------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Feb. 20, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
EDITORIAL: SIMPLE MATH A capitalist economic crisis means lean times for those pounding the pavement hunting for work, or who have just given up trying to find a job, or even those still hanging onto a 9 to 5. But it's hunger and want amidst plenty. The wealth of goods and services that workers in this country produce through their labor now exceeds $10 trillion every year. $10 TRILLION. The sum is boggling. Do the math: that's more than $30,000 a year for every single person, from infants to centenarians, in the United States. At least $125,000 for a family of four. Should even one person be in need when there is such abundance? Some would hasten to argue that the state machine needs a big chunk of that for sanitation, Homeland Security and military preparedness and other "social services." It certainly does take more and more of the social surplus that used to provide services like libraries and subsidized school lunches and siphons it into burgeoning police agencies and the war machine. But even taking that into consideration, it is obvious that there is no excuse for poverty in the U.S. Of course, merely re-dividing the wealth among individuals is no long- term solution. Anyone who has ever played Monopoly knows that when the property on the board has been bought up, the banker is flush and the loser is busted. Private ownership of all the collectively built tools and generators of production continues to channel the lion's share of the wealth to those who don't do the work. How relatively easy it would be to meet the needs and desires of all in a well-planned economy that was free of capitalist dictates. There's way more than enough of everything already to make life comfortable for all. Social ownership and control of the wealth would mean that planning for real human needs--including a clean environment and the development of culture--could begin in earnest. How quickly real reparations could be extended to all who have suffered most from exploitation and tyranny. Just because it's easy, however, doesn't mean it's simple. The opulent owning class stands in the way, shielded by the cops and court system, prisons and Pentagon, all a barrier to profound economic and social transformation. But the key is consciousness, the glue is solidarity and the solution is revolutionary mass action. In the words of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley: Ye are many--they are few! - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
