Faultlines exist within capitalism. From Italian fascism to Chinese Maoism, no ideology could compete with the shared dimensions of capitalism. At the end of the 20th century, the USSR disintegrated and the capitalist order prevailed as the leviathan in economic doctrine. The lack of stringent checks over the capitalist order in the bipolar world order harnessed its potential for exploitation. With the advent of America as a superpower and the prevalent unipolar world order at the start of the 21st century, capitalism under the neoliberal composition has harmed the global environment, the potential of the soil to produce, democracies to sustain, and social classes in developing countries. The capitalist order should reimagine its ideological and practical objectives in the 21st century to compete with the emerging variants of authoritarian rulers, ecological collapse, and class antagonism.
In the realm of capitalism, the neoliberal economic model is based on excessive growth and an unethical consumerist market. The overproduction of the products causes the crash of the markets when the buyers have no access to the products due to the meagre amount of salaries and incomes. The bourgeoisie has a hold over the capital while the proletariat can only give wage labour. Amidst such circumstances, the production and manufacturing by the minority capitalist class become high while the purchasing market becomes low. The first check over the capitalist mode of the product should be the introduction of ethical features in the production as well as consumption to prevent any potential breakdown in the markets like the financial crisis of 2008.
Climate is worsening due to the multinational corporations that are subsidised by the government in many states. A ‘clean economy’ becomes a utopian idea in the developing world. Due to the unfettered growth pursuance, we are letting firms who sell fossil fuels and indeed anyone who emits greenhouse gases cause enormous damage for which they don’t have to pay. Due to the capitalist-led model of growth and the burning of fossil fuels and gases the atmosphere is getting hot which turns the earth into heat waves and droughts which will adversely affect food production. Moreover, the continued warming and acidification of the world’s oceans due to climate disasters will destroy fragile ecosystems like coral reefs and threaten the fish population which is the source of billions of people’s food. These faultlines within capitalism have caused climate fallout and should be discerned by the capitalists’ model of economics. The second check is to introduce the prevention of climate strategies and degradation of soil for the sustainable growth of the global earth within the capitalist model.
Capitalism has created class differences. Based on competition, this class competition advanced global society in the last thirty years but the rising class differences caused social anomalies and political deadlocks for many classes in society. Some people are anywhere, and some are just somewhere. Class warfare is due to the reason that some people are everywhere and the majority is nowhere. Global capitalism should shift its approach from the “economic man” doctrine to the “social man” doctrine in which economic development should be replaced with social growth. The class differences among the third-world, peripheral and semi-peripheral states have initiated a new form of class warfare and class animosity. The third check is to introduce the shared reciprocity and culture of social capitalism to sustain capitalism.
Capitalism has created technological advancements but the same technology is incorporated to malign the hundred years of struggle for democratic ideals in society. The rising misinformation and maligning the political franchise campaigns through anti-democratic forces must be curtailed. Capitalism has empowered tyrants to reinstate civil society. The use of social media with boots and deep fakes holds the potential power to turn the democratic process into a political anomaly. The fourth check should be to effectively control and implement the technology for the primary goal of social and political health.
Finally, the problem is not the free market but uncontrolled free markets, no governmental checks over the private enterprises, and scarcity of dedicated commitment to the shared social and moral objectives for the health of the society. Capitalism can save the world with an ethical tilt.
There is no other model in the world which can shape global society into as much growth as capitalism has done but the faultlines within capitalism also have the ability to tear the social fabric of society. It is high time to check those faultlines and reimagine the design of capitalism before the fallout.