It dawned on
me with a flash of brilliance - like a bright star in the sky you might say. As
I was elbowed by one desperate shopper after another – all madly focused with
that crazy glint in their eyes – there could be absolutely no doubt -
Capitalism Works.
Today
(according to people who work these things out) Brits are going to spend £1.3
BILLION. Just today. And I am fairly sure (though I’m just guessing – I am not
one of the people who do surveys to work these things out) relatively few will feel
better on Boxing Day for having spent that money. In fact some folk are going
to feel much worse.
I recalled a
very odd recent church service. A young preacher wound on for a while in an entertaining
manner about her shopping, her gift-wrapping, her fear of putting on those
‘Christmas pounds’, the stuff she was going to watch on telly etc and finished
up with an authentic -
“Thank you
Jesus”
I listened
hard for the irony. There was none.
I gazed around
the congregation and saw a few smiles, the occasional appreciative nod. Some
were glazed over and had clearly already gone to the land of when-is this-over
but no one else seemed to be squirming with discomfort.
After a few
days of stewing about this I realised that Christmas really
is the ultimate proof that Capitalism Works.
At no other
time of year is it more evident, at no other time are the masses so eager, nay desperate to fulfill their role as cash cows.
I was
humbled.
For the fact
is that the whole point of Capitalism (as surely we know by now) is to make a
few people at the top rich while keeping the rest alive to service that wealth.
This happens because the vast majority of those below them are exploited and
the money travels up up up. It is not pyramid selling but pyramid economics. This
Free Enterprise defies the laws of gravity, humanity and morality.
In its
mildest forms and usually when economies are developing, enough money and
resources stay at the middle and lower levels to muddy the inequalities and we
rub along (Britain between WWII and Thatcherism). But we are past that stage.
At no time
since WWII has there ever been greater inequality between the tiny percentage
of haves at the top and the have-nots at the bottom. And the rules are – as we've known in this country since at least The Industrial Revolution – when
economies contract or cease to expand the only other way to squeeze out more
profit is to exploit people more.
Capitalism Works.
Capitalism ensures wealth for the few. What we are experiencing at present is
Rampant Capitalism that ensures obscene amounts of wealth for those at the top whatever
state the economy is in and scraps plus debt for those at the bottom.
As people scurry round buying gargantuan piles of crap in the name of that thing we call
Christmas, stuff made by people even more exploited than they are and eat/drink themselves into early graves (yes this is my jolly yuletide message) they are
proving with every penny borrowed, every credit card burnt that
CAPITALISM WORKS. Capitalism is alive and kicking our heads in.
The question
is not does this out of control free enterprise monster work. The question is –
is it what we want.
Merry
Christmas.