| RightsWhenever any moral, ethical, political, or even | | | | by Robert Green Ingersoll.] Adam Smith noted that in |
| economic question comes up, there is often a | | | | China, the condition of the worker is so degraded, |
| question of rights involved. "Does the woman have | | | | that families are forced to live in boats, and would |
| the 'right' to abort her fetus?" or "Does a man have | | | | welcome a stinking, putrid piece of meat as a |
| the 'right' to kiss women he is not involved with?" or | | | | godsend. He also noted that the wealth is so |
| "Do corporations have the 'right' to avoid paying | | | | concentrated in the hands of the few, that families |
| livable wages?" Whatever it comes down to, there is | | | | have to drown their infant children in water, because |
| always the question of rights. In Capitalism, there is | | | | they cannot feed them. ["Wealth of Nations," by |
| one distinguishing right: the right to private property. | | | | Adam Smith, chapter 8.] Thomas Malthus also noticed |
| In this system, a person can offer their property for | | | | this, "the custom of exposing children, which, in times |
| sale at ANY price, can offer ANY price for the | | | | of distress, is probably more frequent than is ever |
| property they want. It doesn't mean that someone | | | | acknowledged to Europeans. Relative to this |
| will buy it, or that someone will accept their offer. | | | | barbarous practice, it is difficult to avoid remarking, |
| They simply have this one right: to set any price for | | | | that there cannot be a stronger proof of the |
| the property they are selling, or to offer any price | | | | distresses that have been felt by mankind for want |
| for the property they wish to acquire. That is the | | | | of food, than the existence of a custom that thus |
| basic premise of Capitalism.Communism, or Socialism, | | | | violates the most natural principle of the human |
| (at least the type that I am promoting) would curtail | | | | heart." ["An Essay on the Principle of Population," by |
| this economic right. What are the justifications or | | | | Thomas Malthus, Chapter 4.]Even today, the |
| reasons for it? Well, there are two that I shall further | | | | condition of the workers is horrid. Workers are paid |
| elaborate upon... First, I believe that Communism is | | | | between 4% and 20% of the wealth they produce, |
| more capable of elevating a person's status. Second, | | | | with an exception in the Lodging industry (being |
| I believe that Communism grants a right that | | | | closer to 37%). [U.S. Census Bureau, 1997 Economic |
| Capitalism does not (that is, the right to the wealth | | | | Census, Comparative Statistics, Core Business |
| of your own labor). Whether these reasons are | | | | Stastitics Series, EC97X-C52, issued June 2000.] This |
| justified, I will try to demonstrate in a concise, | | | | translates to this... If a person operates machinery for |
| powerful manner, in the following paragraphs....The | | | | a Capitalist, and produce enough products to make |
| Ancestral Roots of Civilization and the Evolution of | | | | his employer $100,000, the worker -- that is, to say, |
| RightsWhen looking at society today, at the big | | | | the person who built the machinery, who operated it, |
| factories and the various outlet stores, and seeing all | | | | and then sold it -- would receive perhaps $15,000. |
| that has come technologically, it can only fascinate | | | | But, this is given the best case scenario.There are |
| the human imagination. I admit to looking at these | | | | many more reasons to believe that this number is |
| wonders in awe. But, any person interested in society | | | | closer to $6,000 or $4,000. For instance, if a miner |
| will have certain inquiries. Where did civilization come | | | | was REALLY paid 12% of the wealth they made, |
| from?The Roman Empire is sometimes regarded as | | | | they would be making $40,820 per year. Now, it |
| the starting point of Western Civilization, having its | | | | doesn't take much understanding of economics to |
| own roots in some Greek culture (borrowing religion | | | | see that factory workers do not make this much per |
| and philosophy). Here, the word "Proletariat" was first | | | | year. We must understand that CEOs are paid |
| used, describing a soldier who went to a far off land, | | | | greatly, yet what they are paid by the company is |
| captured slaves, and then returned home, to find | | | | also counted as pay roll. Robert M. Delvin, for |
| that he could not find employment, due to the | | | | example, is Chairman, President, and CEO of |
| abundance of slaves. The word "Proletariat" would | | | | American General Corporation. He is an employee, but |
| later be used by Marxists, to describe workers who | | | | in one year, he made over forty five million dollars. |
| had no property and could only sell their labor. The | | | | [Source: The Houston Chronicle.] When his payroll is |
| number of slaves that were in Rome during its rise | | | | averaged in to all the other workers, then the 12% |
