The State’s Been Kidnapped, and We’re Paying the Ransom: Time to Take It Back

We’re living in a twisted pantomime of a society. While billionaires like Elon Musk treat space exploration like their personal playground, and the rest of the billionaire class hoards wealth like dragons guarding their gold, the planet burns, and the rest of us are left scrambling for crumbs under their gilded table. They tell us it’s the free market at work, the invisible hand doing its thing. Bullshit. It’s a con, a heist, and the state – our state – isn’t just asleep at the wheel, it’s been hijacked and is now actively driving us off a cliff.

The Neoliberal Heist: How Our State Was Stolen

Let’s be clear: the state isn’t some optional add-on to the economy. It’s the bloody bedrock. No state, no contracts, no property rights, no currency – no capitalism. The very system the free-market zealots worship couldn’t exist without the thing they claim to despise. It’s like a parasite claiming it doesn’t need a host. The hypocrisy would be laughable if it wasn’t so utterly destructive.

Neoliberalism, that insidious ideology that’s been force-fed to us for decades, has systematically dismantled the state’s ability to act in our interests. It’s a project of deliberate sabotage, achieved through insidious means: the gutting of campaign finance laws that allow corporations to effectively buy politicians, the revolving door between industry and regulatory agencies that ensures the fox is always guarding the henhouse, and the deliberate underfunding of oversight bodies that leaves them toothless. Remember the 2008 financial crisis? It wasn’t some natural disaster, but the inevitable result of decades of deregulation, allowing banks to gamble with our futures. More recently, the pathetic attempts to regulate the tech giants, who amass more data and wield more power than most nation-states, lay bare the state’s capture. This capture has allowed the wealthiest 1% to amass 46% of the world’s wealth, while the bottom 50% own less than 1%. That’s not an accident; it’s by design.

The Consequences of Capture: A World on Fire

The result? Obscene levels of inequality that make the Gilded Age look like a socialist utopia. We see market failures that have left us teetering on the brink of ecological collapse, with carbon emissions still rising year after year, despite decades of warnings. And a public so utterly disenfranchised, so thoroughly betrayed, that they’re starting to believe the siren songs of the far-right, who at least have the decency to pretend to care about their plight.

“But,” the libertarians cry, “any state intervention is tyranny! The market will sort it out!” This is a dangerous fantasy. While markets can be efficient at producing consumer goods, like a variety of smartphones or the latest trendy trainers, they fail spectacularly when it comes to public goods and long-term planning. Would a free market have produced the internet? Would it protect our environment, or secure universal healthcare? Of course not. Unfettered markets lead to monopolies, exploitation, and a race to the bottom on environmental and labour standards, as companies externalise any cost they can to boost their short-term profit, heedless of the long-term consequences.

Reclaiming Our State: A Radical Re-imagining

Don’t be fooled. The answer isn’t to dismantle the state further, to surrender to the chaos of unfettered markets. The state has been captured, yes, but it’s not beyond saving. We need to wrestle it back from the clutches of the oligarchs and their lackeys and make it work for us, not them.

Markets have their place. They can be efficient at meeting certain consumer demands. But when it comes to healthcare, education, housing, a habitable planet – these are not commodities to be traded, they are fundamental rights. And it’s the state’s job to secure them. The state alone can co-ordinate the massive, long-term infrastructure projects needed to combat climate change effectively, rather than relying on piecemeal, profit-driven solutions.

We need a radical re-imagining of what the state can be, a wholesale rejection of the “greed is good” mantra that has poisoned our politics for far too long. We need a state that’s not afraid to regulate corporations, to implement a robust wealth tax to fund crucial public services and green infrastructure, and to put people and the planet before profit. A state that understands that poverty, debt, and fear are not natural laws, but the products of a rigged system.

A Green New Deal for the People: Policies for a Just Future

This isn’t about tweaking around the edges. This is about a fundamental shift in power. It is about recognising that the current system is not just broken, it’s actively killing us. It is morally and ethically bankrupt. We need to talk about wealth redistribution, through mechanisms like a land value tax and stricter inheritance taxes. About breaking up monopolies, particularly in the tech and energy sectors, to ensure a fairer market and prevent undue influence over our democracy. We need a Green New Deal that tackles the climate crisis and inequality head-on, investing heavily in renewable energy, creating millions of well-paid green jobs, and ensuring a just transition for workers currently employed in polluting industries. We need, in essence, an economy that serves humanity, not the other way around.

The Time for Action is Now

So, what are we going to do about it? We can’t afford to be passive spectators in our own demise. We need to organise, to mobilise, to fight back. We need to build a mass movement that demands a different future, a future where the state is a tool for justice, not oppression. We need to take to the streets, to the ballot boxes, to every platform available and shout from the rooftops that another world is not just possible, it’s essential.

Join a union. Support progressive candidates. Get involved in climate activism. Challenge the dominant narrative wherever you find it. The time for polite debate is over. The time for radical action is now. We have nothing to lose but our chains, and a world to win. Let’s reclaim the state, reclaim our future, and build a society where everyone, not just the privileged few, can thrive. Don’t just stand there – fight!