The death of capitalism as we know it

My wife asked me (I don`t remember the context) if I believe that, in the near future, the multi-nationals will disappear and we would return to a society in which smallholder farmers would be the main source of food. She was mainly referring to an agrarian society.

Brooks Adams (among others) believed (and wrote in his “Theory of Social Revolutions”) that capitalism will be replaced by another system in which the distribution of wealth would change and in which current political systems would be replaced.

Thomas Jefferson once said that “Every generation needs a revolution”, while Emma Goldman mentioned that “no real social change has ever been brought about without revolution. Revolution is but thought carried into action”.

Everywhere in the world, a revolution takes place, in one form or another, during each generation. We can speak about the civil rights movement in the US as a social revolution or Gandhi`s civil disobedience.

But, while the majority of authors believe each generation brings about changes through revolution, I believe that change happens every other generation. Real change has never been brought by social revolutions once every 40-50 years, considering that a new generation appears and form their own concepts in this period.

A political system is brought down when the focus of this system shifts from the equal distribution of wealth and the moral structure of society to a system in which wealth is accumulated by few and the opinion of the majority is not taken into account anymore.

Our current political system does just that. It supports the growth of wealth of a minority on the back of a majority. Taking into account the political structure of the society, we can see the same politicians in power and spreading this power to an élite.

In summary, a social revolution brings change, through violent or non-violent means, only if the whole fabric of society is changed. A social revolution cannot be started without the incentive of an oppressing system, oppressing system which all people empower, but that they cannot control.

Capitalism will die and be changed when a new system will be created by the people.