Will Malson Capitalism Bad; Poverty Page 1 of 5

Capitalism Bad; Poverty

We’ve come here today to provide an answer to the great question: to compete, or to cooperate? As
such, my philosophy is that cooperation is superior to competition as a means of achieving excellence.

What is the heart of the clash between competition and cooperation? In its truest and purest form, it is
the conflict between capitalism and socialism, the ultimate competition, and the ultimate cooperation.
When it comes down to it, do we want to be competing, or do we want to be cooperating? I’ll give you
the answer in 4 steps. But first, let’s start with some definitions.

Socialism: “a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of
production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.”
(Oxford American Dictionaries, 2010)
True Socialism: Communalism.
Communalism: “the principle or practice of living together and sharing possessions and
responsibilities” (Oxford American Dictionaries, 2010)

Now let’s get into my contentions.

“I think that the only way to be honest and expose yourself to criticism is to state clearly and
dogmatically where you are. You must take the risk and have a position.” Zizek 04
Will Malson Capitalism Bad; Poverty Page 2 of 5

STEP 1: COMPETITION IS A EUPHAMISM FOR CAPITALISM. Ellen Wood 99

Ellen Meiksins Wood [for many years Professor of Political Science at York University, Toronto, is the
author of a number of books, including Democracy Against Capitalism and, with Verso, "The Retreat
from Class (which won the Deutscher Prize), The Origin of Capitalism, Peasant-Citizen and Slave and
The Pristine Culture of Capitalism], "The Politics of Capitalism", The Monthly Review, Volume 51,
Number 4, September 1999 (HEG)
This is why it's not enough to say, as some of Brenner's critics have done (including John Foster in the
June issue), that the primacy he gives to competition is contrary to Marx, who insists that competition
doesn't cause capitalism's laws of motion but is simply their external manifestation in the movements of
individual capitals. The point is that no other social form has laws of motion that work through the
mechanisms of competition. No other social form is subject to the imperatives of accumulation and
innovation, which are driven by competition. And competition is the mechanism of capitalism's basic
laws of motion because in capitalism, as in no other system, the irreducible condition of access to the
means of self-reproduction is market-dependence and subjection to market imperatives. We can't even
understand capital's perennial efforts to circumvent competition without taking account of that
irreducible condition of market-dependence and the competitive imperatives that go with it.

“I think that the only way to be honest and expose yourself to criticism is to state clearly and
dogmatically where you are. You must take the risk and have a position.” Zizek 04
Will Malson Capitalism Bad; Poverty Page 3 of 5

STEP 2: CAPITALISM PREVENTS AN ESCAPE FROM POVERTY. Istivan Meszaros 95

Istivan Meszaros, professor emeritus at the University of Sussex, “Beyond Capital”, pg. xiii,
1995 (HEG)
The attempt at divorcing effects from their causes goes hand in hand with the equally fallacious practice
of claiming the status of a rule for the exception. This is how it can be pretended that the misery and
chronic underdevelopment that necessarily arise from the neo-colonial domination and exploitation of
the overwhelming majority of humankind by a mere handful of capitalistically developed countries—
hardly more than the G7—do not matter at all. For, as the self-serving legend goes, thanks to the (never
realized) ‘modernization’ of the rest of the world, the population of every country will one fine day
enjoy the great benefits of the ‘free enterprise system.’ The fact that the rapacious exploitation of the
human and material resources of our planet for the benefit of a few capitalist countries happens to be a
non-generalizable condition is wantonly disregarded. Instead, the universal viability of emulating the
development of the ‘advanced capitalist’ countries is predicated, ignoring that neither the advantages of
the imperialist past, or the immense profits derived on a continuing basis from keeping the ‘Third
World’ in a structural dependency can be ‘universally diffused,’ so as to produce the anticipated happy
results through ‘modernization’ and ‘free-marketization.’ Not to mention the fact that even if the history
of imperialism could be re-written if a sense diametrically opposed to the way it actually unfolded,
coupled with the fictitious reversal of the existing power relations of domination and dependency in
favour of the underdeveloped countries, the general adoption of the rapacious utilization of our plant’s
limited resources—enormously damaging already, although at present practiced only be the privileged
tiny minority—would make the whole system instantly collapse.

“I think that the only way to be honest and expose yourself to criticism is to state clearly and
dogmatically where you are. You must take the risk and have a position.” Zizek 04
Will Malson Capitalism Bad; Poverty Page 4 of 5

STEP 3: SOCIALISM SOLVES POVERTY; CAPITALISM DOES NOT. Socialist Labor Party of
America 06
Socialist Labor Party of America, "SOCIALISM—ITS MEANING AND PROMISE", A Socialist Labor
Party Statement, 2006, http://www.socialistlaborparty.com/res_state_htm/socialism_m_p.html (HEG)
An End to Poverty In all previous ages of human history, poverty for most of the people was
inescapable. There was simply not enough to go around. But not so today. Industrial technology and
scientific knowledge have so vastly increased our ability to produce what we need and want that there is
no longer any excuse whatsoever for the poverty of a single member of society. Today we have the
material possibility of abundance for everyone, and the promise of the leisure in which to enjoy it. But
under capitalism industrial technology is used to replace workers and increase profits. Instead of
creating a society of abundance, capitalism uses machinery to create unemployment and poverty. Our
inner cities have been converted largely into festering slums in which impoverished people, not
understanding the cause of their miseries, are imprisoned and damned to a life of misery. It is not
technology that threatens us. By themselves, improved methods of production and distribution are not
social evils. They could be a blessing, but under capitalism technology is used for antisocial purposes.
This follows from the fact that technology and industry are the exclusive property of a small minority of
the American people—the capitalist class. Capitalism uses the industries for the private profit of their
owners and not for the benefit of the vast majority of the American people—the workers who invented
and built them.

“I think that the only way to be honest and expose yourself to criticism is to state clearly and
dogmatically where you are. You must take the risk and have a position.” Zizek 04
Will Malson Capitalism Bad; Poverty Page 5 of 5

STEP 4: COOPERATION’S ULTIMATE MANIFESTATION IS SOCIALISM.AmbroseBierce92

Ambrose Bierce, "The collected works of Ambrose Bierce", Volume XI, Chapter 1: "The shadow on the
dial", Page 17, Copyright 1912 by The Neal Publishing Company (HEG)
Socialism and Anarchism are parts of the same thing, in the sense that the terminal points of a road are
parts of the same road. Between them, about midway, lies the sys- tem that we have the happiness to
endure. It is a " blend " of Socialism and Anarchism in about equal parts: all that is not one is the other.
Cooperation is Socialism; competi- tion is Anarchism. Competition carried to its logical conclusion
(which only coopera- tion prevents or can prevent) would leave no law in force, no property possible, no
life secure. Of course the wordls " cooperation " and " competition " are not here used in a merely
industrial and commercial sense; they are in- tended to cover the whole field of human act- ivity. Two
voices singing a duet — that is cooperation — Socialism. Two voices singing each a different tune and
trying to drown each other — that is competition — Anarchism;

In conclusion, the choice before you today is thus: to embrace capitalism with competition or socialism
with cooperation. With capitalism comes the retrenchment of a poverty state with no hope of recovery.
With socialism comes the very heart of recovery and opportunity to the poor that capitalism inherently
lacks. Thank you.

“I think that the only way to be honest and expose yourself to criticism is to state clearly and
dogmatically where you are. You must take the risk and have a position.” Zizek 04