| cannot be known for certain, for no official records | | | | of all the wealth made by the workers means that |
| were kept of slaves brought in to the city. But, | | | | the median average of each worker is about forty |
| modern historians seem content with the idea that 1 | | | | thousand. If Delvin worked for the retail trade |
| 3rd of the population was enslaved -- 300,000 to | | | | industry, then that would mean that for his wage, |
| 350,000 out of 900,000 to 1,000,000 people. When | | | | there are 14,900 full time workers that are being paid |
| the Roman Empire fell, a new political and economic | | | | $5.15 per hour. Most workers typically receive the |
| system took place known as Feudalism.Feudalism | | | | minimum wage, meaning they make $10,712 per year. |
| entailed different rights and privileges. The land was | | | | Now, a miner for the mining industry produces a |
| divided into fiefs and a vassal was in charge of his | | | | great deal of wealth compared to what he is paid. A |
| parcel of land. Serfs were the peasants who labored | | | | miner makes, on average, makes $400,000 for his |
| for the wealth of their vassal. A serf was not | | | | employer, but he is paid only $10,000 per year. In this |
| allowed to leave his land without proper permission to | | | | case, the worker receives 2.5% of the wealth in |
| do so. Feudalism developed from post-Roman | | | | which he produces. If a farmer ploughed the field of |
| estates filled with many slaves. Today, though, most | | | | 200 crops, the Capitalist would turn around and give |
| liberal historians will refer to serfs as "just a differnt | | | | him 5 of them. How is it that the Capitalist can do |
| type of slave," and this is quite true.However, the | | | | this? Simple. Because he owns the farm, he owns the |
| bondage of Feudalism could not last forever. A new | | | | tractor, he owns the tools, he owns the land. And by |
| way of working and producing came into effect. And | | | | what right can this be done? By what doctrine? The |
| it came, as we have today, the industrial society. | | | | right to property.Thus, what do we find? We find |
| Various revolutions of the European nations took | | | | two great, incontrovertible facts: (1) The laborers, |
| place, even as late as the middle 1800's (such as the | | | | the workers, are the producers of wealth. Without |
| case of Germany). Eventually, Feudalism was | | | | them, there would be no food, there would be no |
| eliminated, the serf was liberated, and freedom | | | | iron ore, there would be no tools. Without them, |
| reigned. The crystaline dove of prosperity was on | | | | there would not be the farms to grow the food, the |
| the land, and there was never again to be a cry of | | | | mines to mine the ore, and the factories to produce |
| brutality... or, at least, that is the picture painted by | | | | the tools. They are the sole creators of wealth. (2) |
| many historians.The rights of slaves in the Roman | | | | The condition of those who create all the wealth is in |
| Empire was simple: they had none. Well, there were | | | | such a horrid state. They are paid a subsistence |
| some laws dictating action to be done to slaves, | | | | wage, remarkably below what they deserve to be |
| certain protection measures, but beyond that, they | | | | paid. In "Demands of the Communist Manifesto," |
| were as much slaves as Africans were for centuries | | | | Marx wrote that one of the first conditions of a just |
| in America. The rights of serfs in the Feudal times | | | | government is this: that child labor is immediately |
| were much evolved from that of slavery. A serf | | | | eradicated, and that an education is provided for |
| worked, and a great deal of his produce went to his | | | | them.More simply put... Those who produce |
| master. A serf was not allowed to leave his land | | | | everything are given almost nothing. This is not |
| without consent. Finally, we have Capitalism, or Free | | | | justice. Capitalism has nearly reproduced Feudalism, in |
| Enterprise, the system where a worker can leave his | | | | such a manner that Feudalism nearly reproduced |
| land whenever he wants. But, is it real freedom, or is | | | | slavery. No humane heart can look at these children, |
| it just the manifestation of slavery in another | | | | growing deformed because they work for their food, |
| form?The Brutal Nature of CapitalismIn Feudalism, | | | | and say, "Ah, liberty! What a great godsend we have |
| there were various classes, but two distinct ones: | | | | before us!" No kind person can see the mass of |
| nobility and serfdom. The nobles did no manual labor | | | | workers, without hope, without heart, without |
| yet they lavished in the wealth produced by | | | | meaning, working only that they may feed |
| peasants. In Capitalism, we see again the rise of two | | | | themselves and pay their rent. And where does their |
| distinct classes: the Bourgeoise and the Proletariat. | | | | money go when they buy food or when they pay |
| The Bourgoise are the capital-owning class, those | | | | their rent? It goes directly back into the pockets of |
