Capitalism

Marxist sociologists are fairly preoccupied with the role of capitalism in every aspect of life. They expand almost out of recognition from the original writings of Karl Marx who famously once said "One thing I'm not is a Marxist". Capitalism is the route of all evil, it exploits the working classes and deludes them into thinking that they have a fair life. Marxists believe that it is the structures of society that does this - the family, education, religion, the media, the government (they call this lot the superstructure). The pursuit of profit leads to enforced poverty, poor wages and working conditions. The dog eat dog nature of capitalism leads to crime. Gordon, a Marxist criminologist termed this as 'criminogenic'. Companies flout health and safety laws, avoid taxes etc. Gordon also believed that this extended to more low level but still very serious crime such as abuse, violence and burglary. The lack of power in a capitalist society needing to be gained somewhere else. In a consumer society, through the Marxist view, we are compelled to buy our way to happiness, for the wealthy it is a status thing, for the poor it is a form of  escape (Marxists refer to this as false consciousness).

More modern Marxists capitalism survives because it is the thing that we all see as normal. From day one we are schooled into competition and money making. Parents tell us we need good jobs, schools provide us with skills needed according to social class and the media bombards us with adverts and programs such as The Apprentice and Dragon's Den . capitalism is the norm or as Gramsci put it, hegemony.

So how is capitalism doing in all of This? The economy is something that was an immediate concern of the government, stimulus packages have been announced and the state is pledging to help support small businesses and the self employed. Once ignored (or pay frozen) workers are now key workers, applauded as heroes  by politicians, the media and the public. Thatcherites are backtracking ideologically adopting leftist economic policies in order that we have an economy when This is over. It could be argued that the hegemony is changing. The public are accepting that perhaps bankers etc aren't as important as NHS workers and shelf stackers. During the second world war this happened and the NHS sprang out of that shift in hegemony.

Gordon would have looked at the food hoarders as an example of capitalism causing crime. If not actually a crime depriving others of things such as soap and toilet paper certainly could be seen as deviant. Globalisation is capitalism on a worldwide scale and the inter connectedness of our world has helped spread the disease.  Cruise ships are large capitalist vessels, the holiday makers trapped. We ordered a lotus yoga mat from China, I eye it suspiciously now. Racism has broken out in Hull where Chinese people are being blamed for This. Domestic abuse cases are on the rise as people stay at home. The profiling of a domestic abuser doesn't wholly fit with Gordon's image of the powerless but qualitative research suggests that power is a large part of the cause. Scammers are taking advantage, visiting the vulnerable, taking their money for essential goods which won't be bought. Closed pubs are being broken into.

For capitalism to exist we need to buy things. We can do this online making the postal worker a frontline worker. Or we can queue up at the supermarket. I did this this morning. I did a large shop for us and for vulnerable neighbours. The shop was well stocked apart from pasta, toilet roll and tinned goods. I wondered if people were getting their consumer needs from the media. These are the things that we are told people are buying so we stockpile them. Our Costcutter has lots of toilet roll but people have been accusing them of hiking their prices up. They haven't toilet roll has always been more expensive in there compared to Morrison's. It's just that the search for toilet roll has meant people are buying it elsewhere. It could be argued that the dog eat dog  meritocracy of capitalism makes people look out for themselves. This explains the wasted food found in bins last week. People are buying more stuff than they actually need. The government is telling them not to do this. But they didn't say not to do this so that others may have a chance to get toilet paper themselves, they said not to do this as it may limit supplies, they talked in terms of commodity. Marx would recognise this. His criticism of capitalism was that it talked about surplus and commodities and not people.

Easter is a capitalist money spinner like Christmas. I looked at the long displays of chocolate eggs looking unloved. I thought that the shops will be taking a hit this year but then I looked at the large trolleys full of food. It reminded me of Christmas.

The couple who I was shopping for had wanted toilet roll. there was none. on the way home I debated whether I should offer some of ours. The neo liberal capitalist in me thought - no! I need it for my family! when I delivered their food I asked them if they needed any toilet paper. We are all in this together.