Dysfunctional Capitalism: Reform or Revolution?

Reading Richard Wolff in Democracy at Work: a Cure for Capitalism is like a whack on the side of my head. It jars something loose in my brain that needed to surface, so this post is a manifesto of sorts. For all my years as a volunteer activist for economic justice, I have been resisting growing wealth inequality, But I have not taken on capitalism as the cause of economic inequities. Like FDR in his bold new-deal programs, I have been working for reforms in the capitalist system, not a revolution to an alternative. Wolff explains that President Roosevelt, a capitalist himself, required a new deal of government programs, not only to put people to work, but also to save capitalism from the increasing communist threat .  

I had sympathetically read and taught Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto to Global-Issues classes, but it was not until I read Wolff, that I thought seriously of the capitalist system as the cause of our economic injustice.   Before Wolff, I thought capitalists, rather than capitalism caused income injustice with their greedy power-hungry billionaires spending millions in advertising, campaign contributions, and lobbying. I thought flaws in human character were the cause; uncontrolled capitalism was an effect; and reform, regulation, and control of capitalists and their institutions were the solutions. I eagerly read Richard Reich,Capitalism for the Many, Not the Few. I read books about profit making banks and other financial institutions created to loan money to micro businesses in 3rd world countries as a way of making capitalism work for the poor in the U.S. and around the world. 

I first began to think of Bernie Sanders for President when he filibustered for 8 hours in opposition to Obama's extension of the Bush tax cuts. Not even then did I think of his call for a revolution to be a threat to capitalism as the dominant power in our politics. Wolff explains that the capitalist system created an economy that is unstable. 
History shows that it fluctuates between boom and bust periods in the economy with a lower middle class and the poor always suffering the effects most. For a brief time in the 20th century between FDR and Ronald Reagan, a middle class strengthened by powerful union action created a prosperous buffer between the richest and the poorest. Now that middle class is disappearing into the lower middle classes and poor. 

At the same time, we are in a boom economy right now for the richest, a boom rivaling the one of Clinton's neo-liberal  '90s, the era that continued into the Bush years, inspired the drastic Bush tax cut for the richest, and crashed in the great financial recession of 2007. While bailing out the big corporations and financial institutions, Obama extended those tax cuts, and Trump increased them. If we continue on this economic trajectory for the next 5 years, I expect the crash following this boom to be more devastating than the one in 2007.  

Wolff explains that capitalism is a threat to democracy as well as to economic stability. With the aid of tax-free organizations such as the American Legislative Exchange Council and the Chamber of Commerce, capitalists promote and finance voter-restrictive laws, gerrymandering, big money contributions to political campaigns, and lobbying. In switching to a view of capitalism as the cause of economic injustice, I do not excuse capitalists for their bad behavior, but I no longer look for solutions in reforming them. Instead, I will work for a transition away from capitalism to a new system.

 Wolff's solution to the problem of an ailing capitalism is to transition to "Workers Self Directed Enterprises" (WSDEs)  In capitalist businesses, owners or shareholders sit on boards of directors and make all the decisions of the company. Workers in these business have no say in wages, production, or organization of the business, especially now
 with the drastic decline in unions since Ronald Reagan. Wolff sees a transition to WSDEs as a revolutionary cultural shift  that would change education, health care, protection of the environment, income equity, community life, and democracy for the better. In WSDEs, workers are the directors and decision makers in all companies, and they are provided with the education, time, and resources to take an active role in company management, politics, and community life.

Until a Wolff type vision is realized, we are left with the struggle to reform capitalism in piecemeal and incremental fashion with legislation such as the bill before the Maine legislature this session, LD 1611, to develop a healthcare system that covers all Mainers. At the same time as working for reforms in the system, I mean to work for a new world order to materialize. The first baby step is a simple one: vote for and work for the presidential candidate who will aggressively move us toward a more equitable and just economic system. 

Of the current Democratic candidates, most lean right about the capitalist system and advise, at best, piecemeal and incremental reforms that do not threaten the dominance of capitalism. Elizabeth Warren wants to take on the big corporations with the piecemeal reform of a wealth tax to pay for other piecemeal reforms. She doesn't challenge the capitalist system that creates and sustains big-money interests. Even Eisenhower's taxes of up to 90% on the richest did not threaten that system.

Only Bernie Sanders pushes for a Wolff type solution—an economic, political, and cultural revolution that will improve the quality of life for all.