According to Osho, socialism’s rhetoric of serving the poor mostly becomes a power ladder: the poor die for it, while rulers become a new bourgeoisie, and poverty remains. Real welfare doesn’t come from political slogans or revolutions but from creating abundant wealth through science, productivity, and creativity. Until wealth exceeds population needs, changing regimes or ideologies won’t help; beware of 'saviors' who exploit the poor.
Big promises to help the poor often make new bosses rich; real help comes from making more for everyone through science and honest work.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Socialism wants to do good to the poor. Are you against the good of the poor?
If you really want your "good", then forget the politicians and put all your energies into the imperative task of increasing production and adding to the wealth of the society. Forget the politicians and work hard. Don't impede production by setting one class against another. Class conflict has to go. It is time classes come closer to each other and work unitedly for massive production. But the politician will lose his business if he promotes friendly relations and understanding among the classes. The political leader lives by inciting conflicts and strife between different groups and classes. Without them he will cease to be. And as long as the leader is alive on this earth, wars will go on. Say good-bye to all your politicians and wars will say goodbye to you. They are the architects of conflict and strife and war. And they depend on them for their very existence.…
Osho: in one of your lectures on socialism, answering sarjano's question, you indicated that the proletariat were 'the lowest'. Is this contradictory to christ's teachings on the poor as being the children of god and the rich as being 'the lowest'? During years of rural development work with poor peasants in latin america, I found them to be 'higher' spiritually than the rich landlords.
Half of the Indians eat only once a day, and the whole country is undernourished. Millions of people go to sleep with a hungry stomach. Now, do you think these people can commit suicide? They have not even been able to be alive, how can they commit suicide? First you have to be alive! Even if you want to commit suicide that much has to be fulfilled first. When all your physical needs are fulfilled, then suddenly a question arises, a new challenge: "Why am I trying to survive?" It is philosophical, psychological: one searches for the meaning of life. Then one can go mad one can commit suicide, one can start being creative. Then all the doors open, good and bad. One can be either lower than the animals or can rise higher than the angels. When all psychological needs are fulfilled -- when you have learnt the most…
Another friend has asked; he asks: Osho, why does capitalism exploit the worker?
Some notions, if they are proclaimed long enough, we simply pick them up and forget to ask whether they are true or false. Capitalism does not exploit the worker. In fact, under capitalism the price of everything is set by its demand and supply. If in a village there are ten laborers but fifteen are needed, those laborers will get higher wages—ten are available while fifteen are required. But if there are fifty laborers and only ten are needed, wages will be low, because there is an excess supply of labor in the market; the buyer will buy cheaply. Capitalism fixes the price of each thing according to its scarcity, its rarity. And there is no other sane way to set prices. God does not send price tags with things—how much wheat should cost, or what the Kohinoor diamond should be worth. There is only one Kohinoor diamond, so its…
What about socialism not as a means of creating equality but only as a means of providing everyone with the basic necessities of life?
The less successful capitalist countries and the undeveloped countries, the poor countries that have no capitalism at all, have become more and more socialistic, while America has not become socialistic. According to Marx, socialism is a natural outgrowth of capitalism so America should be the first socialist country. It has not been so. Socialism exploits the jealousy of the poor. To me, it is the greatest exploitation that has happened on earth. Capitalism has exploited the labor of the poor and socialism has exploited their souls. It is through jealousy that socialism steps in. But through jealousy, no revelation, no transformation can be achieved. It can kill, it can destroy, but it cannot create. Socialism is a fiction. It is not scientific. To me, only a capitalist society is a scientific society. I am not saying that capitalism will remain as it is. It will go on growing and changing…
Another friend has asked: Osho, what is the relationship between the method of meditation and jati-smaran (recollection of past lives)?
But the one who becomes skilled in this—who can fully awaken any day’s memory up to the age of five—will find that the memories begin to awaken completely. And you should test it. As today passes, note down some events and lock them up. After two years, try to recall today. Most of it will have been forgotten. Then remember—and after remembering, break the lock and compare whether what you recalled matches what you had written. You will be amazed—astonished—that besides what you wrote, many more details have come back which you did not even note at the time. They will all be there in memory. Buddha called this alaya-vijnana. There is a corner of the human mind he called the storehouse of consciousness. Like a junk room in the house where we keep all the odds and ends, there is a storehouse that collects memories—where everything from birth after…