Translated "Avante!"article by Jorge Cadima, Member of the International Department
The Bloomberg Billionaire Index reveals that the 500 wealthiest, throughout the planet, have achieved fortunes over 24% regarding the beginning of the year, in 2017. This percentage is identical to the increase of the Dow Jones index, in New York’s market, in 2017, and that since Trump’s election has beaten 87 times its own record (in the-balance.com, 2017.01.18).The end of the year new historical maximum was supported by the new Trump’s fiscal law, lowering the taxes index, he offered the great companies, as a Christmas gift,, from 35 to 21%, ( thebalance.com,2018.01.17). But the same source informs that “ in reality, the great companies do not pay down the maximum tax regarding the federal tax rate [being] the real tax being 18% and not 35%. According to James Petras, the North-American professor, “ between 67 and 72% of the great companies had a null fiscal tax, upon deductions and exemptions…whilst their workers and employees paid round 25 to 35 % in taxes[…]. The tax for the great companies’ minority, that paid taxes, was round 14%” (globalresearch.ca, 2017.10.05). At the same time, “ the USA greatest companies placed over 2.5 billion dollars in fiscal paradises[…] having received 14.4 billions in aids, with state money”. Petras comments: “ the dominant class improved “technology” on exploiting the state” and not only but workers.
The current capitalism more and more exploiting and of parasite nature deserves a comment from Martin Wolf, a Financial Times chief-economist (2017.12.20). Regarding numbers on growing inequalities, he states that this trend is bad “not only for social peace, but for the stable democracies’ survival, amid the wealthiest countries. And Wolf says: “Power creates wealth and wealth creates power”. Asking on the possibility of reverting the growing inequality process: “ yes […] the four catastrophe cavaliers: war, revolution, epidemics and hunger”. In a non-innocent manner, he confesses that capitalism is not reformable. And again he repeats: in the XXth century, revolutions (in the USSR and China, as an example), and two World Wars, dramatically reduced inequalities. But when the revolutionary regimes softened, (or collapsed) or the war demands deviated memories […] new highly wealthy elites emerged, achieving political power and once again, used it for their purposes”.
The amalgam is poisonous. The world wars did not “dramatically reduce inequalities”, but instead, the fact that those wars, nurtured by capitalism, led unto the great social revolutions, during the XX th century. And again the counter-revolutionary victories, provoking a dramatic inequalities increase, were highly greeted and promoted by Wolf and his followers, having profited with them. Currently, Wolf, wants to give over the option between accepting plunder or perishing amid an holocaust”: “ the relation seems to be, that in the absence of any catastrophically event, one is back to ever growing inequalities. The thermo- nuclear war ought to be equalizing. But the catastrophe is not a political “option”.
Separating the confusing tares from the wheat, Wolf’s article reveals the truth. Far from being a catastrophe, revolution is the only solution, to break up peoples endless exploitation and plunder spiral. Capitalism only but brings misery and war. It is not reformable.