The US government used more than a third of your 2025 income tax to fund war and military weapons. And the Trump administration has now proposed a $445 billion increase in military spending at the direct expense of funding for housing, health, and education programs. On top of that, the average US driver is now paying 35% more for gas than before the Iran War began. 

But not everyone is suffering. A new report from Oxfam International estimates that the top 6 fossil fuel companies will make $94 billion in profit this year—$37 million more per day than in 2025. They’re set to make unhinged levels of profit for the same reasons we’re struggling to get by.

This is how the system works: capitalist war makes working-class people pay, both economically and with our lives. Meanwhile, the rich take the opportunity to get richer.  

Even though only 37% of people in the US view big business favorably, 71% still prefer the free market to socialism. This is largely due to the false idea that a socialist economy would take away our choices. But…what choices do we actually have under capitalism? We get to “choose” a job that still won’t pay enough to live on comfortably, or “choose” to vote for one of two political parties that are both funded by the same pool of billionaires. We didn’t get to choose for billions of our tax dollars to fund the deadliest war machine on the planet—it’s actually those big corporations we despise, and their political representatives, that are making the most important economic decisions in the so-called “free market.”

Under capitalism we don’t get to decide to stop funding the war machine, or to stop funding ICE, because the economy is not organized for us. So, what if it was? We need an economy that provides for people’s needs: a democratically planned economy under socialism.

This System Isn’t For Us

War lays bare that decisions about energy, food, medical supplies, and the basics of life are not carried out on the basis of what’s good for society. In 2024, the world spent a record-high $2.7 trillion on war across the planet. Only 11% of that would have been needed to eliminate extreme poverty across the globe. It’s disgustingly obvious what would benefit human beings more—imagine what the trillions of dollars in global military budgets could do for humanity. 

But imperialist war is a given under capitalism, the root of the problem. Production, under capitalism, is organized for profit, not human need. Capitalists compete ruthlessly amongst themselves chasing profit. They overproduce during booms and trigger busts. Prices spike during shortages, and because resilient planning isn’t profitable, supply shocks, like today’s, are baked into the system. Constant chaos is the market working exactly as intended, and we can’t simply solve the problem by rewriting some rules. 

The hoarding of research and technology, disjointed supply chains, and price fixing are all solvable problems. But they are built into the system, propping up profit even amid human crisis. This is why during the COVID-19 pandemic, when corporations raked in the highest levels of profit in the history of capitalism, mountains of food were left to rot while grocery shelves were empty. Price gouging and scarcity brought in plenty of money for the billionaires—redirecting supply chains so that food made it to our families wasn’t as profitable, so it didn’t happen. 

Democratic planning of resources and production is possible, and it could be done on the basis of coordinating needs and wellbeing rather than maximizing profits. Genuine, democratic elections could empower us to elect councils that make need-based decisions about energy, food, public transportation, housing, and more. If implemented today, we could launch unheard levels of aid to Gaza, Ukraine, and Iran. We could end famine across the globe, lifting millions out of poverty. And then we could move on to reorganizing society to fit our actual needs: caring for our children, expanding diverse and affordable food access, building high quality homes for all, and so on.

Can We Stop Capitalism From Killing The Planet?

The chaos of the market is on full display in the contradictory effects of the Iran War disrupting global energy supply: some countries are building up sustainable energy sources, but the European Union is considering new drilling in the Arctic and more countries are turning back to coal, the energy source with the most intensely damaging impacts for global warming.

Even countries that have been turning toward renewables, like China as the global leader in green technology production, can’t stand out as an exception to capitalism’s atrocities. Investigations over years have found that forced labor is key to China’s production of the vast majority of the world’s solar panels.

All the resources spent on imperialist war could instead be used to transform our world’s approach to energy. Taking all energy production into public ownership would eliminate the profit motive and allow us to transition away from fossil fuels and invest in the development of sustainable alternatives to petroleum products (plastics, fertilizer, etc). We could massively expand public transit, making it faster, more efficient, and free. If you’re thinking “hello, the oil companies would never allow that!” then you understand exactly why socialists see that the world’s problems can’t be resolved under capitalism, and require revolutionary change.

Our 2019 article “Climate Catastrophe and the Case for a Planned Economy” explains why nationalization of the energy industry would only be an initial step in the struggle to save the planet from capitalism:

Carrying out a rapid transition away from fossil fuels – even with a publicly owned energy sector – would also require bringing other sectors of the economy into public ownership. Taking over important parts of the manufacturing sector would allow for rapid expansion of electric cars and public transport. Beyond that, we need the banks in public hands in order to assist ordinary people and small businesses in making the transition to energy efficient homes and shops. Such profound change points toward a complete reorganization of production on a socialist basis with a democratically planned economy.

Unlocking Human Potential 

War kills people and devastates lives. It destroys families, fuels wider violence against women, and economically decimates our communities. And meanwhile, it sucks up untold levels of human potential which could create a thriving world. From young people entering the military on promises of a better future after service, to higher education fields which are often pathways to military and defense industry jobs (logistics, engineering, computer science, cybersecurity), our society directs so much to facilitate advancements in violent, destructive militarization.

War for imperialist expansion and oil shouldn’t exist, and a socialist world without them could go even further. Insurance companies and medical marketing are industries that should not exist either. Under capitalism, women’s health is systematically under-researched, because for-profit healthcare benefits without it. Society based on human need would be able to fund medical science without centering profit, literally extending and also enriching our lives. 

The constant scramble for control, carving up the world into spheres of influence and threatening nuclear fallout is built into capitalism. And in this new era of capitalism, wars driven by imperialist conflict will continue to threaten the future of the entire planet. But it doesn’t have to be like this. An international, socialist, planned economy can end war and meet the needs of all working people and the planet. That’s what we fight for.