Attacking capitalists, not capitalism, is one of the hallmarks of leftists today, a complete failure of seeing the bigger picture and of seeing the wider issues facing the modern world.

The slogan “eat the rich” is a favorite among the left, but the anger contained within it is misplaced. There are indeed numerous truly despicable members of the capitalist class; their money funneled into projects and businesses have negatively affected most people in the world. But the issue at hand is not necessarily the individual people, it’s the programmed reason for why they would do such horrible things. I doubt that a good number of the capitalist class would be as willing to do the things they do without the profit motive. Too often blame is put on the individual, the responsibility for fixing climate change is placed on each person. Recycle, buy organic, go vegan, limit your carbon footprint, etc. The same goes for the capitalist class, “it’s not the corporation that is bad, it’s who is running it.” But, again, it misses the point. The fault is not necessarily the individual, it’s the system that produced the individual. Many ignore that capitalism doesn’t just shape those are exploited, it shapes everyone. When the alienation of the proletariat from their work is talked about it is forgotten that, in a sense, capitalists are completely alienated from “their” labor as they do no such labor. It is the system that is the “enemy,” not necessarily those at the top.

One of the ways this is seen nowadays is with the idea of a worker co-op and to many leftists this is what they conceive of socialism as, workers “owning the means of production.” This is an admirable notion and indeed is a part of socialism, but it is a small part. As long as there is commodity production) meaning they are engaged in production of commodities which contain both a use-value and exchange-value), there will be capitalism; the production of commodities for profit necessitates generating surplus-value from the excess labor power of a worker to create capital. It does not matter how many worker co-ops there are, even if every single business is a worker co-op it will not necessarily be socialist. Within a worker co-op (provided they are still engaged in commodity production) there is still the need for profit. Now there very well may be co-ops that act “ethically,” but this doesn’t necessarily lead to profit and as such they will eventually be driven out of business by a larger co-op with more capital due to their “looser ethics.” Monopolization is a natural consequence of capitalism no matter the form the business takes. A co-op simply means that the workers are themselves capitalists, they still reside within a capitalist system, so they still create commodities and profit from the labor of themselves and others.

Co-ops are often thought of as a more “fair” workplace and too often socialism is talked about as simply a means to make thing “fair” to the proletariat. This is perhaps the most stripped down, milquetoast definition conceived of. The worst part is that this question of “fairness” isn’t even new. In The Critique of the Gotha Program, Marx wrote explicitly that laws and such must be unequal because people themselves will always be unequal in some way, shape, or form (not tot mean that there is inherent inequality but that each person has different needs, a parent with a family will necessarily need more than someone who doesn’t have a family). Mere redistribution without consideration of the abolition of the system that created the inequity in the first place will never be truly free from the issues that plague capitalism.

Along these lines of creating “ethical businesses” there has been another resurgence of hate for Nestlé recently, at least on the internet. Many have called for boycotting the company to protest its actions. It’s well intended, but it strikes at the core of the issue. For one, Nestlé along with a handful of other companies sell the majority of products available to purchase, it’s inescapable. Avoiding buying Nestlé products isn’t a valid idea for many people. Would you tell the people of Flint, Michigan to just not buy bottled water? Tell those without the monetary means to buy local (i.e. more expensive)? Presumably not. Companies like Nestlé have the capital to make products cheaper than smaller businesses, it’s a natural part of capitalism. More capital means access to cheaper ways of commodity production. Cheap commodity production then leads to over production of said commodities. The “anticonsumption” movement and its kin want to fight against this over production but is usually blind to capitalism involvement in this process. Boycotting a large business simply won’t work; Chick-Fil-A for instance is still going strong despite the protests of many against their anti-LGBTQ stance.

While many of these inequities cannot be fully solved until the dissolution of capitalism, there is a need to support progressive policies within the framework of capitalism, simply letting capitalism accelerate into oblivion is simply not viable. Yet socialism will not simply naturally emerge from mere reforms and that must not be forgotten. Currently there are many policies that are considered by many to be “socialist.” Universal healthcare and free college tuition are worth striving for but are not explicitly socialist, they are indeed “socialized” policies, but operate perfectly fine within capitalism and do help stabilize capitalism and contribute to a capitalist economy’s growth. Though there is a hope that due to these policies people will see that it is not simply how capitalism is run, it is capitalism itself that is the issue. If leftists truly want “actual” socialism, capitalism is the issue that should be remedied, not just the issues it causes.

This is all a very pessimistic view of the present state of things, but the world is currently a very pessimistic place that has been ravaged by capitalism. To understand the most effective way of doing away with the pillars of capitalism is to thoroughly understand capitalism in all of its facets. The loose and weakly defined socialism of much of today’s left-wing isn’t prepared for the complete overhaul and abolition of capitalism, it simply wants to reform the kinks out of the system.

Ending with a quote to from The German Ideology by Karl Marx, I believe, is fitting. It was his work that laid the foundation for the critiques of capitalism that are used today. So take what you want but remember: