Man Exploiting Man
Mon, August 24, 2020 Under capitalism man exploits man. Under socialism it is the exact opposite
That is a joke. Not original, but never-the-less I found it funny and when I posted it on a social media site, I thought it was fairly safe in that it pokes fun at both ends of the political spectrum.
But someone fired back,
“Um, no. I grew up under socialism. Had good education and access to health care at no extra cost.”
So, this person did not find this funny because it seems in their view under the socialism end of things no one exploits anyone.
I usually steer clear of politics for the simple reason I am a Brit living in the USA. I am not a citizen, I am a Green Card carrying, resident alien, with permanent residency. Under this arrangement I get all the same rights a US citizen gets.
They allow me to have a driver’s license and own and drive a car, to own a home and pay taxes like everyone else. The two things I cannot do are vote or do jury duty, I can manage quite well without those responsibilities, thank you very much.
But because I can’t vote I feel strongly that I should not voice political opinions and try to influence others who do vote.
However, it annoys me when left wing eco-nuts assume that the bicycle is exclusively theirs, and on the other hand, there are those who think because I ride a bicycle I must be a left wing eco-nut.
The commenter on my “joke” stated that they grew up under socialism with free health care, sounds a lot like growing up in the UK in the post war years. I grew up in that same period and here is my take on it just from what I observed, and experienced.
Before WWII there was a (Capitalist.) class system in the UK where a small percentage of the population had all the wealth. (Sound familiar.) Most of this wealth had been handed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years. The rest of the population were subservient to the wealthy class and relied on them for a job and a living. And in many cases rented a home from a wealthy landlord.
This system, with all its faults, had made Great Britain a world leader. This is pretty remarkable when you consider that Great Britain is less than the size of California. But over the years they built ships, sailed all over the world, taking over countries, taking commodities and raw materials at a cost of next to nothing.
This made the wealthy even wealthier. Britain manufactured a great deal of the goods that were shipped and sold all over the world. Up until 1919 the world currency was based on the British Pound, not the US Dollar. As a kid five shillings, which was a quarter of a Pound, was called a “Dollar.” Because there were once four US Dollars to the Pound. Today the Pound is worth $1.31.
Under the class system anyone born into the working classes found it difficult to reach the top levels of management in a large company. The CEOs and captains of industry were all from the wealthy upper classes. The British education system pre-WWII was geared so that working class kids would be separated at age ten years old.
The bright kids would get a higher education and become the accountants and middle management in industry. The rest of the kids got a basic sducation and had the self-esteem beaten out of them, physically and by verbal put down. This made them subservient laborers who would do a menial job without question or become cannon fodder for the armies to go off and conquer more lands.
Everything changed when WWII ended. The men who came home from the war had the attitude, “We laid our life on the line for our country, now we want a piece of the pie.” Clement Attlee the leader of the Socialist Labor Party was voted into power with a huge majority.
The Labor Government took over ownership by Nationalization of the steel industry, coal mining, and the railroads. They also created National Health Care, with free medicine and health care for everyone.
Of course, nothing is free, it was to be paid for by increased taxes. The government owned the hospitals and they paid the doctors and dentists a flat rate according to the number of patients they had.
There is a standing joke in the US about the British and their bad teeth, which is a direct result of NH dentists giving poor care. What incentive is there to give good care, and do extras like clean or straighten people’s teeth when you will not get paid more?
The other thing that happened was, there grew this huge government bureaucracy to manage the health care system and before long there were more bureaucrats than doctors or nurses.
When the government took over the steel, coal, and railroad industries the trade unions in those industries flourished. Trade unions are good when they fight for worker’s rights and make sure they are not exploited or under paid. But if your boss is the government, and the government is a socialist government, they are on your side.
In the mid-1970s there was a Conservative government in power who were not sympathetic the coal miners’ union when they asked for more money. The coal miners went on strike, and without coal, no electricity. There was a huge stockpile of coal, but the railway union refused to move it.
The country went on a three-day work week, and eventually the conservative government had to resign. A labor government was elected, the coal miners got their raise in pay and went back to work. By 1978 it seemed that everyone was on strike for more money.
