Recently in Florida, a twelve story apartment building collapsed, killing a great many people. The press is covering this story very closely, properly so. They are also reporting that this collapse raises a great many questions concerning the integrity of other buildings, as well as the infrastructure of the whole country. In this they are correct, so perhaps it is best to explain these terms.
The building in question was over forty years old and constructed with concrete, which was reinforced with steel bar. That steel bar is referred to as rebar, which is short for reinforced bar. This rebar gives the concrete more strength. The press also reports that the concrete on the building was ”spalling”, or cracking, and that this cracking is an indication that the steel rebar is rusting.
Of course the collapse of this building raises the question of the safety of other buildings, especially those which are greater than forty years old. It also raises the question of the safety of the infrastructure of the whole country. The press was also quick to point this out, without explaining the meaning of the term infrastructure.
Perhaps someone should explain to the journalists, that not everyone who watches the news is a cross between a Philadelphia lawyer and a mechanical engineer. With that in mind, we will mention that, according to the internet, the infrastructure is a reference to ”the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities, such as bridges, roads, power supplies and tunnels, needed for the operation of a society.” They go on to mention that this includes the water and sewage network. Now we know.
This is certainly a legitimate concern, as many of those structures were built a great many years ago. It stands to reason that without proper routine maintenance, it is just a matter of time before they fall apart. Yet maintenance costs money, and the capitalists have been cutting back on such expenses for many years. It follows that a great many more buildings are about to collapse, and not just apartment complexes.
It only makes sense to repair the infrastructure of the country, before it falls apart, in the interest of keeping the country running smoothly, as well as for the sake of safety. This would also help to put countless people to work, performing vital repairs, and in the process, being paid for this, quite handsomely. This would help to stimulate the economy, and in fact, Senator Bernie Sanders has recently proposed a six trillion dollar stimulus package, for those repairs. Yet the capitalists are opposed to this.
Recently, in one of the most respected publications of the capitalists (respected by the capitalists), they revealed their thought processes, to put it politely. To put it more accurately, they revealed their absolute stupidity and total disregard for human life. As they phrased it:
”Crises have a tendency to kill old orthodoxies and usher in new ones. The horrors of the Great Depression galvanized governments to start fighting recessions, instead of waiting for the market to work itself out…It is better to overdue it on stimulus than to under do it, economists concluded, next time we’ll prime the economy with the mother of all pumps”. (italics by the capitalists)
The article went on to sing the praises of perhaps the finest of the bourgeois economists, John Maynard Keynes. He was active in the early twentieth century. Yet even though he was admired by the capitalists, at no time did they ever take his advice.
At the end of the First World War, it was Keynes who advised the Allies to cancel all debts. They did not. Instead, at the Treaty of Versailles, the Allies imposed staggering war reparations on Germany. As Keynes put it, this was sure to lead to ”serious economic and political repercussions on Europe and the world”. He was so right.
Now to return to the same article:
”That’s exactly what happened when the greatest crisis of the century (the twenty first century) came crashing down. Congress approved trillions of dollars in Covid relief…It was the kind of government activism that would have stunned even John Maynard Keynes…A little over a year into the crisis, the preliminary results of those actions are in, and they’re phenomenal. The US economy is on track this year to grow at its fastest pace since 1984…they could put millions of Americans to work…. It’s Keynes on steroids”
So far so good. They finally took the advice of their own bourgeois expert, an economist, and were amazed by the results. But now comes the kicker:
”But… A growing chorus of voices … fear that government spending …would enable the workers to demand higher wages and force the wealthy to pay a fairer share of taxes”. (my italics)
There we have it. The capitalists are afraid that if they invest too much money in infrastructure maintenance and repairs, then the standard of living of the working class will rise, the working class will become ever stronger, they will force the capitalists to increase the wages, and even force the capitalists to ”pay a fairer share of taxes”. Better to allow the infrastructure of the country to fall apart, rather than pay the workers higher wages and pay higher taxes!
Without doubt, the capitalists, and especially the bourgeois economists, are supremely well aware of the theories of Marx. They even admit, in private, that Marx was correct. That in no way changes the fact that they are going to do everything in their power to further enrich themselves, at the expense of the working class, of course. If that means running the country into the ground, so be it.
They are very likely aware that it was Marx who stated that ”reforms are a byproduct of revolutionary motion”. He went on to say that those reforms ”strengthen and further the revolutionary motion”. As the repairs of the infrastructure of the country amounts to a reform, the capitalists are opposed to this. They are aware that it would strengthen and further the revolutionary motion.
They see such repairs as a threat to their way of life. It could result in an increase of wages for the working class, as well as an increase in taxes for the capitalists. As far as the capitalists are concerned, it is better to allow the country to fall apart, starting with the infrastructure.
We live under monopoly capitalism, which is imperialism. As Lenin pointed out, imperialism is completely reactionary. This is just one more example of such reaction.
Gerald McIsaac Science Project 