The capitalist class owns the means to life. Capitalists own the means of production and distribution. And they own the raw materials, land, factories, transport and communication system, and distribution points to the exclusion of the rest of society.
The capitalist class exploit. They exploit a world working class. They pay workers less than the wealth they create in goods and services and it is this surplus that provides the wealth capitalists accumulate
Workers produce, what Marx called a “surplus value” which goes in the form of unearned income to those who own the means of production, as rent, interest and profit. This surplus as profit also pays through taxation for the State and the politicians who serve the capitalist class.
The privilege and wealth of the capitalist class is protected by the machinery of government including the armed forces of the state. Workers are prevented from directly producing just what they need and taking goods and services to feed, clothe, educate and house their families. Workers are forced onto the labour market to sell their ability to work which is treated as a commodity
The wealth exploited from the working class is amassed by capitalists. Some make extraordinary wealth from class exploitation.
More than 51,000 capitalists joined the ranks of the ultra-wealthy in 2021 as the fortunes of the already very rich benefitted from rising global stock markets and increased property prices during the pandemic (Knight Frank March 1 2022).
The number of extremely rich capitalists in the UK has increased by 11 per cent to 25,771. Capitalists in Britain with assets of more than $30m have doubled since 2016, and Knight Frank predicts the total will rise to more than 32,000 by 2026.
Compare this wealth ownership with the poor. According to a research briefing paper “Poverty in the UK” published in the House of Commons library in October 2021:
- 11.7 million people were in a relative low income at a similar level to the year before
- 3.2 million children were in relative low income, an increase from the year before
- The proportion of children and pensioners in relative poverty is higher than it was five years ago
- The share of people in absolute poverty has not changed in five years
And then there are the food banks. They are a growth industry. The Trussell Trust charity supports more than 1200 food bank centres to provide three days of nutritionally-balanced emergency to the desperate and vulnerable. 40,000 people volunteer at food banks.
Not that the poor will get any sympathy from capitalist politicians. In 2013, the Education Secretary Michael Gove said families who were forced to use food banks only had themselves to blame because they are “unable to manage their finances”. (Metro 27 November 2019).
In 2017, Jacob Rees Mogg defended the rise of food banks by saying they were “uplifting” and showed “what a compassionate country we are”.
Charity rather than taxation is what it is all about for Gove and Mogg. The capitalist class has to retain its wealth. So they think. Making profit is what capitalism is all about. Capitalism does not exist to meet people’s need.
Or, as Marx once remarked:
“Accumulate, accumulate! That is Moses and the prophets?…Accumulation for accumulation’s sake, production for production’s sake…”(Capital vol. 1)
Social reforms have not been able to get rid of poverty. The Labour Party is a symbol of that failure. They have now been reduced to just being another capitalist party serving the class interests of the rich and powerful. Starmer wants Labour to be the Party of capitalism: the Party of poverty.
Poverty is caused and generated by capitalism. The profit system is a social system of the rich and privileged. While the means of production and distribution are privately owned, poverty will persist from one generation to the next.
Socialism is the only answer to the social problem of poverty. Poverty ends once a socialist majority establishes the common ownership and democratic control of the means of production and distribution by all of society. If the 40,000 people volunteering at food banks were to become socialists and to join with other socialists to form a majority then poverty might have a chance of being eradicated before 2026 when Knight Frank think the really wealthy within the capitalist class will increase by another 32,000.
To establish socialism requires democratic and political action. The machinery of government must be taken away from protecting the private ownership of means of production and distribution. This requires a principled socialist party, socialists understanding socialism and being prepared to vote for it through sending socialist delegates to Parliament.
Once socialism is secured then production and distribution can take place directly and solely meet human need. Volunteering can then be put to social use rather than as a sticking plaster for the problem of poverty cause by capitalism.
