Are we still living in capitalism?

Capitalism is the economic system in which the means of production (factories, machines, offices, stores, ships, planes, lorries,,,) are privately owned, and are used for the purpose of making a profit, which means increasing capital. As long as this be the main mode of production, society will be capitalist.

This refutes the arguments of those who believe that society’s problems are due to the fact that it is not truly capitalist, because it has a central bank, fiat money, taxes, limits on what can be spent, limits on cash transactions, etcetera. All this can exist without the society ceasing to be capitalist. And, worse, it is usually done to favor the most powerful capitalists, who have the most influence on, or sometimes directly control of, the government.

This also disproves the absurd idea that increasing taxes will somehow solve society’s problems. No matter how much the rich (or anyone) be taxed, as long as companies be private and produce for profit, there will be capitalism, with all the problems it entails. No taxes, no customs, no bank controls,,, will ever change the fact that the bourgeoisie still control what is produced, people have to sell themselves to the bourgeoisie to be able to survive, and everyone is forced to live for money, for earning and spending it.

If only the “social democrats” at least had in mind the objective of eventually getting rid of capitalism, even if solely in the long term, their movement would be more credible and it would be less odious to vote for them when they are the least worst option. But they are like the rest of the politicians, they do not bother to even consider how to use their power to help humanity not only now but in the future; all those fiscal, financial and economic laws are made thinking about now and, with luck, a decade in the future. But they do not plan them seeking to provoke the end of capitalism, neither are they thinking of making effective some ideal of the liberty of man.

Thus, one should not be naïve when listening to political propaganda, no matter how “liberal”, “libertarian”, or “leftist” it claim to be, its project is not revolutionary, if it does not contemplate terminating capitalism, even if only gradually.

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