Three months before he was assassinated in April 1968, Martin Luther King asserted to his Poor People’s Campaign staff (as recorded by a witness taking notes) that “he didn’t believe that capitalism as it was constructed could meet the needs of poor people, and that what we might need to look at was a kind of socialism, but a democratic form of socialism.” Indeed, although modern capitalism was born in our 18th century colonial experiment more than 300 years ago, today around 11 percent of the U.S. still lives in poverty. Of these, more than 10 million are children, 71 percent children of color. So King was correct.
Of course, the goal of capitalism is profit, not social welfare. Given our history, capitalism has clearly created an ever-widening wealth gap — the poor get poorer; the rich get richer. We live in the wealthiest country in all of human history, but choose to not take care of our children, our future. We do have some elements of socialism King talked about that are working well: Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, U.S. Postal Service and U.S. military. Time to prioritize children’s health care and education.
We’re failing our children. They will not thank us.
