Political Review – ANTHONY WATKINS – Tallahassee, FL, USA

As a youngster growing up in a conservative pro-capitalist home, as I emerged into a more progressive mindset, I thought of A Christmas Carol as an indictment against capitalists, a pro worker message.

And to be sure scrooge is portrayed as having all the worst traits of the capitalist, and through a series of dream events he learns to be kind, benevolent, and decent. He does better by his nephew’s family on Christmas. Bravo!

But what I have recently come to think about is that he is never taught a lesson about the evils of capitalism, instead he is taught to be a reasonable user of capital, to do things, that in the long run makes society better and thus props up the system that at tits bottom, still values capital over labor.

It is actually a DEFENSE of capitalism. If one wanted to defend ones capitalistic business model against organized labor, one would be generous and considerate, while keeping all the power to oneself. I have known these sort of businessmen. I have worked for a few, and have to admit, it is a much more pleasant arrangement than working for those who exploit you in every way possible, but in the end of the day, a benevolent king is still king.

The means of production of wealth is still not divided in an equitable way so that those who labor to create wealth receive a fair share of what they create.

I am not sure what popular book or movie does a better job of getting a sympathetic message for workers across, a message that says it is the right of those who do, to be able to control the value they create, but Dickens did not achieve that.