Recession has severely hit America and Europe. The masses are vociferously protesting against the turmoil. They firmly believe that the recession is a creation of capitalism. They are demanding that capitalism must be incinerated alive. Greece, Spain and Italy are finding it difficult to breathe. The Eurozone is requesting China for assistance. Imagine capitalism seeking aid from socialism. If the recession goes on intensifying, some of the capitalist countries might renounce their capitalism and embrace socialism. Are the days of capitalism numbered? One simply wonders Since the World War II, America has inflicted numerous wars on the world. The Korean and the Vietnamese wars were two of Americas bloodiest wars. These wars were possible only because of American capitalism. After Korea and Vietnam, America destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan. These destructions were also possible only because of American capitalism. Privatisation means capitalism. Nationalisation means socialism. Bhutto was fundamentally a nationalisationist. He nationalised as much as he could. His nationalisation brought him immense popularity among the working classes. On the contrary, Benazir was fundamentally a privatisationist. Thus, she rejected her fathers ideology. She passionately desired to raise a mausoleum over her fathers grave. Poor Benazir She ought to have known that a mausoleum is not raised over a dead body. It is raised over the ideology of a dead person. For example, the Quaids mausoleum is not a mausoleum over the Quaids dead body. It is a mausoleum over the Quaids ideology. Likewise, the mausoleum over Allama Iqbals grave is a mausoleum over his ideology and not over his dead body. If Bhutto were alive today, he would have enjoyed watching the protests against capitalism in America and Europe. The PPP is in power. It fanatically wants to privatise as much as possible. It wants to privatise the Railways. It wants to privatise the postal services. It wants to privatise all sorts of public utility services. It means that the PPP has dustbinned Bhuttos philosophy of nationalisationism. Thank God, the PPP has not yet considered privatising the national air, the national rivers, the national mountains, etc. When a government wants to privatise railways, it means that it is unable to run the railways effectively. One cant help asking: If a government cant effectively run the national railways, how can it effectively run the country? One simply wonders Actually, privatisationism has a simple philosophy. This philosophy says: Let all sorts of businesses be run by individuals. They should earn profits abundantly and pay income taxes abundantly. The government is extremely capable of spending the tax money. It cant earn. It can only burn what the individuals earn. Under capitalism in a backward country, the population gets divided into two classes: The ruling class and the working class. (The ruling class includes the industrialists.) The working class works to live. The ruling class lives to consume what the working class creates. Perhaps, the most costly thing in Pakistan is the ruling talent of the ruling class. Since the working class is incapable of ruling itself, it must buy the services of the ruling class. The ruling class sells its services at its own price. Since the rulers cannot be imported, the working class has no option. It must pay whatever the rulers demand for their services. In order to rule, the rulers must have a majestic lifestyle. They must have majestic houses. They must eat majestic dishes. They must drink majestic drinks. They must wear majestic wear. They must move about in majestic cars. When sick, they must fly abroad for getting majestic treatment. When the working class laments that it cannot pay for the majestic lifestyle of the rulers, the rulers console the working class by asserting that whatever they are spending, they are spending in the larger interest of the nation. Nothing kills a worker like capitalism in a backward country. In such a country, the working class must live wretchedly. It must live in wretched hovels. It must eat wretched grub. It must drink wretched ditch water, etc. When it is asked: Why it lives so wretchedly? It reveals that it does so only in the larger interest of the rulers. The writer retired as professor of the Department of English, Government College University, Lahore.