Pakistan is facing the biggest economic crisis in its history. It all started when someone who was recruited to dig trenches went to a seminar on economic affairs in 2017 and said, “If the country’s economy is not bad, it is not good.” The institution had already made a scheme for the betterment of the economy.
The name of the scheme was Imran Khan Project. And the essence of the concept presented in this scheme was that only those who won the Cricket World Cup could do good for the economy. One who is honest enough to keep the closet clean and tidy and whose character is so “strong” that the case of being the father of an illegitimate daughter is based on him. In 2018, Imran Khan’s government was established by stealing votes, but it is not known why the economy did not do well. Not only that it did not go well, but it reached the point where even General Bajwa will now swear that the economy has become bad or worse.
The economic crisis has affected everyone and everyone is asking questions regarding its possible consequences. We are not economists, so we are not aware of all its nuances. Then we also have a big problem that opinions here are also based on party affiliation. The result is that economists who sympathize with PTI calculate the prospects for the economy in the coming days and the prospects of Patwari economists are completely opposite. Thus, it becomes impossible for a person like us who is ignorant of economic affairs to believe whose words and whose words he does not. In this situation, our minds went to another aspect. That is, we are part of capitalism and capitalism itself is facing a bad situation in its own home in the West these days.
American economists who are critics of capitalism clearly point to a destructive trend. He says that the period of real development in America is 100 years. And these 100 years start from 1878 and end on 1978. He describes it as a period of real progress in the sense that the remuneration the working class was getting for their services was commensurate with their work and the annual increase in it not only improved but also stabilized the financial condition of the people. It was happening. Thus, the tendency of employed people to start their own business after some time was also very fast. Poverty was shrinking rapidly and prosperity was expanding at the same pace. Why? Because the payment for the services was just fine. So much so that there was a good saving in it.
But when the 1970s came, capitalism began to attack the working class. The attack started as the prices of consumer goods in the market started increasing on an annual basis. And the rate at which these prices began to rise was much higher than the annual increase in people’s wages. Thus, people’s income gradually became insufficient to fulfill their needs. The well-known American economist Dr. Richard Wolf says that when this situation started, the leaders of capitalism started a new debate and promoted a new concept. It was debated what happened that only one person in the house will earn and everyone else will eat? There are three parts to the family. A father, another mother and third children. So this culture was introduced that not only the father but also the mother has to work. As a result of the process started, household expenses were no longer covered by a single income.
As a result, divorce rates skyrocketed, says Dr. Richard Wolff. And America became the largest consumer of psychotropic drugs in the world. And these drugs are being used mostly by women because the burden imposed on them is more than they can handle. The attack of capitalism on the citizens did not stop only with the increase in the prices of consumer goods, but the tax laws were further shaped in such a way that the bigger the capitalist, the lower the tax rate on him. As if the entire burden of meeting the expenses of the country was put on the working people. The result was that the capitalists became billionaires and the fortunes of the working people declined or stagnated. In simple words, the poor got poorer and the rich got richer.
It didn’t stop there but soon credit card was launched. This card seriously jeopardized people’s finances, as the working class now began to spend money in advance that would not even have been in their pockets. Now if the money came, it went away as soon as it came because the expenses were already done with the help of the credit card before its arrival. And if the money did not come and could not be paid to the bank, interest started to accrue. Thus a new expense was encountered. And the expense is also that for which there is nothing in return. Capitalism did not stop there but also launched schemes to make people own their houses through banks. Thus the elders of the family i.e. the parents started getting into debt. And there are millions of such cases that a person defaulted and the bank pushed him out of the house. But this too was considered insufficient.
So, in the next phase, those children who were still studying were targeted. “Educational loans” schemes were announced by the banks. As a result, the entire American society got stuck in debt. In such a situation, when the coronavirus attacked, millions of Americans were gripped by the fear that if their jobs were lost due to the closure of the factories, how will they pay the installments of the house, car and education to the bank? How will you maintain your house, car and education if they don’t pay the installment? The brutality of capitalism can be gauged from the scenes shown on American news channels, in which people sitting in cars bigger than our Pakistani Seth cars were standing in long queues similar to the queues we used to have.
House of installments, car installments but no food money in the pocket. Food for charity. He asked that if the job is lost due to the closure of the factory, how will they pay the installment of house, car and education to the bank? How will you maintain your house, car and education if you don’t pay the installment? The brutality of capitalism can be gauged from the scenes shown on American news channels, in which people sitting in cars bigger than our Pakistani Seth cars were standing in long queues similar to the queues we used to have.
We have presented the situation in America before you, but if you think a little, it will not be difficult to understand that the same has happened to us. Even with us, the salary does not increase at the same rate as the inflation increases. The situation with us is that only the father’s income is insufficient, the mother also has to work for her social independence. Even with us, the entire burden of taxes is on the common citizen. Even in our country, credit cards are impoverishing working people in advance. The practice of buying cars and houses on installments from banks is also growing in our country. Our students are also falling into the trap of education loans. So our real economic crisis is not that we are at risk of default. Rather, it is that we are part of a system that only squeezes, not gives, the common citizen even at home in America.
