Capitalism, Inequality, and -A Christmas Carol!

More than a century and a half ago, Charles Dickens published his famous novel "A Christmas Carol", which some interpret as a condemnation of the inequality in the distribution of wealth, economic injustice, and the power of the capitalist employer (Ebenezer Scrooge) over his employee (Bob Cratchit), in Victorian Britain in the nineteenth century, when poverty and hunger were severe, especially in major industrial centers such as London and Manchester. Dickens portrays the employee Bob Cratchit as a kind-hearted and tolerant man, and at the end of the novel, the capitalist Scrooge wakes up and suddenly transforms from a greedy miser to a compassionate and loving person for the poor, perhaps in an attempt by Dickens to give us hope for the possibility of reform in capitalism. Fast-forward to the present day shows us that Dickens s imagination has not been fulfilled, as capitalism cannot abandon inequality and domination, which means that the misery of hundreds of millions of people will continue as long as this system remains in place.

System crises and it’s victims, Covid-19 as an example:
In the last five years, the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the depth of inequality that exists today and has drawn attention, perhaps for the first time, to the important and vital role of “essential workers” in supporting the safety and well-being of our societies, and this phrase has become one of the most popular expressions at the time. Essential workers were defined as the majority of workers working in health, social care, education, cleaning, transportation, water, food, and others.
It has become clear that this same group, which largely supports the economies of countries, is also the most deprived and vulnerable to exploitation in general, and official data has shown that it is also the group most vulnerable to occupational risks from the pandemic. In addition, this group is also the most affected by the long-term economic, social and health consequences of the pandemic. Most importantly, it has become clear that women, migrants and low-income workers constitute the vast majority of these marginalized groups. It is worth noting that this interest in forgotten groups and the negative role of class differences in their lives and fate was only a formality and did not go beyond the media aspect and moral appreciation for their efforts and sacrifices during the pandemic, and this interest was not reflected in any change in the material reality of their lives, meaning that the disparities remained in place and even deepened.

The pandemic ended and we overcame health precautions against it more than two years ago, although many of our societies are still suffering from the economic and social effects of the pandemic. With the end of this stage, even this formal interest in essential workers and the rest of the marginalized groups gradually faded and things returned for them to what they were before the pandemic and worse. There is a fact that cannot be ignored, which is that many of these workers, most of whom have low-paying and insecure jobs, and with zero-hours contracts, face insecurity every day of the year, whether there is a pandemic´-or-not, but crises create an opportunity for the ruling regimes to tighten their clutches on workers and impose a retreat on them in order to consolidate the pillars of the inequality system. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only been a health crisis-;- it is also a social and economic crisis with multidimensional impacts. The pandemic did not create class disparities, but rather highlighted and magnified pre-existing disparities. Indeed, the burden of the pandemic has not been equal across all population groups. This is because many social determinants of health – including poverty, the physical environment such as pollution and exposure to smoke, homelessness and poor housing, and ethnicity – have had a significant impact on its outcomes.

Let’s look at Britain, where the Industrial Revolution spread to the world in the 18th and 19th centuries. Today, many families live in cold, damp homes that lack adequate heating,´-or-cannot afford heating. Many others – most of them unemployed young people – ---sleep--- under bridges´-or-in front of subway entrances. Official reports indicate that the country is experiencing the largest decline in living standards since the 1950s, with more than a third of children and a quarter of adults living below the poverty line. The End Fuel Poverty Coalition estimates that 4,950 excess winter deaths in the UK were due to living in cold homes during the winter of 2022/23.

The Lancet published a review of the Marmot Report in 2020 (the original report was published in 2010) which states that “as social and economic development occurs, health should continue to improve”, and “The Marmot Report 2020 highlights the worrying downward trend in health in England and warns that society cannot afford to be complacent about health inequalities”. The report also states that “although many of the recommendations, such as reducing child poverty and mitigating the effects of climate change, are based on evidence drawn largely from England, they have significant global implications”.