| who own the means of production. They own the | | | | those who exploited them. Perpetual poverty. I |
| farms, the banks, the factories. The Proletariat, | | | | detest Capitalism because of its inherent brutality. I |
| however, own nothing. They have no farm land. | | | | am not alone.In his "The Capitalist System," Bakunin |
| They have no factories. They do not even have | | | | wrote, "Thus the worker's liberty, so much exalted |
| food for themselves. In essense, slavery is entirely | | | | by the economists, jurists, and bourgeois republicans, |
| recreated. Because, while a worker can refuse one | | | | is only a theoretical freedom, lacking any means for |
| job or move from his land, he is entirely dependent | | | | its possible realization, and consequently it is only a |
| upon the Bourgeoise class for providing him with his | | | | fictitious liberty, an utter falsehood. The truth is that |
| subsistence.Peter Kropotkin once wrote of the | | | | the whole life of the worker is simply a continuous |
| workers, "We are perfectly aware that they often | | | | and dismaying succession of terms of serfdom |
| work for even less, but we know also that they do | | | | -voluntary from the juridical point of view but |
| it entirely because, thanks to to our splendid social | | | | compulsory in the economic sense - broken up by |
| organization, they would die of hunger without these | | | | momentarily brief interludes of freedom accompanied |
| ridiculous wages." ["The Wage System," by Peter | | | | by starvation; in other words, it is real slavery." |
| Kropotkin.] Mikhail Bakunin once wrote, "Suppose I | | | | Thomas Paine argued against Capitalism, writing, "It is |
| am your worker and you are my employer. If I offer | | | | not charity but a right, not bounty but justice, that I |
| my labor at the lowest price, if I consent to have | | | | am pleading for. The present state of civilization is as |
| you live off my labor, it is certainly not because of | | | | odious as it is unjust. It is absolutely the opposite of |
| devotion or brotherly love for you. And no bourgeois | | | | what it should be, and it is necessary that a |
| economist would dare to say that it was, however | | | | revolution should be made in it. The contrast of |
| idyllic and naive their reasoning becomes when they | | | | affluence and wretchedness continually meeting and |
| begin to speak about reciprocal affections and mutual | | | | offending the eye, is like dead and living bodies |
| relations which should exist between employers and | | | | chained together." ["Agrarian Justice," by Thomas |
| employees. No, I do it because my family and I | | | | Paine.] In the same work, he wrote, "The state of |
| would starve to death if I did not work for an | | | | civilization that has prevailed throughout Europe, is as |
| employer. Thus I am forced to sell you my labor at | | | | unjust in its principle, as it is horrid in its effects; and |
| the lowest possible price, and I am forced to do it by | | | | it is the consciousness of this, and the apprehension |
| the threat of hunger." ["The Capitalist System," by | | | | that such a state cannot continue when once |
| Mikhail Bakunin.] In that same document, he also | | | | investigation begins in any country, that makes the |
| wrote, "The worker is in the position of a serf | | | | possessors of property dread every idea of a |
| because this terrible threat of starvation which daily | | | | revolution." As Henry Salt once wrote, "Our capitalists |
| hangs over his head and over his family, will force him | | | | persist to the bitter end in the fatuous assertion that |
| to accept any conditions imposed by the gainful | | | | to live idly on the labour of others is not the same |
| calculations of the capitalist, the industrialist, the | | | | thing as to steal." ["Thou Shalt Not Steal," by Henry |
| employer." Robert Green Ingersoll once wrote, "The | | | | Stephens Shakespeare Salt, Justice, March 14, |
| working people should be protected by law; if they | | | | 1885.]What is it that we have before us? Great |
| are not, the capitalists will require just as many hours | | | | injustice, brutality, cruelty, misery, and vice. I believe |
| as human nature can bear." ["Eight Hours Must | | | | that every worker should be paid the wealth they |
| Come," by Robert Green Ingersoll.]Workers have no | | | | produce. I believe that those who own capital should |
| property, so they cannot bargain. They cannot | | | | be relinquished of their rights to the means of |
| demand higher wages, for while they do, their | | | | production. Did Harriet Tubman ever leave money |
| children are shouting for bread that does not exist. | | | | behind, to compensate the slave-owner? Certainly |
| That is the result of Capitalism. A Capitalist | | | | not! The idea of it is an absurdity. So, then, too, the |
| philosopher may speak of "freedom" or "liberty" all he | | | | Capitalist class should have its right to the means of |
| wants. But when it comes down to it, it's th politics | | | | production released. Because, as they own the |
| of starving. It is perpetual poverty. A person can | | | | means of production, as they own the farms, they |
