Eventually, the middle class have taken over the work of the super rich, to feed the tens of thousands of hungry lions.
The anarcho-capitalists who make demands for tax cuts for themselves (and a tax-free society) often support tax raises on middle class because that’s exactly what the middle class is intended for. In the very near future, the middle class will suddenly become disillusioned about what they really are — a bait, a feeder, a body shield that abides the bullets. They, just like their subordinates, are not of a class anymore. They are expendable in every conceivable way. For many reasons, we should seriously contemplate siding with the controllers since what they themselves are doing is actually speeding up their own destruction. The more they loot the poor, the more necessary the safety net is. And the more they need their safety net, the more the middle class needs to be taxed, hence the more hatred the middle class will have on their superior (the second against the first). Eventually, the safety net will become too big to afford and the proletarian middle class will team up with the lower class to overthrow the whole hierarchy (the second teaming up with third against the first).
In comparison with the Millionaire’s Death Tax, the peaceful solution, the abolishment of safety nets would prove much more effective at igniting a revolution; there would be no delay. Tens of thousands of poor people would mobilise and revolt immediately after the official announcement. The abolishment of safety nets is undoubtedly the policy that free-market capitalists secretly fear the most. Those at the top can be removed with ease by the mere suggestion of either removing (from the poor) or increasing (at the expense of the middle class) the safety nets. What are we waiting for? It’s time we appealed to those big bands by trumpeting tax increases on the middle class and abrogation of all kinds of safety nets. It’s time we corroborated with those anarcho-capitalists by championing the dogma spewed by Ayn Rand in her notorious book Altas Shrugged. It’s time we experienced real free-market capitalism, which of course would disintegrate in short order. To kill free-market capitalism, simply make it real — force it to be honest with itself. Show it in all its naked, gory glory. Let’s celebrate both the birth and the death of real free-market capitalism!
In a zoo, a lion tamer performs a stunt to entertain the audience under the escort of safeguards behind the curtain. The mission of the safeguards is to display the vigor of the performer and create a hot atmosphere by covertly sabotaging the lion, ensuring the success of the performer. People clap, and the show ends. One day, due to delay on payment, the safeguards go on a strike. Under no escort, the lion tamer needs to demonstrate his full ability in taming. How long will the lion tamer last?
“The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.” — Karl Marx
One of the greatest ironies of our time is how we shredded the safety net that was supposed to lift the poor out of poverty, and then gave that safety net to the rich–but made it a thousand times larger!
Now the rich get welfare. The rich get safety nets. The rest of us get shafted. It can’t last. The super-rich have engineered their own destruction. Will enlightened Meritocracy replace the failed system? Or will our species regress to a catastrophic barbarism?
Great article WaiLok 🙂