the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Jan 6, 2014
If it felt like the economy wasn’t so great for you last year, maybe it’s because you aren’t a billionaire. For them, the economy was great. The world’s 300 wealthiest people made 524 billion dollars in 2013, bringing their total net worth to 3.7 trillion dollars–that is $3,700,000,000,000–for just three hundred people!
Bill Gates still sits at the top. He may have started out making money through Microsoft, but now he owns pieces of more than 35 companies, including the Four Seasons hotel chain, Canadian National Railway, and Caterpillar. Like every other capitalist, Gates makes his money by exploiting the thousands of people who work for these companies.
Gates has a reputation for charity–he’s given 28 billion dollars to the foundation he and his wife control–but he’s kept more than 78 billion dollars of the wealth he’s grabbed from workers for himself.
According to one billionaire, John Catsimatidis, 2014 looks to be just as good. “The rich will keep getting richer,” he said, in part because “the economy will grow at less than 2 percent.” He’s admitting that a “bad” economy is actually good for these parasites! If the economy grows slowly, workers will still be desperate for jobs, the bosses will be able to keep wages low, and the billionaires will be able to exploit us even more.
The fabulous sums accumulated by these leeches show how much wealth there is in this society, that could be used to meet the populations’ needs. But that won’t happen until workers find a way to take control of the economy and make it serve us, instead of the blood-sucking billionaires.