Truck drivers were on strike and I couldn’t get deliveries of oxyacetylene to build my frames, I would go home and there would be no TV ‘cos the TV workers were on strike. When hospital workers who do laundry etc., went on strike and people died because doctors could not operate on them, it was the end of the line for me. It was then I decided to move to the United States.
I think many UK citizens felt as I did, because it was soon after that Maggie Thatcher and her conservative party got back in power. She de-nationalized much of the nationalized industries, and even privatized some of the hospitals. When the Labor Party got back in power in later years it was a much-watered down socialism, more in line with the US Democrats.
With no intention to influence anyone, I am just telling of my own experiences of living under both ends of the spectrum. Going to school in the 1940s in an education system evolved though years of extreme capitalism. Then see my country go to the other end of extreme socialism. Finally experiencing the frustrations of trying to run a business, in an atmosphere where not only the government, but my fellow man was against me.
Yes capitalists exploit their fellow man, that can often be blatantly obvious, but don’t tell me that socialists don’t exploit their fellow man, when they go on strike and let people die or suffer financially so they can get a pay increase.
And when unions become so powerful, they can bring down a democratically elected government, I call that exploiting your fellow man? A person who fails to see the humor in that little joke at the top of the page, has lost the ability to laugh at themselves and their belief system.
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Reader Comments (7)
I,ve worked in industry all my life and experienced both ends of the scale. Machine shops (read sweat shops) and heavily unionized industries (telecommunications).
The incident that has always stuck in my mind was the union involved in the telecoms industry. I had been there for three years without a day off sick. The union guys called me into the union office and noted that I had not taken any sick leave. I said i hadn't been sick. They informed me that it was wankers, like myself, that screwed it up for everyone else (less sick day allowance) and i was to go sick for a week. This was backed up with menace from two burly officials!!
I still smile to myself about that incident LOL.
Labour went too far in the 70s in the UK. Jeremy Corbyn looked to me like the reincarnation of that spirit, which is why I was glad he lost the election, though I'm not a fan of Boris Johnson.
I like the milder democratic socialism of the Nordic countries though — it seems to work well and those countries have the highest (Self-reported) levels of happiness in the world.
There is an old joke about Russian leader Khrushchev visiting a British auto factory in the 1960s. He remarked that Russian workers worked a 12-hour day from 6am. To 6:30pm. With a half hour lunch break. The British guy leading him on the tour answered, “These guys would never stand for that, they’re a bunch of communists.”
I worked for Vauxhall Motors in Luton in 1959, It was owned by the American General Motors and was notable in that it was non-union. The way they did that was to pay more than Union rate paid by other British Auto makers. I remember it was difficult to get a job there, but if you did it was a good company to work for.
A Union can weald a lot of power, the problem is unions do not always have the brightest people in charge.
Dave
As an economics professor of mine used to say, "Given a choice everyone would choose to be a wealthy socialist".
The problems that both systems have is are you giving as much as you are taking. If people feel that they get their moneys worth then everyone is happy.
The real challenges are at the ends of the income spectrum (both ends). Either econ/political system breaks down when people feel that they are mistreated or denied opportunity.
Nothing can be extreme, the golden mean should be adopted.
Yes, how did bicycles become political? I was out riding a while back, taking up my 12 inches of road shoulder, when an impatient driver in a large pickup truck passed me much too closely. As he did, he shouted "Ride on the sidewalk, you libtard!"
So he knows my political views because I ride a bike?
Hi Dave. Just a brief addendum about life here in the UK 30 odd years on from Margaret Thatcher. Under her, social housing (rented ‘council houses’) were widely sold off to tenants which was great for them. Unfortunately councils weren’t allowed to build more so now we have a massive cheap housing crisis. The railways were privatised and made a few people rich. They’ve just been semi re-nationalised because no-one can run them profitably, public utilities (water etc) were sold and are now owned by foreign firms - some state owned - the car industry is now Japanese and German, the wealth gap is wider than ever.
And we still have bad teeth because there are almost no NHS dentists.
But we love bikes and cycling.