“This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism”  – Einstein

Albert Einstein wrote Why Socialism? for the first issue of the journal Monthly Review. In the article he analyses the structures and processes of capitalism, noting that the profit motive of a capitalist society, in conjunction with competition among capitalists, leads to erratic economic cycles of booms and depressions, while also promoting selfishness instead of cooperation. He suggests that the educational system of such a society would be severely undermined because people will educate themselves only to advance their careers. According to Einstein, this leads to both the “crippling of individuals” and the erosion of human creativity. Einstein also saw that in capitalist societies, political parties and politicians are inevitably corrupted by financial contributions made by owners of large capital amounts, with the result that the system “cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society”. For these reasons, he concludes, socialism is not only socially desirable but also historically inevitable.

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