Celebrants of capitalism hurry to point out that capitalism provides unprecedented technological advancement and high efficiency. I admit the first part of this statement with some important reservation but I completely disagree with the second part of it.
One of the leading indicators of the healthiness in our economy is, we are being told over and over again by mainstream economists and the media, is the rate of unemployment. The media is boasting the success of economic recovery, after the crash of 2008, by publishing figures about job growth. There is some yes, but mainly in the gig economy. Now we have more Skip the Dishes deliverers and Uber drivers and we supposed to feel good about this. Well, I decided to dig up some numbers and look at them carefully.
In capitalist economies, governments are often caught between the demands of assertive coalitions of business and richest citizens and the demands of the mass of the people. In the United States (aka Canada) since the 1970s, such business coalitions have successfully obtained extensive government services and supports while simultaneously reducing their federal tax burdens and regulations. The burden of taxation was increasingly shifted onto the working classes (called “middle classes”).
Hearing the words Marxism and Marx are scare words today. It is being outright rejected, mocked upon and avoided at all levels. The public perception is that it is something that has failed. It is believed to be primarily a political current. Marxism is the critique of capitalism. It is first and foremost a body of knowledge about the inner workings of capitalism.
In 1960 the amounts of taxes by the federal government collected from personal income tax and corporate income tax were almost equal. Today the picture is very different. In 2010 the two were 3:1. But why should we care? Is it “natural” that we collect more taxes from persons than corporations?