Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are.
They are different. - F. Scott Fitzgerald
More and more these days I find myself using the term “monied classes” where before I might have used the term “capitalist class” or “the owners of production”. It is not because I have jettisoned my belief that Marxist analysis is perhaps the most powerful social philosophy that has ever existed. Rather, it is because it is not a complete system and not immutable (nor did Marx ever expect it to be) for understanding the human condition. Specifically, I am realizing that I’ve come to see the class reality as a deeper issue than simply (and I understand that it is not at all really simple) who owns the means of production. I think this attitude is reflected in that very profound observation by F. Scott Fitzgerald,
More Than an Economic Issue
Let me be clear, I remain a Marxist. His understanding of the fundamental nature of capitalism is unsurpassed and is confirmed every day. However, there is something that seems to me more profound about human nature, something that makes us vulnerable to the effect of not having to think at all about how we are going to make it in the world. It robs us of at least some of our fellow feeling. In hunter gatherer communities we find a much more coherent sense of the collective, of what we might now call the common good. The rich, in whatever age, appear to lose that quality. Kings and the ruling class of the Middle Ages were not known generally for caring about their subjects other than as a means to ensure their own comfort or for providing the fodder for fighting their wars. The bible, particularly the new testament, is not sanguine that being rich leads to being a good citizen. There are of course a number of examples but the analogy of a camel’s difficulty going through the eye of a needle (Matthew 19:24) is well known. There are various interpretations of that saying but none of them suggest that being rich is not a problem in attaining goodness. As well, Jesus responds to the young man who wanted to know what he needed to be “perfect” “What do I still lack?” he asked. Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”. When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.” Not exactly an endorsement for any notion that wealth can make us more humane.
The Place of Capitalism
Then we come to Capitalism (I said that I remain a Marxist). From the time of the Industrial Revolution, Capitalism seems to have turbo charged this tendency of the rich to become progressively more alienated from the rest of their brothers and sisters. One of the very worst tendencies of capitalism is to objectify and commodify the worker (and nature of course) in the pursuit of individual profit (Polanyi, 2011). Commodification is essentially dehumanization. A commodity has no utility outside of production and consumption of profit. It becomes even easier for the rich to become heedless of others (not wealthy people) if they have no commodity value. This pattern is particularly evident in the history of the Gilded Age where Rockefeller, Carnegie and the other robber barons waged literal war on workers attempting to achieve a living wage and a less hazardous work environment. A particularly disgusting example of this war was the meat packing industry described in Upton Sinclair’s great novel, The Jungle. The monied classes demonstrated a powerful, ruthless, overweening sense of privilege and a sense that they see the working class as “other” and thus expendable1. And they do that to this day. The “essential workers” in the production of goods and services have suffered mightily while the owners and “stock clippers” (often the same thing) have made out like the proverbial bandits (Kaye, 2020; Lorinc, 2021).
Confronting the Toxic Stew of the System and the Monied Classes
The strong tendency of financial power to corrupt our basic humanity is now coupled with the tendency of, first industrial and now technological, capitalism (the Gig economy). To consign workers to an existence in the realm of cogs in the economic machinery has resulted in a toxic stew of an endless class war of the few against the many. In this realm a dystopian reality emerges where the many are pitted against one another, by colour, by gender, by nationality etc. fighting for the crumbs allowed us by the monied classes.
I am not suggesting that there is no way out of this mess, but I am convinced that if we don’t face this reality squarely, things will get worse. If we summon the intellect and courage to face up to the situation, we can begin to think about renewing the notion and hope of the common, or social good, and the exciting will to act together to build a common more humane destiny.
____________________________________________________
Resources
Kaye, L. (2020). “COVID-19 Leaves CEOs Unscathed While Essential Workers Are Left Unmasked”. Triple Pundit. https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2020/covid-19-ceos-essential-workers/120751. June 30.
Lorinc, J. (2021). “These top CEOs pledged to take pandemic pay cuts — but a Star analysis found some ended up getting millions more”. Toronto Star. https://www.thestar.com/business/2021/05/07/many-of-canadas-top-ceos-promised-to-take-pandemic-pay-cuts-but-star-analysis-finds-that-some-actually-earned-millions-more.html. May 8.
Polanyi, K. (2001). The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time 2nd ed. Edition. Beacon Press.
Postcolonial Studies @ Emory (2014). “Marx and the Idea of Commodity”. https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/postcolonialstudies/2014/06/21/marx-and-the-idea-of-commodity/. June 21.
Sinclair, U. (2003). The Jungle: The Uncensored Original Edition Paperback. Sharp reprint.
1 I would not argue that there may not be exceptions to the rule, but I would be profoundly surprised if we can find that there are very many.
