The Left is defined by one thing. Opposition to hierarchy.
The Right is defined by one thing. Preservation of hierarchy.
Capitalism is a system where a small number of people own the means of production and a large number of people work for them. The owners have power. The workers do not. This is hierarchy. It is not an accident of capitalism. It is the foundation.
Therefore, capitalism is right-wing.
This is not complicated.
This is not a matter of opinion.
This is the definition of the terms.
We have allowed a linguistic sleight of hand to confuse us. We have been told that you can be on the Left and support capitalism. You cannot. The “pro-capitalist Left” is a contradiction. It is a polite fiction used to sell moderation to people who are afraid of change.
The history is clear. In the 1990s, the Third Way movement, Clinton, Blair, and the Democrats, explicitly adopted right-wing economics while calling themselves Left. They kept the cultural liberalism. They abandoned the economic opposition. They supported corporate power, deregulation, and privatization. They called it centrism. It was right-wing economics with a human face. The word “Left” became meaningless. It came to describe social views, not economic power.
This created the modern fiction. You can support the dictatorship of the workplace and call yourself Left because you support gay marriage. You can support the extraction of labor and call yourself progressive because you voted for a woman. The economics were separated from the politics. This was a lie.
The workplace is a dictatorship. The owner decides hours, wages, conditions, firing. The worker has no vote. The Left believes in democracy. If you support capitalism, you support totalitarianism for eight to twelve hours a day. You support a system where the majority spends the majority of their waking life under the thumb of unelected authority. This is the definition of hierarchy. This is the definition of Right.
Capitalism frames itself as freedom. You have the freedom to pick from fifty different cereals. You can choose between brands. You get to choose amongst two-dollar price increases, for soup, with the exact same ingredients, because ‘brand-names’ overwhelm logic. This is the illusion of choice. You cannot choose to have healthcare if you are poor. You cannot choose to not work. You cannot choose your wages. The choices are pre-selected by the owners of capital. The market does not offer freedom of power. It offers freedom of purchase.
The Right sells choice. The Left should sell power…
The market is not a neutral arbiter. It is a mechanism of hierarchy. Prices are not just information. They are power. The ability to set prices, hoard supply, create artificial scarcity, this is the right-wing power structure. The market ranks human beings by their economic value. If you have capital, you have power. If you do not, you do not. This is hierarchy. The Left opposes hierarchy. The Right protects it.
The environment makes this clear. Capitalism requires infinite growth. The planet has finite resources. This is a mathematical impossibility. You cannot have a Green New Deal within capitalism. The market will not save the planet. The market destroys the planet. Environmentalists who fight capitalism are not Left. They are recognizing the system is suicidal. The Left is about survival. The Right is about profit. Capitalism is the Right.
The historical record is clear. Capitalism was created by right-wing thinkers. It is defended by right-wing parties. It is funded by right-wing billionaires. The think tanks, the lobbying, the propaganda, it all comes from the Right. When the Right says capitalism is right-wing, believe them. They are telling the truth. It is the “Left” that is lying.
The counter-argument is that capitalism creates wealth. The Soviet Union failed. Socialism fails. This is the standard line. But capitalism also fails. It creates famine. It creates poverty. It creates inequality. It destroys the planet. The failure of one system does not validate the other. The Left is the only force capable of recognizing the failure and proposing something different.
The United States has moved the Overton Window so far to the right that a moderate Republican looks like a socialist. But within the actual political spectrum, a Democrat who supports corporate power is right-wing. The labels are not opinions. They are descriptions of power.
If you support the hierarchy of capital over labor, you are on the Right.
If you support the dictatorship of the workplace, you are on the Right.
If you support the market as the arbiter of human value, you are on the Right.
If you support infinite growth on a finite planet, you are on the Right.
You can call yourself a progressive. You can vote for Democrats. You can attend pride parades. None of that changes the economic structure you support.
Capitalism is right-wing.
Full stop.
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As Bob Dylan sang “Money doesn’t talk it swears.”
Can one prosper in an economic system they don’t support?
I didn’t create Capitalism but I live in a capitalistic system. If I was born in a socialist or communist system I would try to prosper under those systems but I was born in this system and I’m trying to make it under the rules of this system.
One of the things about Capitalism is that it doesn’t care what you think of it, Of course there are rules for changing the system but only rarely are there conditions right to make those changes. Both Presidents Rooseveldt and Johnson added socialistic safety nets, thin as they are, to American society.
With home ownership somewhere around 2/3 of households the admonition of the great journalist I.F. Stone comes to mind “How do you have a revolution in a country where 1/3 of the people want what the other 2/3 have?”
