Regarding Peter Schiff’s View of History

Peter Schiff, one of the wealthy capitalist candidates vying for the Republican ballot position, was recently interviewed on WNPR’s “Where we Live.” Here is a bit of what he had to say:

"I think the workers benefited dramatically from the transition from an agrarian economy to an industrial economy. We eliminated women labor in the country, child labor, because of capitalism. You know the reason – you know, my grandmother didn't have to work because my grandfather didn't have to pay any taxes. She was free to take care of eight kids, because that's what she wanted to do. But today, very few women have the choice to be stay-at-home moms. They are now back in the workforce. Capitalism lifted them out of the workforce but big government bureaucracy, high taxes and the social welfare state – that's the reason now that so few women, and men for that matter, can choose not to work. They have to work to support the government."

Hearing such a revised version of history from someone of his class is not surprising, but having it aired on public radio is another story. Mr. Schiff is entitled to his ideological beliefs as much as I am to my own, but these beliefs do not allow the complete re-writing of history. In a few short minutes he completely erased the woman's suffrage movement, woman's lib movement, the labor movement and pretty much anything that was not a “natural force of the market” right out of the history books. George Orwell is surely rolling in his grave.

Not only is Mr. Schiff’s account of U.S. history wrong, but it is dangerous. It invites anti-democratic tendencies into the mainstream. As a socialist, I am often mistaken for being one of two things; either some kind of utopian pipe-dreamer or some kind of anti-democratic Soviet-Style Communist. What I’d like to propose is the opposite, that Free-Market worshipers are in fact the utopians and certainly tend to be opposed to democracy. Just think for a minute about this: Government regulation of industry was originally won by democratic measures (but now by corporate lobbyists in the interest of industry). Groups of disgruntled citizens pressured the elected government to enact laws that addressed their grievances. As long as there is democracy and a big enough group of people being screwed there is going to be pressure to regulate. To put it another way, the only way that a truly unregulated free-market economy can exist is to completely eliminate democracy.

When a caller challenged Mr Schiff’s dogmatic blind-faith in deregulated capitalism, Schiff replied: "What you have is a revisionist, socialist version of history." He went on to argue that workers in the 19th century were not exploited by business owners. Thankfully the caller rightfully noted that the profit motive did not prevent business owners from abusing the rights of their workers. The caller further said that the very "reason we have the regulations we have is because of the abuse that was heaped on the middle and lower classes by the very free market system that you are espousing."

To insinuate that the caring and compassionate capitalist class created the 8 hour day, workplace safety standards, women’s equality, etc.. is to spit on the graves of the countless hard-working men and women who fought hard and many died for these simple measures. It was neither the capitalists nor the government that helped the working class or women; it was the women and the working class itself exercising it’s political influence in a democratic manner that won change, and that is exactly what the far right fears.

Now, I’d rather not waste too much time reflecting on this guy and his upper-class view of reality, but I would like to conclude by simply reminding readers that it was in fact capitalism which brought women and children to work in factories. The capitalists did this for one reason and one reason only: because they could pay them so much less than men at that time (and this is still true for women today).