J. Locke, A. Smith, K. Marx, and retirees

In our previous articles and TV appearances, based on realistic inflation calculations and the poverty line measured by unions for a family of 4, we emphasized that the minimum wage for 2024 should be at the level of 32 thousand liras, and that pensions should be equalized with the minimum wage.

This level would not make minimum wage earners and retirees rich, but it could at least take them back to the beginning of January 2022, a period we were still not satisfied with, but… Do not listen to those who say, “Factories will go bankrupt with a minimum wage at this level, and the state budget will go bankrupt with these pensions.” Two years ago, the share of national income received by employees was at the 31 percent level. Now it has fallen to 25 percent. Moreover, despite the propaganda that national income is increasing and the economy is growing…

Were employers going bankrupt at the beginning of 2022, when employees received a 31 percent share of the national income? No. There were tremendous increases in 2021 real profits. They maintained these profitability rates in 2022 and 2023 as well. The deficits in the state budget can only be explained by the government's incompetence or its efforts to enrich its cronies.

Today, I want to bring a new perspective to the great injustice done to those who live by their labor, especially retirees.

The philosopher John Locke (1632-1704), the founder of liberalism, the European Enlightenment, and the Age of Reason, and the inspiration for the English, American, and French Revolutions, sees labor as the source of property, and therefore of wealth.

About 100 years later, the philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790), the theorist of the capitalist economy (not the founder, but the theorist who explained the functioning of an existing system in a systematic and scientific way), sees labor as the source of wealth within the scope of the labor theory of value he developed.

Again, about 100 years after Adam Smith, the philosopher Karl Marx (1818-1883), the theorist of the socialist economy, developed Adam Smith's labor theory of value to criticize capitalism and defined the source of profit and wealth as the surplus value created by labor.

The views of these three philosophers, who lived two hundred years apart and were theorists of different systems of thought, all lead to the same conclusion regarding wealth. Labor, and therefore retirees, have undeniable rights to all wealth created. And given their age, retirees are holding the short end of the rope of life, not the long end. Expecting patience from retirees is a great injustice. Now, in addition to this window, let's look at the issue from a new and different window.

PUBLIC OWNERSHIP, FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS

The Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution brought with them universal human rights such as citizenship rights, equality before the law, and freedom of thought. We are on the threshold of a new breakthrough and technological revolution in the world that is as important as the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution.

With the collapse of the Soviet system, the capitalist system did not need the two concepts it used successfully in marketing itself. One was the advocacy of freedom and democracy, and the other was the social state that emerged after 1945… The true face of their approach to democracy emerged within the neoliberal system. Democracy is only valid for a part of the Western World! The democracy that is valid for other people is like the one they brought to Iraq and Libya!

On the other hand, with the collapse of the socialist system, social state practices in the capitalist world were abandoned or remained completely obsolete. Systems such as education, health, and social security entered the scope of the private sector and were left to the market. Citizens were persuaded to purchase their rights, such as education and health, from the market, by borrowing if necessary.

As a result of changes in technology, geopolitical conflicts, and bottlenecks in the neoliberal system, the world is on the threshold of a new breakthrough. We are at a crossroads for either technological dictatorships or stronger social states and democracies. In the face of increasing income and wealth inequality, we need to redefine these fundamental rights that have been left to the market. What are these rights?

The right to a dignified life, the right to housing, the right to nutrition, the right to health, the right to education, the right to work (employment), the right to social security, all kinds of environmental rights such as the protection of air, water, freshwater resources, forests, rivers, pastures, and wetlands… And of course, the right to public ownership based on the principle of equality of citizens.

For strong individual rights and a strong social state, it is necessary to define public ownership and public (societal) ownership. The legitimate source of these rights is the principle of equality of citizens and the definition of public (societal) ownership.

The principle of equality of citizens is not limited only to legal matters. The natural resources of a country, such as its seas, rivers, lakes, plains, mines, and pastures, belong to all citizens of that country and cannot be used as a gateway to profit (privilege) for a small group.

Furthermore, based on the definition of the three great philosophers mentioned above that “the source of wealth is labor,” the public (societal) ownership of all public infrastructure, roads, highways, power plants, dams, electricity distribution networks, telecommunications infrastructure, satellites in the sky, and all investments and gains made by the state belongs equally to the citizens of that country. It doesn't end there; rents such as zoning rents that emerge through various laws and regulations are not the right of a handful of privileged people, but the equal right of the citizens of that country.

Behind all these rights are the citizens who work, then retire, continue to work, or even if they do not work, pay the price in the face of high inflation and subsidize the state's infrastructure investments or private sector investments with negative interest rates, land, in-kind, and cash public incentives.

In short, just as an entrepreneur receives a share from company earnings as a shareholder when they retire and hand over their business to their family or professionals, all retirees and all citizens who paid the price with inflation at the time should receive a share from the earnings arising from these public assets. To give an example…

You cannot sell internet services to the public for money using telecommunications infrastructure that we all financed by paying taxes or enduring high inflation. The service fee here cannot be transferred to companies as profit; it must be provided by the public at a level that ensures the continuation of the service. The same applies to electricity distribution and all natural assets, especially the mines we own.

Public ownership does not belong to a group that seizes power and their cronies, but to all of us due to the principle of equality of citizens, and those who should benefit from these assets first are the labor and retirees who constitute the source of wealth. We should not be content with what is given; we must demand our rights. For this, it is necessary to organize and take control of politics.

Unfortunately, there is no habit of organizing and taking control of politics in Turkish society. The expectation that someone will always come and save us is dominant. But there are local elections right now. We will not just be electing a mayor. Instead of being content with what is given, we must evaluate this election well to obtain our fundamental rights.

If we are talking about the equality of citizens, everyone is equal before the constitution and laws, regardless of language, religion, race, social class, or status. In addition to public order, justice, security, and all kinds of public services, the following demands are fundamental rights of citizenship.

The right to free and quality education for everyone (at any age)…

The right to quality preventive and curative free health services for everyone…

The right to an income for retirees at a level that will easily allow a retiree to support at least two people in prosperity…

The right to a humane life, including housing and nutrition, for everyone in need of help for any reason (the unemployed who cannot access the right to employment, the disabled, those who are unable to work)…

The duty of citizens is to comply with the Constitution, laws, and rules of living together created within the framework of universal democratic principles, and to pay taxes. The duty of the state is to provide these fundamental rights from the budget created with the income obtained from natural resources, taxes, and other sources (social ownership + public sector initiatives + urban rents), in addition to providing justice, security, and public services.