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1 May 2024

Contents

The fighting concept brought the left onto the streets on Labor Day. The SGB chief economist and Avenir Suisse director classify.

Author:
Marcel Sigrist and Patrick McEvily

“Capitalism makes you sick”: This slogan was proclaimed by the organizing committee for this year’s May 1 parade in Zurich. It represents a critical view of economics and politics. A look at the program and conversations with participants show: About what the capitalism there is no consensus.

The director of the liberal think tank Avenir Suisse and the chief economist of the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions (SGB) comment on five allegations.

Capitalism oppresses people

Jürg Müller (Avenir Suisse): “I would say that our economic system puts self-determined people at the center and is actually exactly the opposite of societies that rely on the collective.” These tend to “slide into corruption and nepotism and suppress individual freedoms”.

Daniel Lampart (SGB): In capitalism, very few can get rich and have power at the expense of others, the union representative believes. “That is one of his biggest grievances.”

Capitalism harms nature and the environment

Jürg Müller (Avenir Suisse): Yes, technological progress has sometimes led to environmental damage, but socialist states such as the Soviet Union or the GDR have performed worse, says Müller. “The experience of the 20th century in particular shows that free, democratic and market-economy systems like Switzerland have dealt with these challenges much better.”

Legend:

Capitalism: On May 1st this year it was once again the focus of critics. (Image: Zurich, May 1, 2024)

KEYSTONE/Ennio Leanza

Daniel Lampart (SGB): Politicians must act, capitalism uses too many resources and therefore promotes climate change, warns the SGB chief economist. “It needs to be rebuilt urgently before it becomes uncomfortable.”

Capitalism fuels economic inequality

Jürg Müller (Avenir Suisse): Quite the opposite, says the director of the liberal think tank: “Globally, inequality has fallen sharply in the last 100 years, in Switzerland it is relatively stable with rising median income.”

Daniel Lampart (SGB): Economist Lampart, however, believes that inequality has also increased with capitalist development. “If there were no unions, it would be dramatic.”

Voices from participants on the sidelines of the May 1st parade in Zurich:

“Capitalism means: The upper class decides everything and can dictate how society should function.” (JS, social worker)
“Capitalism is a system that excludes people.” (MB, customer representative)
«I believe that capitalism is a whole social system: it’s not just about work, but also about the relationship with nature or how international relations are regulated. These are based on inequality and power.” (Philipp Schmid, Movement for Socialism)
“For me, capitalism is when everyone only thinks about their own well-being and doesn’t give up something in solidarity with others.” (HO, after-school care manager)
«Capitalism is the economic system we have. We could turn it into social capitalism where everyone can live a good life – but now it’s more of a neo-capitalism for the few.” (Katharina Prelicz-Huber, National Councilor (Greens/ZH))

Capitalism stimulates technical progress

Daniel Lampart (SGB): Yes, capitalism has shown that it can achieve a lot of technological progress, the trade unionist believes. But other systems would also have that. “At the moment there is only capitalism.”

Jürg Müller (Avenir Suisse): Since the liberal revolution ensured that people were put at the center, things have been looking up, says Müller. “In the end, this is the source of our prosperity, of a longer life expectancy and also of the immense reduction in poverty.”

Capitalism is an obsolete model

Daniel Lampart (SGB): Today we no longer even know who is behind the largest Swiss companies, says the economist. This shows that capitalism no longer exists. “Capitalism as such no longer exists.”

Jürg Müller (Avenir Suisse): From his perspective, the liberal economist observes worrying trends: “The social model is coming under pressure from the right and the left. This worries me personally because I don’t think it leads to a better society.”

One word, many meanings: This is how one could describe the views on the economic and social order. While debates often give the impression of an ideological monolith, history shows a variety of different forms. Over the course of the 20th century, these appeared in different ways.

Liberalism: Adam Smith laid the ideological foundation for the free market economy in the 18th century. The Scottish thinker coined the concept of an “invisible hand” – that is, the seemingly contradictory phenomenon at first glance, according to which people can promote the common good with their selfishly driven actions.

During the course of the 19th century, the free market economy became established in all industrialized countries, but also showed its dark side with strong social disparities and a concentration of wealth. In contrast to the rest of Europe, traces of this tradition have been preserved in the Anglo-Saxon countries – for example in the private financing of higher education.

Marxism: Many means of production are in the hands of a few: Karl Marx criticized this over 150 years ago. He prophesied the revolution of the working class and the overcoming of the capitalist mode of production.

Over the coming decades, the ideology spread and a real Marxism emerged in the Soviet Union and China, which, however, was also accompanied by absolutist one-party rule, political oppression and the deaths of countless people. Traditionally there have been demarcations between communist and socialist parties; However, the SP, for example, still calls for the overcoming of capitalism in its party program.

The social market economy: The German economic miracle of the post-war period was closely linked to the development of this new concept from the political center. A flourishing economy must go hand in hand with a broadly developed welfare state, postulated its sponsors around the pioneer Ludwig Erhard. In the USA, the “New Deal” of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945) is used as a comparative example.

The representatives of the social market economy wanted to use the advantages of the market economy and overcome the disadvantages of uncontrolled capitalism. Access to healthcare or education, for example, should be publicly regulated. Where necessary, the state must intervene: for example, when it comes to combating monopolies.

Libertarianism or even anarcho-capitalism: From the 1970s onwards, an ideological counter-movement to the economic system in place in many industrialized countries emerged again around the thinkers of the “Chicago School”. State subsidies, fixed prices and, above all, the expanded welfare state are signs of an overzealous and excessive state. Based on the ideas of Adam Smith, these libertarian thinkers call for a “night watchman state” that stays out of the affairs of its citizens as much as possible.

The dazzling new Argentine President Javier Milei is seen as the new representative of this school of thought. Symbolically, he appears with a chainsaw with which he wants to trim the state. He describes himself as an “anarcho-capitalist”.

(Source: BPB, SRF)

You can see more on the topic this evening in “10vor10” at 9:50 p.m. on SRF1.