Please forgive me for not sharing your revolutionary fervor but as Paul Simon sang “Tomorrow’s going to be another working day and I’m trying to get some rest. That’s all I’m trying to get some rest.”
Capitalism is the worst economic system except for all the others; FULL STOP.
The actual quote is from Winston Churchill regarding democracy. The problem with trying to carry it over to capitalism is there is no such thing as pure capitalism, every system on earth is some sort of mix.
Was my comment in quotes?
Yes, the best systems do have a mix but capitalism is always part of that mix.
So we are actually in agreement
“With home ownership somewhere around 2/3 of households the admonition of the great journalist I.F. Stone comes to mind “How do you have a revolution in a country where 1/3 of the people want what the other 2/3 have?”
Pretty sure that not everyone wants to own a house (or that this should be a societal goal – especially since it tends to discourage mobility). In any case, the rate today is higher than it was 30 years ago (and higher than in most years prior to then). It doesn’t appear to fluctuate that much, though it was lowest in the 1960s-1970s according to this chart. (Not sure what the rate was prior to the time period shown in the chart, but I suspect it was lower.)
The highest point was right before the housing crash. Another high point was reached during the pandemic.
Today, it is significantly higher than it was approximately 10 years ago.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RHORUSQ156Nhttps://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RHORUSQ156N
(IF Stone was Chesa Boudin’s uncle, btw)
“The workplace is a dictatorship. The owner decides hours, wages, conditions, firing. The worker has no vote. The Left believes in democracy.”
Seemed like some on the left believed in “cancel culture” for awhile (and some still do). Meaning that they’re controlling firing, etc. See Mr. Pickles, locally. Also see Beth Bourne (though it’s not clear if the “leftist firing squad” had anything to do with her reported separation).
(Of course, the right also engages in this.)
“The environment makes this clear. Capitalism requires infinite growth. The planet has finite resources. This is a mathematical impossibility. You cannot have a Green New Deal within capitalism. The market will not save the planet. The market destroys the planet. Environmentalists who fight capitalism are not Left. They are recognizing the system is suicidal. The Left is about survival. The Right is about profit. Capitalism is the Right.”
And yet, the YIMBYs and the Vanguard claim to be on the “left”.
“And yet, the YIMBYs and the Vanguard claim to be on the “left”.”
You are so right. This line from the article stood out too:
“If you support infinite growth on a finite planet, you are on the Right.”
And who is it that strongly supports growth in Davis? The Right.
This is what happens when you attempt to simplistically evaluate a complex dynamic. I changed my view on housing when I watched who got harmed from homelessness and housing insecurity. And yes, I support housing production which requires capital investment but I also support government regulation that requires low income housing through subsidization. The fight over housing is over the right mix between the need for capital investment and government regulation.
Let’s face it, David – you’re becoming (selectively) right wing (as the YIMBYs already were – right from the start).
:-)
Essentially, you’re running the “California Forever Vanguard”.
“Build, baby, build.”
The problem is that you’ve selected the WORST right-wing advocacy to adopt, while still advocating to release criminals upon society, encourage race-baiting, class and age warfare, clamping down on free speech, etc.
It’s as if you went though the “list”, and selected the worst positions from “both sides”.
“This is what happens when you attempt to simplistically evaluate a complex dynamic.”
Isn’t that what this author does every day, with every article he writes? Full stop.
“I changed my view on housing when I watched who got harmed from homelessness and housing insecurity.”
Who dat? And what change?
“And yes, I support housing production which requires capital investment but I also support government regulation that requires low income housing through subsidization.”
Nice thoughts; poor execution.
” The fight over housing is over the right mix between the need for capital investment and government regulation.”
See “Davis”
It helps if you listen to this whilst reading them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXFSK0ogeg4
“Isn’t that what this author does every day, with every article he writes? Full stop.”
Pretty much…
The only thing I’m confident of is that I’m ultimately “on the left” when it comes to environmental issues.
That is, “actual” environmental issues – “not social justice sacrificing the environment” issues.
Also a reason that I’m not impressed (to say the least) regarding “land back” arguments. Unless, of course, DJUSD give the Patwin campus “back” to the casino-owning descendants in Capay Valley. (By the way, I’m not sure why I’m continually seeing an Asian couple on YouTube, with the focus on the wife overwhelmingly enjoying herself in a near-sexual manner, in regard to a stay at that casino. Nor am I sure “who” in that partnership the message is apparently intended for. Is it the husband, who is trying to “re-awaken” the wife, or is it the wife herself?