Too Small To Succeed

The crisis in capitalism continues to intensify. The price of oil is now less than half of the lofty peak of that which it once occupied. The Corona virus has spread around the world, and various countries have responded by closing all sports events, religious gatherings, schools, malls and even their own borders. Citizens are being encouraged to ”self isolate”, to stay at home and avoid groups of ”more than ten”. It is not clear how members of large families are expected to do this.

As far as the capitalists are concerned, the situation is pretty grim. Not because people are getting sick and dying, but because those who ”self isolate” are not spending their money. How can they? They are not allowed to travel or even go to the store. As a result of this, the profits of the capitalists are suffering. From the capitalist viewpoint, that is the real tragedy.

Experts in the field of health are reporting that the elderly, as well as those who are suffering from ”preexisting conditions”, are most at risk from from contracting the Corona virus. They are also reporting that young people may have the disease, while showing no symptoms. Such people are known as ”carriers”, those who spread the disease, through no fault of their own. Still, the health experts are encouraging young people to not get tested for the virus. Go figure.

Those same ”health experts” are reporting that the death rate from those who contract the disease may vary from one to four percent, depending upon the level of medical treatment available. As it is anticipated that possibly half of the people in the country may soon be infected, it stands to reason that the death toll could number in the millions.

In response to this, Trump has just announced that ”various health organizations are now working together in an unprecedented manner”, in an attempt to develop a virus. It is doubtful that he realizes he has just announced a crushing condemnation of capitalism! He has effectively admitted that under capitalism, even the health organizations do not cooperate! They are in competition with each other, at the expense of the health, and even the life, of the citizens.

Health officials are reporting that we have reached a ”tipping point”, although they are careful not to explain what that means. Most simple souls consider a ”tipping point” to be the point whereby a fluid overflows the side of a container, but clearly the health experts are using that expression to describe a phenomenon which they consider to be more elaborate, beyond the grasp of mere mortals.

The Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, is of the opinion that we can expect the unemployment rate to reach twenty percent, a rate not seen since the Great Depression. Not that we have to worry about another Depression, as the capitalists have refused to give a definition to the word! As a Depression is not defined, it ceases to exist. Impeccable logic!

The stock market reached ”bear market territory” at the point where it lost twenty percent of its value, and has since lost another fifteen percent. The ”financial experts” were asked if it could lose another thirty percent of its value, and the self described experts were clearly irritated at the question -the nerve of some people!- and were careful to avoid giving a straight answer.

The ”health care workers” are concerned that the hospitals are facing a critical shortage of beds and ventilators. As those who are infected with the virus tend to experience ”respiratory distress”, or are short of breath, to phrase it in simple English, the use of ventilators can be the difference between life and death. These shortages are indeed serious.

It should come as no great surprise to anyone that our fearless leader, Donald Trump no less, is taking no responsibility for the crisis. As the wits phrase it, ”the buck stops nowhere near the Oval Office”. As president, he earlier said that the Corona virus would end by a ”miracle”. but as that has not happened, it is clear that the Lord has fallen down on the job, refusing to take orders from Trump. Imagine that.

The government is reporting that all ”fiscal policy responses” have as yet failed to have any effect on the falling stock market. These ”fiscal policy responses” include dropping the interest rates to effectively zero, and having the Federal Reserve ”pump hundreds of billions of dollars” into the stock market.

It is note worthy that the financial experts are no longer talking in terms of billions, but in terms of trillions. It is reported that the Fed, as it is called, pumped a trillion and a half into the market, yet it had almost no effect. Now the government officials are talking about handouts to the tune of several trillion, national debt be damned! As Mnuchin just announced, the ”economy will come roaring back”. In a time of crisis, this is just what we need. A philosopher! Such starry eyed optimism will no doubt be a great comfort to those who are losing their jobs and life savings!

