The present world-wide recession shows no sign of reaching an end and the possibility of starting again on a path of growth seems very remote. The new measures announced by President Obama, in spite of the gigantic figures, have impressed nobody. There are very few who seriously want to invest, not only because they fear the results, but because the great majority have nothing to invest. Millions have lost their jobs, their pension funds and their savings; and now, they are beginning to lose their homes. Every day brings worse news. Of course, every day also brings a lot of ideas to resolve the crisis, but it seems that no one likes to recognize reality: a large amount of the present world’s wealth has evaporated because it previously did not exist. It was a great fiction produced mainly by the maneuvers of a highly ranked group of people in the world of finance and commerce. Facts have demonstrated the depth of the megalomania from which several of them were suffering; but now it appears also clear that their ultimate goal was to create sources of personal wealth without any consideration of others; that is to say, without any consideration of justice and the common good. In fact, all these maneuvers hid a very sophisticated system which resulted in the looting of the money of others. And, now, all of us are obliged to pay the price.

The passivity of the authorities whose task was to control these kinds of financial and commercial operations is now obvious, and this played a great part in producing the crisis. The true cause of this crisis is none other than the eagerness to earn money without producing it. It was easier to deceive normal people, convincing them to invest their savings in magical financial instruments, which nobody could really understand, instead of producing new real wealth. If you want to be a rich man without working hard, being creative, and taking risks, the only way is to plunder the pocket of your neighbor. When a spirit of this kind expands within society, especially in the higher echelons, we cannot now be surprised by the consequences.

When the free market economy stays inside its own ethical borders, these kinds of problems are avoided and, by so doing, wonderful things can result. But, to do that, one needs people who are convinced that the only way to be rich is to create wealth and who understand that that means effort, risk, hard work and always keeping in mind the well being of everyone; in other words, justice. If this conviction weakens and is replaced by the conviction that all is fair on the road to riches, the free market economy is then at the stake. It seems we have already reached this point, in which freedom has been replaced by savagery. True freedom supposes responsibility; one is supposed to act always bearing in mind the common good of all who share the same society. So, partnership is the motto and, therefore, the motto of natural market economy. Savagery, on the other hand, is the realm of brute force and cunning in which one’s success depends on the destruction of others. Here, struggle is the motto and, in this scenario, it is understandable that the weak begin to unite in order to avoid being crushed by the powerful and to prevent future aggression. The second step in this drama is the declaration of war waged among the different social classes, because there is no longer a common goal, a common good for all, but only personal interests which are in conflict with each other. Society is an empty word when is comes to mean a battlefield where the only one valid argument is the force you can exert on your adversary.

We cannot be surprised, then, if Karl Marx’s old ideas about the class struggle start to circulate again. Despite old failures, we could certainly be on the threshold of a new era of Marxism. It might be the true consequence of the seeds of selfishness and greed, that is to say, materialism, which has spreads so far for so long.

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