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