The capitalists are concerned, to the point of being frantic, with the financial state of the major airlines. It is being reported -shock and horror!- that those companies could go broke within a couple months, unless they receive a massive ”capital infusion”. In other words, the politicians are desperate to ”bail them out”, to give them a huge ”handout”, although they ”bend over backwards” in an attempt to avoid using these terms. My personal favourite is the reference to corporate welfare as ”increasing liquidity”. As a result of this, the politicians have determined to bless them with an initial gift of possibly fifty billion, with many more billions to follow, along with tax breaks. Of course, other major companies, such as those involved in various tourism industries, including the cruise ship industry, hotel chains and restaurants, will also be smiled upon by the government. By contrast, small business owners can expect to receive a great deal of sympathy. Try taking that to the bank!

Among the capitalists, it is understood that some businesses are ‘Too Big To Fail”, while other companies, as well as individuals, are ‘Too Small To Succeed”. This is not to say that Trump is completely heartless, indifferent to the suffering of the ”little guy”. On the contrary, he has graciously agreed to ”suspend all home foreclosures and evictions”. This should come as a great comfort to those who are about to lose their jobs and houses and join the ranks of the homeless. It has been delayed for a certain time! Gee thanks, Mister Billionaire President! You are too kind!

The braver of the capitalist analysts are predicting that a ”shutdown is inevitable”, businesses should send all non essential employees home, and that we are entering a ”depression era period”. As the ”Big Three” American automakers are reported to have just shut down, and the Las Vegas casinos are apparently following suit, that conclusion is something less than a stroke of genius. No doubt those corporations, including the gambling establishments, those which take such great delight in separating us from our hard earned money, will also qualify for a government handout!

As I write this, it has just been reported that all the gains of the stock market, which has been made since Trump was elected, have been erased. The stock market has now lost 35 percent of its value. This is not to say that Trump is indifferent to the suffering of the common people, the ”little guy”. In fact, he is graciously planning to send a check of one thousand dollars, a ”grand”, or possibly more, to all citizens. Those who receive this bonus can use it to buy an old car, to be used as a shelter, as a replacement for the home they are about to lose. In this way, they can join the ranks of those who are homeless and forced to live in their cars. There is no shortage of such people, and they are among the more fortunate. The less fortunate are forced to live under bridges.

In fact, the proposed ”grand hand out” is nothing more than an added humiliation, a mere addition to the degradation of being unemployed and homeless.

To put this financial downturn in scientific terms, it is a fundamental tenet of Marxism that a commodity sells for the cost of production. This means that for a while, a commodity will sell for a price above the cost of production, and there is great joy in the land of capital, or at least Wall Street, because business is making a profit. Then there comes a surplus, the price of the commodity drops, and it sells for a loss. Doom and gloom reigns on Wall Street. There is weeping and wailing in the land of capital. Even the capitalists admit that business proceeds in a ”boom to bust cycle”, yet at the same time they expect the stock market to merely rise steadily. Each time the market takes a dip, the capitalists lose money, and they are shocked. This merely proves the fact that the capitalists are masters of self delusion.

As for those who think that these fluctuations in the stock market should level out under this stage of capitalism, monopoly capitalism, which is referred to as imperialism, you are mistaken. As Lenin stated quite clearly, if not emphatically: ”The statement that cartels can abolish crises is a fable spread by bourgeois economists whom at all costs desire to place capitalism in a favourable light. On the contrary, when monopoly appears in certain branches of industry, it increases and intensifies the anarchy inherent in capitalist production as a whole.” (italics by Lenin)

As I write this, for the first time since the birth of the latest capitalist crisis, the press is now using the ”D word”, which is to say Depression. The implication is that the crisis is quite severe, and the Corona virus is anticipated to last for possibly eighteen months. As long as it lasts, we can expect people to ”self isolate”, if for no other reason than that they have no choice. At the same time, those same people will not be at work producing, or shopping, or travelling, or spending their money, if only because they do not have money to spend. It stands to reason that profits will suffer.

Strangely enough, the more optimistic stock brokers, die hard capitalists one and all, are practically yelling at investors to ”stay the course”. Perhaps they feel that by ”raising the volume”, investors will be more impressed. Or perhaps they are merely wired on some good drugs. They are going to need such drugs, and lots of them.

