Opinions of Wednesday, 18 November 2009

Columnist: The Royal Enoch

Is Social Communism The Answer For Ghana?

I so happened to be reading my local newspaper just the other day, when I came across the business and financial section. Most interestingly, the newspaper had compiled a list of the world's most richest people. Now, as we all know, the world is going through a financial crisis. Companies are closing down and workers are being laid off. Surprisingly, I discovered that it is not all bad news for everybody. In fact, some companies are actually making a kill as a result of this global financial crisis. Then again, in capitalism, the corporations are the sole regulators of the economy. The business corporations could stop the economy, and lay people off whenever they feel the need to do so. Mind you, the economy is like a machine, which could be stopped and reset at any given time. The functioning of an economy has got nothing to do whatsoever with demand and supply. There is more to it than that, but I will leave it for another day. See, in the world of business, there are two things which every company hates. These two things are; the paying of taxes to the government and competition.

It's estimated that companies pay billions in taxes to the government annually. So you could understand why most companies disfavor the idea of paying taxes. Furthermore, competition breaks a company's monopoly, which of course results to a loss in revenue. America believes in a free-market economy, and has therefore opened its borders to all. This has led to the invasion of foreign markets taking over America's economy with cheap consumer products. Of course, to the detriment of American local businesses and companies. To put it in short, American companies are losing billions to foreign companies operating in the United States with their cheap consumer products. This matter gets worse. Because amidst the loss in revenue, corporate America must still continue to pay its taxes to the government for doing business. See, it's one thing to make money and pay your taxes, and another to lose money and still be expected to pay your taxes. So what kind of action did corporate America take to save itself from going completely under? Corporate America simply stopped America's economy, and workers got laid off aplenty.

The worst thing that could happen to any country is to see its unemployment rate soar. Because this means, less money for the government and a loss for the country. Mind you, employment creates a huge tax revenue for the government, and unemployment does the exact opposite.

Therefore, the government encourages people to work. When corporate America halted America's economy, the government had no choice but to step in with a stimulus package. But this is exactly what corporate America wanted, expected and secretly planned. They wanted to get back some of the monies, which they had lost in revenue to these foreign markets operating in the United States. This was the whole idea. And God knows that they could estimate their loss to be worth billions. Corporate America had its eyes set on the American government. Sure enough, the United States government stepped in, and handed corporate America a check in the form of an economic stimulus package worth $850 billion. To do what? To get the economy up and running again.

Corporate America got exactly what it planned. It got bailed out by duping the government of America by deliberately recessing the economy. A recession which has contributed to human misery, and job losses all over the world. Some have it that capitalism is a monster which feeds on itself. I would say that it's a monster which feeds on its practitioners. The free-market economy in its present form, if not subjected to either rules or regulations by world governments, will certainly bring about the fall of humanity. In short, this extreme form of capitalism as practiced in the United States, if adopted and practiced in Ghana would certainly destroy our country. In essence, capitalism is a form of a market-anarchy, in which both law and order don't necessary apply. It's now obvious to all that any economy, if left to be regulated by corporations in the name of freedom could jeopardize the fate of humanity. Moreover, global economic recessions could ensue as a result. Therefore, Ghana and indeed the rest of the world, must opt for its survival a government controlled economic system as practiced in social communist countries.