Due in large part to the high-profile, celebrity status of many billionaires, wealth inequality in the United States has become glaringly evident, often prompting public criticism. Yet, most liberal critiques of inequality (i.e., of opportunity) focus on demonizing the uber-wealthy rather than the economic framework that produces and maintains them. As a result, such critiques fall short of grasping the root causes of inequality and ignore the patterns of inequality abroad from which America benefits.
Poverty is often explained in terms of weakness of character on the part of the poor. Such illusions are necessary to preserve capitalism, a system in which rewards and success are nominally the result of hard work and talent. Thus, poverty must stem from either disinterest in working hard, “freeloading,” lack of talent or individual misfortunes. Yet, in truth, due to capitalism’s structural logic, the poor are poor because the rich are rich. Poverty exists not because capitalism is failing, but because capitalism is working perfectly. Those who control corporations, large factories and farms, natural resources, etc. seek to maximize their profits by paying workers less than the workers’ labor is actually worth, bolstering systemic destitution and crushing any hope for equality of opportunity.
Consider Wayne County, where unemployment is only 3.3 percent, below the national average of 3.9 percent. Yet 12.7 percent of Wayne County residents live below the poverty line, meaning that nearly 10 percent of employed residents live in poverty. Thus, despite the economy being healthy according to a key metric (unemployment) of conventional capitalist standards, it is not working for the people of Wayne County. This is not to say that capitalism is not working properly. In fact, it is working exactly as intended. The fiscal disenfranchisement of Wayne County’s workers is a natural effect of the profit-driven motive of capitalism.
Abroad, capitalism replicates this pattern of disenfranchisement, using military intervention to further its interests. Under the guise of protecting democracy, the United States has, since the Spanish-American War and especially during and after Cold War, projected its power and capital abroad at the expense of autonomy for self-determined peoples.
This pattern is a direct manifestation of the limitless profiteering endorsed by politically powerful multinational corporations. We’ve all heard the story: a weak nation has fallen victim to some despotic regime, and they require American military strength to bestow upon them freedom and democracy. What is really meant, however, is not freedom for the subjected peoples to pursue their own desired course of development and prosperity in the West. Instead, it is the “freedom” for corporations to penetrate foreign markets and grab cheap labor and resources for bargain prices. The net result is that the poor remain poor in these “liberated” zones, while the wealth they produce is shipped off to their historical colonizers, creating a broader pattern of inequality on a global scale that mirrors the inequality right here in Wayne County.
Any meaningful effort to address inequality must include a recognition of capitalism as its primary driving force. A true critique of inequality cannot merely focus on scrutinizing the exorbitant purchases made by the millionaires and billionaires of our society. It must include a comprehensive understanding of capitalism and come to terms with the role that we, as consumers of goods and resources produced abroad, play in furthering inequality on a global scale.
Ian Mundy, a Contributing Writer for the Voice, can be reached for comment at IMundy19@wooster.edu.