In Iraq, people are suffering severely from the effects of global capitalist policies due to wars, displacement and migration, as well as state policies that complement global capitalist policies. Covid-19 was just another crisis added to its many thorny and intractable crises. Issues of corruption, mismanagement and the systematic destruction of public health, education, sanitation, transportation and communications systems weigh heavily on people on a daily basis, in addition to salary crises and huge differences in the salary scale and fuel crises that deprive the overwhelming majority of security and reassurance, and backward patriarchal laws leave the entire society, not just women, faced with enormous challenges due to the revival of male norms, tribal violence and sectarianism, which in turn deepen disparities and inequality. The United Nations has classified Iraq as the fifth most vulnerable country to global warming and climate change. Drought, desertification, the increasing frequency and intensity of sandstorms, pollution, and rising temperatures are symptoms of this crisis. The effects of all these crises in Iraq certainly have wide global dimensions and consequences.

These days, as we approach the end of 2024 and welcome a new year, while it is almost difficult to talk about´-or-even think about anything other than the destruction and wars that are raging around us and have become a daily reality for millions, and climate disasters are recurring and increasing in severity and devastation, we do not need to think deeply to realize that the same millions of essential workers, toilers, impoverished groups, women, and all other forgotten groups, whose daily lives are subject to the whims of a parasitic minority under the capitalist system, are also the ones who bear the lion s share of the tragedies of these wars and disasters.

Prospects for change:
Thanks to technological progress and scientific achievements, there are huge prospects for humanity to achieve a better life, health and the highest degree of well-being for all and to reduce the effects of environmental disasters and future health epidemics by reorganizing the economic, social and political system on the basis of meeting the material and moral needs of humanity instead of this capitalist system based on the creation of profit, competition and inequality.

But under this system, a small group of capitalists such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and their peers control billions of dollars, which gives them the ability to control the fate of humanity and subject the entire population of the planet to their ambition and arrogance. These two men now aspire to take us into space. So, billions of dollars are being spent in this field because capitalism always needs to expand its markets as a means of overcoming its crises. The ambition of these capitalists is not-limit-ed to space investment projects, but they are now -dir-ectly influencing the results of political elections as well, as Musk personally contributed more than a quarter of a billion dollars towards the election of Donald Trump for a second term in the US presidency, and he was recently appointed as a co-leader of the (Managing Government Efficiency) Foundation, which is tasked with cutting -$-2 trillion from federal spending. These reactionary austerity policies mainly target-limit-ing spending on the two main government health care programs, Medicare and Medicaid, and the issue of homelessness. Musk believes that “homeless individuals are actually violent drug zombies with dead eyes, needles and human faeces in the streets,” and “the more money spent on combating homelessness, the worse it gets”. That is, he now has a high role and dominance in shaping the reactionary policies of the state and the shape of the next government. The rest of the billionaires are rushing to line up with the president-elect with million-dollar checks to ensure their role in subjugating all aspects of life to achieve private profit and to close ranks to tighten their grip on any protest movement against it.
According to the latest estimate from Forbes magazine, Musk’s fortune is close to half a trillion dollars. His personal fortune of -$-442 billion has grown by about -$-180 billion in the past two months alone, with most of the increase occurring in the six weeks since Donald Trump was re-elected to the presidency in America. Sure, such astronomic sums could address various global crises such as hunger and poverty,´-or-end homelessness and overcrowding,´-or-find a cure for cancer,´-or-ward off the dangers of environmental disasters. But these projects that concern and benefit 8.2 billion people do not generate profits´-or-guarantee influence and dominance for the guardians of billions of dollars, so we do not expect Musk and his long line of billionaire peers to give up their space dreams´-or-their dominance and earthly powers.
This equation is reversed and must change. The billions seized by these parasites must be returned to their true owners: the great army of essential workers, the poor, the toilers, women, unemployed youth, children, immigrants and all the marginalized segments. This change does not happen by relying on the hope of Scrooge s transformation as portrayed by Dickens, nor on the kindness and innocent optimism of his employee Bob Crotchet. Rather, it comes through a comprehensive and radical change in economic and social relations that guarantees a safe and prosperous life for the planet s 8.2 billion inhabitants, not just a small bunch of pirates.

Achieving equality is not a slogan´-or-a dream of fantasy, but an urgent necessity. Without it, all that exploring the depths of space will achieve is the importation of inequality from the Earth to the universe.

Sherine Abdullah
12/25/2024

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