PHOTO/SARAH JANE RHEE
For the first time ever, we can eliminate poverty, homelessness, and hunger. For the entirety of human history we have been hampered by scarcity, yet today exists abundance. Technological advancement has made it possible to produce all that we need to live, the necessities of life, for everyone on the planet. The means of producing this abundance are owned and controlled privately by corporations. We need to liberate this abundance for the people. In a different society with a cooperative economy—where the necessities of life are owned publicly—humanity can prosper.
Today, automation and information technology have become so productive and efficient because the capitalists need to cut costs and maximize profits. The most effective way to do that is by introducing technology that eliminates human labor. Advanced technology is pushing millions of people out of work, and driving down incomes of those who still have jobs. Capitalism, an economic system based on the buying and selling of our ability to work, is coming to an end.
The ruling class will not provide for people who are being permanently pushed out of the economy, despite the overabundance of resources.Eight hundred million people suffer from hunger whilea third of the world’s food goes to waste.More than 18 million homes stand empty in the U.S. while nearly one million people are homeless. Millions fill the prisons and police gun down thousands in our streets.
Those who suffer the most at the hands of the ruling class, those who are losing everything, will be the primary force for building a cooperative society that benefits everyone. No longer pitted against each other, people of all nationalities, skin color, and gender can unite in common cause, to build a world where everyone’s quality of life is just as important as the next person’s.
No longer will we toil away to make someone else rich while we struggle to make ends meet. Society’s abundance can be distributed to all to meet our needs. Our skills and talents can be put towards the greater good and to pursue our passions. The human spirit, no longer bound by scarcity and grinding work, will be unleashed so that we may fulfill our highest potential. We can focus our energies and humanity’s greatest minds on building a sustainable future. We can restore the planet, end disease, and explore the cosmos.
This cooperative society is not a utopian dream; it is now possible, and a necessity. Capitalism cannot continue, and the ruling class is already scrambling to figure out how to reorganize to preserve their power and ownership—they only have fascism to offer. A new kind of system based on abundance, that is cooperative and puts human life first, is the only way to stop fascism and to insure a just and peaceful future. The next step in building this society is to join with all those who have nothing left to gain in the current system, and unite around a vision of the new world that we need.
