But Capitalism Works

Most Christians today (with the exception of a few small groups of Amish, the Quakers, and those in Bruderhof communities and Catholic Worker houses) would probably write off this history of antipathy between Christianity and capitalism as irrelevant leftovers from a very different world. After all, experience has shown that people are much better off under capitalism. The standard of living is higher. People are freer. Capitalism works. We won the Cold War not just because of our military might, but because our system is better. Everybody knows that.

Yes, everybody knows that. But is it true? People today know lots of things that aren’t true. Maybe we should examine this common knowledge a little more closely. In essence, Christians have discarded all the Biblical, theological, and spiritual arguments against capitalism, and opted for pragmatism. They have embraced capitalism because it works. After all, look at how much better life is in capitalist America than it was in the communist Soviet Union. (At least, that’s what we’ve been told.)

Actually, it’s not at all clear that life here is "better" than it was in the Soviet Union under communism. More affluent, but not necessarily better. But that’s hardly a fair comparison. Look at the different starting points. The U.S. in 1917 was rich, powerful, awash with resources. Russia was still a feudal society. In 1945, we had as much wealth as the rest of the world put together, and were unscathed by the war. The Soviet Union was in ruins. A fairer comparison would be the communist Soviet Union of the 1980s compared to capitalist Russia in the 1990s.

In the old Soviet Union, there were few signs of affluence. Yet, at the same time, there were no signs of abject poverty. There were no homeless, no jobless, no bag ladies, no muggings, no carjackings, Medical care (such as it was) and higher education were free. Food was highly subsidized. With all the inefficiencies of their system, they were still able to provide for the basic needs of their people.

The capitalist Russia of today is something else altogether. A handful of "entrepreneurs" and crooks ride around in luxury limousines, while the vast majority of Russians are much worse off than before. Devaluation of the ruble has wiped out savings and made pensions worthless. Millions have been made destitute. Military officers, unpaid for months, drive taxis trying to feed their families. Crime, corruption, homelessness, hunger, unemployment, hopelessness, pornography, and despair — these are the fruits of capitalism in Russia today.

Ask a Russian how well capitalism is working for her or him.

So what about Cuba? Isn’t Cuba another example of the failure of socialism? And isn’t Nicaragua another communist failure? Actually, the quality of life in these countries improved enormously under communism. Education became available. Literacy rates soared. Health care improved. (In some ways, it is still better in Cuba than in Florida.) Even the standard of living in these countries rose — at least until opposition, aggression, and boycott by the United States began to take its economic toll. The subsequent economic decline of Nicaragua and Cuba is less indicative of the failure of socialism than it is of the success of the bullying tactics of U.S.-based multinational corporations and their wholly-owned subsidiaries in the CIA, the Pentagon, the State Department, and the White House basement.

The truth of the matter is that communism has not succeeded because the global power elite are determined not to let it succeed.

Another myth that needs dispelling is that communism is intrinsically atheistic. It was officially so in the Soviet Union only because the church was a strident supporter of the economic and political status quo under the czars. In Nicaragua, the Sandinista government in the 1980s was communist and yet thoroughly Christian, both in official policy and in practice. There is absolutely nothing incompatible between Christianity and socialism. In the Book of Acts we learn that the early Christians practiced a purer, more radical form of communism than can be found in any country today. Traces still exist in the Bruderhofs and other small Christian communities. (You won’t find groups of atheists living that way.)

A criticism at this point might go like this: "So maybe communism never got a fair trial. So what? It couldn’t possibly work as well as what we have right now. Why play around with socialist experiments when we already know capitalism works?"

But does it really? Let’s take a look at capitalism’s record here in the United States.

It had its ups and downs in our first century and a half. By the 1920s it was really roaring. "The business of America is business." Remember? Then came the crash. Right behind it, fortunately, came Franklin D. Roosevelt.

First, Roosevelt recognized the problem. Listen to excerpts from his second inaugural address. "I see millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hangs over them day by day. I see one third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-fed."

Next, Roosevelt identified the source of the problem. " We have begun to bring private, autocratic powers into their proper subordination to the public’s government. A legend that they were invincible, above and beyond the processes of democracy, has been shattered. They have been challenged and beaten." He was talking about corporations.

Roosevelt knew that only the power of the government could protect the people from the power of "Private, autocratic powers" (corporations). No talk from him about government not being the solution! "We’re going to find through government the instrument of our united purpose." "Repeated attempts at solution without the aid of government have left us baffled and bewildered, ... we must find practical controls over blind economic forces and blindly selfish men."

Roosevelt did find the way. Through a combination of social security, government jobs, and other socialist measures, he overcame the power of the Standard Oil trust and other conglomerates and raised the people out of poverty and despair. After the war, the government went further into debt to fund the GI Bill. It turned out to be the best investment yet. The 1950s (which conservatives always want to take us back to) saw top tax brackets of 90% — and saw the emergence of a true middle class.

Of course, it wasn’t just the wealthy individuals that financed the boom. Corporations paid 39% of all income taxes back then. By 1991 their share was down to 9%. (This in spite of the fact that corporations were getting a much larger share of the nation’s wealth.)

By the early 70s, poverty in the United States was way down, the result not of unbridled capitalism, but of its combination with socialist policies.

But then people forgot that government was their only protection from corporate power. Government disgraced itself with the Vietnam War, and the corporations geared up for a comeback. They learned how to manipulate public opinion through the media. They also learned how to control politicians through campaign donations. The result was the election in 1980 of Ronald Reagan and the beginning of the Reagan revolution.

During the Reagan years, government controls on corporate power were dismantled, the unions were emasculated, corporate greed was deregulated, top tax rates were slashed, government protection for workers and the environment was weakened, and social programs were squeezed out by Pentagon spending. The end result was a purer form of capitalism. Was this a good thing? Is capitalism working for us? The best we can do in our attempt to answer these questions is to look at statistics. Unfortunately, relevant or consistent statistics are not always easy to come by. But what is available tells a pretty clear story.

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