Demos

The right and their billionaire chums love to bang on about “wealth redistribution” as if it’s some grave injustice – a great crime where the hardworking, enterprising elite are being plundered by a rabble of lazy, envious poor. It’s a convenient little fairytale, designed to keep the proles in their place while the real theft – centuries of aristocratic plunder and capitalist exploitation – continues unabated.

Let’s get one thing straight: theft isn’t when a government taxes billionaires to fund hospitals. Theft is what feudal lords did when they carved up entire countries, claimed land as their birthright, and demanded peasants work it for the privilege of not starving. Theft is what industrialists did when they herded entire populations into factories and slums, pocketing the profits of their labour while paying them a pittance. Theft is what landlords do today when they charge extortionate rents on properties they neither built nor maintain, profiting off scarcity while entire generations are locked out of homeownership.

This has always been the case. Those at the top extract wealth, then scream “theft” the moment anyone suggests returning even a fraction of it. But capitalism, in its current form, isn’t just a rigged game – it’s an existential failure. It requires infinite growth on a planet with finite resources. Even Western socialism, where the state plays a larger role in providing services, is still shackled to continuous GDP expansion, relying on economic growth to fund public spending rather than challenging the system that demands it in the first place. No mainstream political movement dares to ask whether perpetual expansion is even viable, let alone sustainable.

But this isn’t just about fairness – it’s about survival. The system isn't just rigged; it's driving itself off a cliff. So, what’s the alternative? A truly sustainable system – one where wealth is not hoarded by an elite few while the rest fight over scraps. One where the economy isn’t dependent on endless GDP growth but instead focused on well-being, resource efficiency, and long-term stability. Socialism, but not the old state-heavy, industrial-age model – it needs to evolve. We need:

• A steady-state economy – where economic stability doesn’t require infinite expansion. 
• A circular economy – where waste is minimised and resources are reused, not mindlessly extracted. 
• Worker ownership – so that those who actually generate wealth have control over it, rather than a handful of shareholders siphoning it off. 
• Universal public services – because access to healthcare, education, and housing shouldn’t be contingent on your ability to turn a profit for someone else. 
• Shorter workweeks, fairer pay, and automation that benefits people rather than replacing them for corporate gain. 

Of course, the usual suspects will call this “utopian.” They said the same thing about public healthcare, the weekend, and the end of child labour. The real utopian fantasy is believing that capitalism – this dressed-up version of feudalism, where billionaires hoard wealth while entire countries sink into poverty – can continue indefinitely. It can’t.

And here’s the thing: you can’t have democracy without economic democracy. What good is a vote if billionaires own the politicians? Democracy comes from the Greek dēmokratía – “rule by the people” – but in a world where money controls politics, the people rule nothing. Socialism, meanwhile, comes from the Latin socius, meaning “companion” or “ally” – a system built on cooperation rather than hierarchy. The two are inseparable. If democracy is meant to prevent political tyranny, then socialism is meant to prevent economic tyranny – and you cannot have one without the other.

So, if you still think socialism is theft, then answer me this: where do you think the rich got their wealth in the first place? It wasn’t through sheer hard graft. It was through monopolies, exploitation, and generations of accumulated advantage. Capitalism didn’t create prosperity – it concentrated it. And now, with environmental and social collapse on the horizon, the real question isn’t whether we can afford to move towards a fairer, sustainable economy.

It’s whether capitalism’s greed will collapse everything before we even get the chance.