The
laborers of the world are celebrating one more May Day. I wish them all
prosperity and well being.
I am not a leftist thinker; but I insist on a
human face to every economic theory.
I am not a follower of Karl Marx, the great
German thinker who has influenced the world less than Jesus Christ; but I am
admirer of him.
I agree with full heart that this fellow was a
great thinker, his economic theory is real science and his ideas will never die
because ideas seldom die.
I am happy to see laborers celebrating May
Day. I always have a heart for the poor and less privileged. I agree that the
underprivileged has a right for a better share of world’s wealth.
This May Day deepens my concern for them. The
gap between the rich and the underprivileged are widening to a frightening
chasm.
Marx, the author of das capital, believed
in class conflict based on economic inequalities that would determine the
course of history. His dream of a proletariat dictatorship has not worked out
well. The exponents of communism have fallen into the flashing prosperity of
capitalism. Russia has broken up into pieces. China within the wall is
implementing capitalism. Other communist or socialist countries have given up
the dream. Thanks to some small
countries which still holds on the dream.
The burial place and memorial of Karl Marx in
Highgate cemetery, London really demands better respect. Photographs of it are
despairing. He has given the world a profound scientific theory that will never
die.
The capitalist panacea for world economic
problems – globalization, has grown today to a fruit bearing tree. Every tree
is known by the fruit.
Unfortunately, the fruits of this tree are not
promising. The world has fallen into a never before depth of economic crash.
European countries are in fear of a second depression which may knell their
death.
Global economy is facing an extended
crisis and none of its practitioners are able to predict a new sun rise.
Workers around the world are suffering from joblessness, debt and poor incomes.
Laborers are more and more are unsatisfied by the capitalist economy. The
middle class tastes the bitter fruits of capitalism and globalization. Money
value decreases and income remain stagnant.
Where are these signs leading us to:
may be to an economic doom which our think tanks are trying to avert.
Can we easily dismiss Marx’s bitter
criticism that capitalism is inherently unjust and self destructive. Marx
predicted that the capitalist system would inevitably impoverish the masses as
the world’s wealth concentrates in the hands of a greedy few. This
concentration of wealth is sure to cause economic crises and conflict between
the rich and working classes. “Accumulation of wealth at one pole is at the
same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality,
mental degradation, at the opposite pole,” Marx wrote.
Is he right? I find no reason to say
‘no’.
In USA, the working class and the
middle class has realized that they are the underprivileged 99% working hard to
make the 1% richer. The President of USA Barack Omaba wants to levy the rich
more to fund social security measures. In France the new president, Socialist
Party’s François Hollande, has proclaimed: “I don’t like the rich.” He too
wants super taxes imposed on the rich. But the rich replies to his challenge by
moving out of France to other capitalist nations. His critics describes the
situation as: “Rather than relying on (entrepreneurs) to create the companies and
jobs we need, France is hounding them away.”
The rich-poor divide is growing to a
frightening level in China. Even in emerging markets like India, tension
between rich and poor is becoming a primary concern for policymakers. India
puts one step forward and two steps backward. Will it work or broke?
Marx could predict such an
outcome. His dream may materialize in such a situation where the proletariat
woke to their common class interests and overthrow the unjust capitalist system.
He dreamed of a day the proletariat would replace capitalism with a new,
socialist Utopia.
Marx wrote. “The
proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains.”
Today no one among the
world economists is denying the fact that that the world’s laborers are
increasingly impatient with their feeble prospects. Workers around the world,
of the different countries, have found their common problems. In the near
future, if capitalism would not come up with another magic wand, they may unite
together to resolve their problems.
Professor
Jacob Abraham
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