by Dada Maheshvarananda
The Second World War, in which nearly 70 million people were killed, vividly demonstrated the folly of the concept of “master races”, making the words “empire” and “colonialism” shameful throughout the world. Following the war, the Allied powers of Britain, France, the United States, Belgium, and the Netherlands were soon forced to grant political freedom to almost all their former colonies. Thereafter, instead of invading other countries as before, capitalists made economic and political agreements to exploit the world economically. Political colonization became economic colonization. All countries agreed to regulate their currencies based on the U.S. dollar. The World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the United Nations with its many treaties and organizations all promoted free trade around the world.
I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, a period that was considered the “golden age of capitalism” in the United States. In that era, most white men and many people of color were able to enter the middle class. For example, a single male factory worker earned enough to support his wife and children, buy a home, and retire comfortably at age 62. Since then, real wages, purchasing power, and living standards have continually fallen. Medical costs and college costs have skyrocketed, along with the price of homes. Many factories have moved overseas, where wages are lower and environmental regulations and labor rights are greatly reduced. Today the U.S. trade deficit is $918 billion because the country imports so much more than it exports.
The American Dream, with the myth that anyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and become wealthy, eludes almost everyone.
Today, in 70 percent of American families both parents have to work outside the home to earn enough. Half of first marriages end in divorce, causing 23 percent of U.S. children to be raised by a single parent. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called loneliness a public health epidemic because 30 percent of adults say they have experienced feelings of loneliness at least once a week over the past year, while many say they are lonely every day. Loneliness and mental depression result in rising levels of addiction to alcohol, drugs, and food. People are afraid and uncertain.
The real cause of all these problems is never understood or spoken. To be precise, it is corporate capitalism, making the rich ever richer and the poor poorer. This rising inequity and an obsession on material gain and competition undermines a sense of community and forces people into economic hardship alone.
Many Americans have dug themselves into a severe debt trap. Today the total U.S. household debt was more than $18.4 trillion according to the Federal Reserve Bank. The average balance for credit card holders with unpaid balances was $7,236. Research shows that the majority of people with debt problems hide them from their partners, their friends, and their parents, stating they felt “shame” and “embarrassment”.
Both political parties in the United States support capitalism. President Donald Trump is a particular example of what corporate, crony capitalism stands for. He came to power by acknowledging the economic struggles and pain that many American people face. However, he blamed these struggles on many imagined causes: immigrants, welfare programs, “government inefficiency and corruption”, the Democratic party, foreign capitalist competition, and many others. He is reducing taxes on the rich and surrounding himself with billionaires, claiming that if they do well, a little will trickle down to everyone.
Trump is also leading an attack on democracy. In 2020, the Washington Post Fact Checker Staff published Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth: The President’s Falsehoods, Misleading Claims and Flat-Out Lies, a comprehensive compilation and analysis of the more than 16,000 fallacious statements that Trump uttered in the four years of his first presidency. He insists that the mainstream media is “fake news”. Right wing talk shows repeat all his lies as truth, and many people believe them.
If Trump cannot keep his promises to his base, and that appears to be happening quickly, he will be in trouble. He is quickly moving toward fascism, a populist state with strong authoritarian, dictatorial leadership backed by corporate interests, that suppresses all opposition. Trump is creating chaos, removing the country from all international trade and military agreements. He is shaking the national and international systems so much that it is impossible for anyone to predict the outcome.
What are we to make of Trump’s tariffs? P.R. Sarkar, the founder of the Progressive Utilization Theory (Prout), was in favor of protecting developing economies from outside giants. To protect small industries in the early stages of industrialization, tariffs are useful. During the twentieth century, U.S. industries exported more, giving the country a huge trade surplus. But the U.S. economy changed from heavy manufacturing to a focus on high tech, intellectual property rights, design, branding, and service jobs.
However, the tariffs that Trump is threatening and imposing will not build up the technical knowhow to make industries strong. Today the basic cost of manufacturing is higher in the United States, so the cost of living of Americans is bound to go up. Tariffs might create a few jobs, but the reciprocal tariffs imposed by the affected countries will raise prices on other goods.
Trump’s chaotic shakeup is revealing how vulnerable and fragile corporate capitalism and political democracy really are. “Drill, baby, drill!” is a Republican campaign slogan Trump uses repeatedly to promote increased exploration for petroleum and gas without consideration for the environment or global warming. His reckless actions will trigger a reaction, causing a collapse of the U.S. economy, the U.S. government, and Nature.
Now is the time to present the truth about corporate capitalism and how it is the cause of so much of the stress and fear that people are experiencing. We need to show that a much better alternatives exists, such as Prout.
The first priority must be the right to live, that is, to guarantee through full employment the five minimum necessities of life to every human being in the country: food and pure drinking water, clothing, housing (with electricity and sanitation), education, and health care. Closing down the speculative markets, limiting the accumulation of wealth, and guaranteeing jobs to all would bring a high quality of life to everyone.