This brings us to the rational souls who are pointing out that the country is deeply in debt, to the tune of 23 trillion dollars, and that is merely the amount the federal government admits to owing. The real amount is not mentioned. These sane individuals question the sanity of going far deeper into debt. The response is that now is not the time to quibble over the national debt! This is similar to the expression ”damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” Those are famous last words. Torpedoes are not damned. Torpedoes do the damning. Those who challenge torpedoes do not often live to regret it.

In much the same way, fool hardy souls can ignore the national debt. The national debt will not ignore the country. The people who own the national debt, those who are technically referred to as members of the bourgeoisie, will demand payments on that debt. What is more, they will receive payment, if only because they are members of the ruling class. Even though the tax base is shrinking, because businesses are closing and individuals are losing their jobs, the interest payments on the national debt must continue. This can and will be done, but only at the expense of such little details as disability pensions, old age pensions, hospitals, schools, clinics, libraries, play grounds, national parks, police and fire protection, and so forth. Regardless of how difficult the depression becomes, the bourgeoisie are determined that they will not lose a dime. They never lost a dime in the first Great Depression, and they have no intention of breaking with that tradition now.

With that in mind, the press is reporting that various small business owners are looking at bankruptcy. No doubt this is true, as the capitalist monopolies become ever more complete. Ever more small business owners, referred to as petty bourgeois, are being forced into the ranks of the working class, the proletariat. That is merely a fact, just as it is a fact that those same people bring with them the class awareness, which is foreign to the proletariat.

In this article, I have gone to considerable length in quoting from press reports. I have also expressed myself in popular language, using colloquialisms which common people can understand. The reason for this is that common people watch the news, and in fact they watch it religiously. They then discuss it among themselves, trying to make sense of this. They also read, and in fact they read a great deal. The trouble is that they are limited in their comprehension due to the fact that the working class is not aware of itself as a class!

I most passionately hope that members of the working class are reading this article. To such people I can only say that I am writing this, with you in mind. You, as the members of the proletariat, must become class conscious. You must overthrow the ruling class, the bourgeoisie, and crush them under the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat. This can only be done through revolution, and this requires the correct Marxist leadership. Otherwise, those who are devoid of principle, referred to as opportunists, will merely sit themselves up as the new rulers.

Bear in mind that this class awareness can only come from members of the middle class, so do not hold the class background of an individual against them. Marx and Engels were members of the middle class, for example. Each of them could have chosen to live a comfortable bourgeois life style, but chose to do the right thing. They devoted their lives to the service of the working people, proletariat, peasant and petty bourgeois.

We can expect those who are current or former members of the middle class to bring the class awareness to the working class, the proletariat, but do not count on this. As yet, this has not been happening, or at least not in sufficient quantity. Not to despair, the works of Marx and Lenin are readily available, or at least the most essential works. With that in mind, I encourage all workers to read The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels, State and Revolution by Lenin, What Is To Be Done? by Lenin, and Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, by Lenin. A careful reading of those works will give workers a solid grounding in scientific socialism, other wise known as Marxism.

I am sure that everyone, working class as well as middle class, will now agree with me when I say that the situation is now at a critical point. It continues to intensify, with the rich, the bourgeoisie, becoming ever richer, and the common people, the working class, the proletariat, as well as the middle class, the petty bourgeois, becoming ever more poor. In fact, ever more members of the middle class are becoming ruined, their businesses are going under, as the capitalists consider them Too Small To Succeed. The government handouts are strictly for the major corporations, those who are Too Big To Fail.

Now it is up to middle class intellectuals, including those who have been forced into the ranks of the working class, to share your understanding of the awareness of classes, including the Marxist necessity of revolution and the subsequent Dictatorship Of the Proletariat.

Bear in mind that time is not on our side. The revolution could break out any day now. I will close this article with my usual slogans, as they are so important:

Workers of the World, Unite!

Scientific Socialism!

Dictatorship Of the Proletariat!