We gladly report robbers to police but adore capitalists as our heroes. I think we are wrong with the way we judge them. In actuality, capitalists and robbers do the same thing: both take what is not theirs.
Capitalists (called “oligarchs” in Russia) make their profit by using the labor and energy of other people, those who get paid only a small fraction of what they produce. (How else could their employers make all the profit they do?). Bill Gates makes in four seconds what minimum wagers take two weeks to earn. It’s “money from regular people that was stolen and diverted into building this horrendous (wealth),” says a CNN research article about the Russian oligarchs (Mar. 18, 2022), but the same could be said about American capitalists.
Robbers do the same thing, but more dramatically, certainly illegally: they simply take what belongs to somebody else’s labor and energy. If they are muggers, they can take in one minute what somebody else labored for 10 hours to make. The only difference is that the capitalists do it legally, and the robbers do it illegally. In other words, the law is on the side of the capitalist taking (calling it “profit”), while the law is on the opposite side of the robbers taking (calling it “crime”).
But, the law, as crucial as it is in this distinction, is the most unreliable thing in society. A radical change — in legislative acts or a revolution — could hang all the capitalists tomorrow (as they did in Cuba after Castro’s takeover) and free all the criminals from their prison the next day (as they did in France after the French Revolution). Consider U.S. president John Adams, who defended the King’s Law during the Boston Massacre one day and the next day flipped to the radical side against the very King’s Law he had defended as God’s duty. Would he have done that if he had any respect for the law? Think about marijuana: Police used to arrest marijuana smokers and the Law imprisoned the potheads for years. Now policemen stand guard to facilitate the potheads to buy it with comfort and convenience. Or think about abortion, which was illegal, then made legal, and now it might become illegal again!
It is unfortunate for the criminals that our present laws are not going to be outlawed tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Whether you end up on the right side or wrong side of the law, as capitalists or as criminals, is merely a matter of chance or luck, not morally distinguished acts.
Robbers-criminals could argue that morality is actually on their side simply because what they take from others is so small, compared to what capitalists take from others, say, a million to one. Very likely, the famed “Route 91 Bandit,” sought out by the FBI (Recorder, Feb. 11), took from the banks only a small portion of what their CEOs and stock holders routinely take from customers. No matter what you do, if the law is on your side, you are good; if it happens to be on the other side, you are in trouble. No wonder, most people choose to become capitalists, not criminals, for their careers. Crime may not pay, but capitalism does, essentially for the same act of taking what is not yours.
But, God and Christianity seem to be on the criminal’s side: Scripture says Capitalists cannot go to heaven any more than a camel through the eye of a needle. Jesus also whipped the money-changers (today’s capitalists-bankers) who over-charged people for temple services. Jesus also promised the convicted criminals on the cross a place in paradise. Wasn’t it Jesus who said if you don’t work (like everybody else), you shouldn’t eat? Most robbers, like those on the cross with Jesus, tend to be sorry for their deeds and pay their debt to society. But we almost never see capitalists who repent and give all their money back to society. Even so called “philanthropists” give back only a tiny portion of their wealth while claiming gigantic credit.
Why is the law so wonderful for the capitalists and so terrible for the criminals? It’s because of the way the law is made. In every society, the powerful always make the law for themselves. In Communist China, the communists make the law. In capitalist America, capitalists make the law. Since all laws are made by the powerful only to favor themselves, all capitalist laws so produced are unjust laws, certain to be destroyed at the next revolution. That’s why the rich and powerful in any society make sure that there is no next revolution. Anything designed, produced and marketed purely for profit can only be socially unjust and morally indefensible and are always in line for the next political destruction.
Knowing that they have taken it from other people’s labor and energy that’s not theirs, capitalists are always very nervous. As they say, turnabout is fair play, and anyone who is wealthier than the average American is scared about losing what he has, proportional to how much surplus he owns. Rich folks worry more about their money (since few have it) than their lives (as everybody has one). Good people, who eat their daily bread on their honest labor, not only live peacefully but also don’t covet anything they don’t deserve, as in gold-digging, gambling or stock investing.
In Greenfield, we live very peacefully because all our neighbors are known to be average. But, what if one of us suddenly became rich with lottery wins or inheritance? No question, the rich neighbor would add locks and surveillances to his home and our peace in the neighborhood would surely be disturbed.
It’s wonderful to live in an average community!
Jon Huer, columnist for the Recorder and retired professor of criminology, lives in Greenfield with his wife on average retirement income.