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Types Of Capitalism By Okachikwu Dibia
The purpose of this article is to expose the various destructive understandings and manifestations of capitalism, their effects on society’s progress and how political leadership should deal with them in order to achieve the common good for the greatest number. In retrospect and according to the explanations by Karl Heinrich Marx, capitalism succeeded feudalism as a mode of economic production. As an ideology, capitalism insists that human economic productivity should be hinged on the appropriate combination of factors of production owned by any capable person(s) called the capitalist for the ultimate purpose of profit. So to Adam Smith, the thrust of capitalism is to create wealth and this is driven by profit. Thus, in a capitalist system, profit is the driving force for all economic engagements. To the capitalist, profit is the excess or surplus wealth or value accruable to him as the owner of the factor inputs.
Overtime, people have construed capitalism as profiteering and specifically accepted that it simply means whatever they can do to gain financial advantage over and above others in society. This has led to various means of profiteering or capitalizing or what I call types of capitalism especially in Third World countries where extreme instinct to cheat for survival is prevalent. Indeed it is a survival race involving everybody directly or indirectly. This has led to the corruption octopus with consuming hydra-headed outreach that appears unstoppably nasty in its broad daylight destruction of society. It involves the haves (who must cheat big to sustain themselves as rich people) and the have-nots (who must cheat small in order to meet the basic needs of life). To all of them, even though the means could be indecent, whatever they get is profit. This passionate instinct for survival through indecent profiteering has led to inter or intra group/class struggles which Marx labeled “conflicts and contradictions”. These conflicts and contradictions have consumed societies and still consuming more. So how would society’s political leadership deal with the various manifestations of cheating for financial advantage? To succeed, we need to first of all determine the various types of capitalism existing in society today.
Among the various types is the multi-national corporation (MNC) capitalism. We also have secret societies/cultism capitalism; crony capitalism (where political office leaders provide dubious avenues to their god-fathers as compensation); contract capitalism; CSR capitalism where organizations engage in corporate social responsibility to donate peanuts to society they have afflicted with huge damages; legislative capitalism involving legislators enacting laws for themselves for the sharing of public funds to themselves; executive capitalism through padding of the national budget; judicial capitalism which has led to most Chief Judges when appointed swear to clean up the system. We also have bail capitalism as is happening in Europe at present but had happened in the USA in 2009 and in Nigeria in 2010, but in all bailout programmes, the interest has never been to find out who or what caused the financial meltdown in the first place. The political economics of bailout is that it is a system of continuously sustaining the rich who despoiled the financial system because they gained when they stole the funds and will gain again when government replenishes the system.
Other types common to the rich class are energy capitalism involving the stealing of crude oil and oil subsidy funds, $16 billion spent to provide regular electricity in Nigeria and yet electricity supply is still avoidably absent, stealing of funds meant for refineries turn around maintenance, etc. There is also the institution duplication capitalism where a lot of funds exchanged hands to create institutions whose works are similar to an existing institution; for example in Nigeria we have the Niger Delta Development Commission, the Petroleum Development Trust Fund and the Federal Ministry of Niger Delta all doing the same job. There is the agencies/committees/commissions capitalism where they are created to compensate the “boys”; probe capitalism where lawmakers are engrossed in too many probes that actually end up not solving a problem, but ensure that millions, billions and trillions of money exchanged hands; plane-crash capitalism; international trade capitalism where the world is lopsidedly arranged such that the developed segments will continue to have and enjoy trade advantages over the undeveloped segments; foreign technical capitalism; capitalist capitalism where companies charge cut-throat product prices while the quality and quantity of the products steadily decline. Capitalist capitalism also involves tax evasion and avoidance by companies.
We still have pension capitalism where managers of staff pension funds in government institutions squander such funds and smile to the banks; fertilizer capitalism where staffs of agriculture ministry steal government-funded fertilizers or at times force rural farmers to purchase the fertilizers at higher prices. We also have the customs/immigration capitalism where staffers of these organizations have put in place strong and unholy chain of agents and middle men who extort money from the public; foreign aids and grants capitalism where captains of industries who had caused the collapse of many financial systems in the world launder their ill funds into non-governmental organizations(NGOs) pretending to protect human and animal rights they had maimed and to extinct other society’s positive values; foreign debts capitalism where government must borrow even when the budget is experiencing surplus; political assassination capitalism and terrorism capitalism.
On the part of the materially poor, their own capitalism manifests in oil scooping capitalism where they break oil pipelines or swoop on fallen tankers carrying oil products and scoop crude oil or refined products and most times they are consumed as it recently happened in Okogbe in Ahoada, Rivers State. Kidnapping capitalism where some idle youths with guns go after the rich or popular individuals who can afford to provide or attract huge sums of money to the kidnappers. There is trade capitalism where for example our hard working Igbo brothers charge whatever prices they like or the same prices for their original and fake goods; tribalism capitalism mostly practiced by the Yoruba in Nigeria; unity capitalism where the Hausa-Fulani in Nigeria will always dominate politics and have more access to the resources of the country than other groups; fundamentalist capitalism involving the activities of the militants in the Niger Delta, the OPC in Yoruba, Bakassi and MASSOB in Igbo and Arewa Youths and Boko Haram in Hausa-Fulani. Office-file-hiding capitalism being the regular practice by lower cadre workers in government offices to hide official files and cause the owners to bribe them before the files are released; bureaucracy capitalism involves all sorts of compromises among the rank and file of government workers in order to gain financial benefits from anybody that comes across their way.
There are also faith capitalism where leaders of religious groups exploit their followers in order to enrich themselves; capacity building capitalism where public and civil servants in Nigeria construe office work training as a do or die affair because it is by going for training that they get out-of-station allowances they survive with. In some government institutions, staffs hardly go for such training and few officers hijack the entire fund and smile to the bank. Gatemen capitalism where in most office gates in Nigeria, there is a subtle smile or loud familiar greeting (as if they had known you from the ages) from securitymen to visitors. Such smiles and greetings were to encourage the visitor to “dash” them money. We also have begging capitalism in nearly all the streets in especially Northern Nigeria. There is also prostitution capitalism; recharge card capitalism where mostly females publish their names and phone numbers in the dailies soliciting for male friendship which at least ends up in daily “ please send me recharge card” messages. NGO capitalism involves the formation of organizations for survival.
Not the
least are education capitalism where teachers collect
All these take place in the midst of rules and regulations, powerful institutions, powerful NGOs, powerful religious organizations, etc. So where is the solution? Many have suggested revolution in Third World countries or that these countries should just copy the developed world. But they forget that “types of capitalism” exist in the developed world in probably different shades and colours. I think the solution should be divinely sought. Man must trace back his footsteps back to those key qualities of God that can enhance better solutions. Such include morality and discipline. Without morality and discipline, society must fail.
The developed world must rescind the idea that they can continue their development efforts only through their power and thoughts. More than anything else, they need morality given that their laws and institutions are functional. The less developed world needs discipline so that they can articulate appropriate ideologies and development behaviours. With discipline, their institutions and infrastructure could work well to reasonably engage their minds and create wealth to be distributed such that more people are happy. This can reduce the types of capitalism afflicting societies. |