More and more these days I find myself using the term “monied classes” where before I might have used the term “capitalist class” or “the owners of production”. It is not because I have jettisoned my belief that Marxist analysis is perhaps the most powerful social philosophy that has ever existed. Rather, it is because it is not a complete system and not immutable (nor did Marx ever expect it to be) for understanding the human condition. Specifically, I am realizing that I’ve come to see the class reality as a deeper issue than simply (and I understand that it is not at all really simple) who owns the means of production. I think this attitude is reflected in that very profound observation by F. Scott Fitzgerald,
More Than an Economic Issue
Let me be clear, I remain a Marxist. His understanding of the fundamental nature of capitalism is unsurpassed and is confirmed every day. However, there is something that seems to me more profound about human nature, something that makes us vulnerable to the effect of not having to think at all about how we are going to make it in the world. It robs us of at least some of our fellow feeling. In hunter gatherer communities we find a much more coherent sense of the collective, of what we might now call the common good. The rich, in whatever age, appear to lose that quality. Kings and the ruling class of the Middle Ages were not known generally for caring about their subjects other than as a means to ensure their own comfort or for providing the fodder for fighting their wars. The bible, particularly the new testament, is not sanguine that being rich leads to being a good citizen. There are of course a number of examples but the analogy of a camel’s difficulty going through the eye of a needle (Matthew 19:24) is well known. There are various interpretations of that saying but none of them suggest that being rich is not a problem in attaining goodness. As well, Jesus responds to the young man who wanted to know what he needed to be “perfect” “What do I still lack?” he asked. Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”. When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.” Not exactly an endorsement for any notion that wealth can make us more humane.
The Place of Capitalism
Then we come to Capitalism (I said that I remain a Marxist). From the time of the Industrial Revolution, Capitalism seems to have turbo charged this tendency of the rich to become progressively more alienated from the rest of their brothers and sisters. One of the very worst tendencies of capitalism is to objectify and commodify the worker (and nature of course) in the pursuit of individual profit (Polanyi, 2011). Commodification is essentially dehumanization. A commodity has no utility outside of production and consumption of profit. It becomes even easier for the rich to become heedless of others (not wealthy people) if they have no commodity value. This pattern is particularly evident in the history of the Gilded Age where Rockefeller, Carnegie and the other robber barons waged literal war on workers attempting to achieve a living wage and a less hazardous work environment. A particularly disgusting example of this war was the meat packing industry described in Upton Sinclair’s great novel, The Jungle. The monied classes demonstrated a powerful, ruthless, overweening sense of privilege and a sense that they see the working class as “other” and thus expendable1. And they do that to this day. The “essential workers” in the production of goods and services have suffered mightily while the owners and “stock clippers” (often the same thing) have made out like the proverbial bandits (Kaye, 2020; Lorinc, 2021).
Confronting the Toxic Stew of the System and the Monied Classes
The strong tendency of financial power to corrupt our basic humanity is now coupled with the tendency of, first industrial and now technological, capitalism (the Gig economy). To consign workers to an existence in the realm of cogs in the economic machinery has resulted in a toxic stew of an endless class war of the few against the many. In this realm a dystopian reality emerges where the many are pitted against one another, by colour, by gender, by nationality etc. fighting for the crumbs allowed us by the monied classes.
I am not suggesting that there is no way out of this mess, but I am convinced that if we don’t face this reality squarely, things will get worse. If we summon the intellect and courage to face up to the situation, we can begin to think about renewing the notion and hope of the common, or social good, and the exciting will to act together to build a common more humane destiny.
____________________________________________________
Resources
Kaye, L. (2020). “COVID-19 Leaves CEOs Unscathed While Essential Workers Are Left Unmasked”. Triple Pundit. https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2020/covid-19-ceos-essential-workers/120751. June 30.
Lorinc, J. (2021). “These top CEOs pledged to take pandemic pay cuts — but a Star analysis found some ended up getting millions more”. Toronto Star. https://www.thestar.com/business/2021/05/07/many-of-canadas-top-ceos-promised-to-take-pandemic-pay-cuts-but-star-analysis-finds-that-some-actually-earned-millions-more.html. May 8.
Polanyi, K. (2001). The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time 2nd ed. Edition. Beacon Press.
Postcolonial Studies @ Emory (2014). “Marx and the Idea of Commodity”. https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/postcolonialstudies/2014/06/21/marx-and-the-idea-of-commodity/. June 21.
Sinclair, U. (2003). The Jungle: The Uncensored Original Edition Paperback. Sharp reprint.
1 I would not argue that there may not be exceptions to the rule, but I would be profoundly surprised if we can find that there are very many.
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