Why Do So Many Americans Defend the Failed Capitalist Experiment?

28th July 2016

People vastly underestimate the wealth gap in the United States, guessing that the poorest 40 percent own about 10% of the wealth — when in reality the poorest 40 percent own much less than 1% of the wealth.

Capitalism has worked for big business and for the people with stocks and estates. But for the past 35 years our economic system, stripped of sensible regulations, has poisoned the U.S. nation with deadly inequality and driven much of middle America to an ever-widening lower class.

Yet for much of the nation the delusion persists, against all common sense, that deregulated free-market capitalism works, that it equates to true Americanism, and that people have only themselves to blame for their failure to thrive in this expanding world of wealth. The reasons for this delusion are not so hard to determine…

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1. Capitalism Justifies Selfishness

“Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men, for the nastiest of motives, will somehow work for the benefit of all.” ~ John Maynard Keynes, Economist

Studies have consistently shown that increased wealth causes people to turn inward, to believe more in their own “superior” traits, and to care less about the feelings and needs of others. This anti-social attitude blends well with the Ayn-Randish “greed is good” message of unregulated capitalism.

Other studies have determined that money pushes people further to the ideological right, making them less egalitarian, less willing to provide broad educational and other opportunities to all members of society, and certainly part of the reason that our investment in public infrastructure as a component of GDP dropped by 60 percent from 1968 to 2011.

2. The Media Keeps Telling Us that Capitalism is the Only Way to Live

The mainstream media’s unwillingness to state the truth about inequality has led people to vastly underestimate the wealth gap in our country, guessing that the poorest 40 percent own about 10% of the wealth, when in reality they own much less than 1% of the wealth. Out of every dollar, they own a third of a penny.

Conservative writers overwhelm us with their capitalist-loving mantras:

Income inequality is simply not a significant problem. (The Wall Street Journal)
Income inequality in a capitalist system is truly beautiful… (The Washington Post’s George Will, quoting John Tamny)
Capitalism has worked very well (Bill Gates)
A free market system…ensures a fair, democratic process (Sarah Palin)
Let the market do its job (Chicago Tribune)

Many of them believe that the state of America is reflected in the stock market. But the richest 10% own over 90 percent of the stocks and mutual funds. No problem for the Koch Foundation. They comfort us with the knowledge that If you earn over $34,000 a year, you are one of the wealthiest one percent in the world.

3. The Capitalist Education System

Capitalism allows profit-seekers to view students as sources of revenue, conditioning them for lives as working “resources”. David Brain, head of the tellingly named Entertainment Properties, called the charter school business “a great opportunity set with 500 schools starting every year. It’s a two and a half billion dollar opportunity set in rough measure annually.”

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But the money didn’t start rolling in until the public school system began to be starved. The U.S. Department of Education reported that $197 billion is needed to repair the nation’s K-12 public school buildings. The public system is going broke, deprived of tax dollars that go to charters. State budgets are providing less per-pupil funding for kindergarten through 12th grade than they did six years ago — in many cases far less.

And the results of the capitalist school experiment? Evidence is quickly accumulating that many charter school systems are mired in fraud and secrecy, and shaping up as a prime example of the folly of treating human beings like products to be bought and sold.

4. Class Wars: Those Above the Lowest Class Look Down on Others

Members of the sinking middle class in our pathologically unequal society may well find it convenient to blame people in lower economic classes, who are unlikely to fight back. Guidance for such condescension comes from libertarian writer Charles Murray, who apparently doesn’t understand the family stress caused by the lack of educational and employment opportunities. He accuses the poor of having a “genetic makeup that is significantly different from the configuration of the population above the poverty line.” And, he adds, “Married, educated people who work hard and conscientiously raise their kids shouldn’t hesitate to voice their disapproval of those who defy these norms.”

This inspires people like Paul Ryan and Scott Walker, both of whom compared the safety net to a “hammock,” and John Boehner, who explained the thinking of poor people as: “I really don’t have to work… I think I’d rather just sit around.”

The critics of struggling Americans should be reminded that nearly two-thirds of all working-age poor are actually working, but unable to earn a living wage, forcing them to rely on food stamps, which only provide about $5 a day per person for meals. In addition, over 83 percent of all benefits going to low-income people are for the elderly, the disabled, or working households. Furthermore, the cost of the entire Safety Net is only about ONE-SIXTH of the $2.2 trillion in annual corporate tax avoidance that primarily benefits the rich.

A good American capitalist like Republican Senator Lindsey Graham would say, “It’s really American to avoid paying taxes, legally… It’s a game we play.”

In reality, it’s a game for the people looking down on a troubled nation.

Also from Paul Buchheit:

About the author:

Paul Buchheit is a college teacher, an active member of US Uncut Chicago, founder and developer of social justice and educational websites (UsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org, RappingHistory.org), and the editor and main author of “American Wars: Illusions and Realities” (Clarity Press). He can be reached at [email protected].