Written by David Starr   

Much has been said about the consequences of "communism," although the latter hasn't really existed. It could take generations for a communist society to fully develop. After all, we're talking about an epoch here. Death tolls have been estimated under "communism." But what about death tolls under capitalism?

Capitalism has been dominant as an epoch and ideology for over 400 years. And a lot has happened in those years. There's been a revolutionizing of the modes of production, which produces a vast array of goods and services worldwide. But at what cost, especially worldwide?

A major result of capitalist rule worldwide is continuing poverty, labor violations and starvation. Death tolls have been estimated. An article entitled, "Mass killings under capitalist regimes," from Proletariat Wiki, provides an estimate of 156,102,415 deaths, and gives specific death tolls according to region.

Then there are other sources:

Noam Chomsky's article, "Counting the Bodies," published in spectrezine, states that "The democratic capitalist 'experiment' since 1947 has caused more deaths than the entire history of the ‘colossal, wholly failed experiment' of ["Communism"] everywhere since 1917: over 100 million deaths by 1979, tens of millions more since, in India alone."

An Article entitled "The death Tolls of Socialism and Capitalism" published in www.sciforums.com asserts the following with regard to the United States:

"U.S. intervention in Latin America: 6.3 million dead
Invasion of Philippines: 650,000 dead + 1898 war 3 million dead
Afghanistan: 1.2 million dead
Vietnam War: 10 million dead [other estimates are 2 to 3 million dead]
Korean War: 10 million dead [other estimates are 2 million dead]
Yugoslavia: 300,000 dead
Iran-Iraq War (U.S. funding both sides): 1 million dead
U.S. intervention in the Congo: 5 million dead
U.S. Civil War (financial vs land capitalists): 650,000 dead
Native American Genocide: 95 million dead [figures have ranged from 50 million to 100 million dead]
African slave trade: 150 million dead
Indonesian purges against communists [with U.S. help]: 1 million dead
U.S. bombing of Laos and Cambodia: at least 1 million dead
U.S. backed Batista, Pinochet, Metaxas, Saddam, Suharto and various dictators: at least a few million dead"

From poverty:

According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty.

From Hunger:

The World Food Programme estimates that 795 million people don't have enough to eat.

As of 1988, according to International Service Agencies in Bethesda, Maryland, about 13 million people die each year from starvation.

In "11 Facts About Hunger," www.dosomething.org asserts that 805 million people go undernourished on a daily basis; in 2010, an estimated 7.6 million children died from hunger; nearly 98% of hunger is in the "Third World."

From disease:

The World Health Organization estimates that in 2012, 6.6 million children died before their 5th birthday; 68% of all deaths were from noncommunicable diseases.

According to the Global Health Policy Center, 3-9 million people died from respiratory infections, 1.3-3.0 million from malaria, 1.8 million from diarrheal diseases, 1.7 from tuberculosis and 0.5 million from neglected tropical diseases.

While capitalism is not responsible for the origins of all these conditions, it bears responsibility for fueling and continuing them. Given the nature of capitalism worldwide, the few have too much while the many have too little.