| argue all they want, "If the job is unfair, they can | | | | are then granted the economic right of exploitation, |
| quit and find another one." But as they are thrown | | | | which is opposed ot all good creeds. That is the first |
| back into the job market, they will rarely be able to | | | | step to revolution. A law ought to be made... stating |
| find another boss willing to pay more.What is it that | | | | that no person may become wealthy from the labor |
| makes this sickening, revolting, and cruel, to the sight | | | | of another. Everyone should have an equal obligation |
| of every humane person? It is that the workers are | | | | to work. Upon this commencement, I believe the idea |
| responsible for producing the wealth! Adam Smith | | | | of Welfare ought to also be abolished, or at least |
| wrote, "It was not by gold or by silver, but by | | | | extremely minimalized. Once workers are being paid |
| labour, that all the wealth of the world was originally | | | | what they produce, no person will ever need a |
| purchased." ["Wealth of Nations", by Adam Smith, | | | | handout. Imagine, for instance, if instead of 2.5%, a |
| Book 1, Chapter 5.] Ingersoll wrote, "The great body | | | | person was paid closer to 90% or 95%. Imagine |
| of the people make all the money; do all the work. | | | | every wage multiplied by forty. What you have, |
| They plow the land, cut down the forests; they | | | | then, is that corporate profits, instead of going to |
| produce everything that is produced. Then who shall | | | | the idle, go to the industrious. That is justice. Since |
| say what shall be done with what is produced except | | | | working one hour will be able to get someone |
| the producer?" ["Centennial Oration," by Ingersoll.] In | | | | enough subsistence for days, I imagine criminal |
| another work, he wrote, "All my sympathies are on | | | | activity will be greatly reduced. Why would a robber |
| the side of those who toil -- of those who produce | | | | ever decide to steal a TeeVee from someone's |
| the real wealth of the world -- of those who carry | | | | home, when working one hour would be enough to |
| the burdens of mankind." ["Eight Hours Must Come," | | | | produce one or two television sets? Instead of |
| by Ingersoll.] Friedrich Engels wrote, "Labour is the | | | | having our Capitalists decide for us what industries |
| source of all wealth, the political economists assert. | | | | are best, people would Democratically decide for |
| And it really is the source..." ["Part Played by Labour in | | | | themselves what they want. By voting together, |
| Transition From Ape to Man," by Engels, 1876.]The | | | | every person will have a say in the matter of |
| fact that Capitalism incurs brutality is not at all at | | | | decision-making. So, then, a new business will be |
| question. Robert Owen, an Industrialist and Utopian | | | | erected, or an old one destroyed, by the vote of |
| Socialist of the early 1800's, wrote that in one | | | | the people. The industries of food, of housing, of |
| particular incident, a factory owner had employed | | | | luxuries, will all be determined by the people. In this |
| children ages 6, 7, and 8. They worked for thirteen | | | | regard, we will not have the egregious abuse of the |
| hours a day. Their work was so grueling and difficult | | | | consumer that we have today under Capitalism. A |
| for such tender bodies, a great deal of them became | | | | person will never go into a tourist shop, and find a |
| permanently deformed. ["A New View of Society," | | | | molded piece of pottery on sale for $40 (though it |
| by Robert Owen, essay 2.] Thomas Malthus also | | | | cost $2 to make), upon which any rational person |
| noted the same, "Boys that you would guess to be | | | | would respond, "We made this, while we have |
| fourteen or fifteen are, upon inquiry, frequently | | | | starving people in the corners of the globe?"That is |
| found to be eighteen or nineteen." ["An Essay on the | | | | Communism, and that is what I believe in. Life, |
| Principle of Population," by Thomas Malthus.] The fact | | | | PunkerslutPunkerslut (or Andy Carloff) has been |
| that Capitalists have been forcing workers to work | | | | writing essays and poetry on social issues which have |
| under harsh conditions is not in question by anyone | | | | caught his attention for several years. His website |
| known to the facts. To quote Robert Green | | | | provides a complete list of all of these writings. His |
| Ingersoll, "We have seen here in America street-car | | | | life experience includes homelessness, squating in |
| drivers working sixteen and seventeen hours a day. | | | | New Orleans and LA, dropping out of high school, |
| It was necessary to have a strike in order to get to | | | | getting expelled from college for "subversive |
| fourteen, another strike to get to twelve, and | | | | activities," and a myriad of other revolutionary |
| nobody could blame them for keeping on striking till | | | | actions. |
| they get to eight hours." ["Eight Hours Must Come," | | | | |