Capitalism is Flawed
Why is it that people seem to think that a western democracy should be capitalist? It is morally and ethically wrong, not to mention am awful way of running things from a humanitarian point of view. There is a reason why the left-wing governments are slowly turning socialist. I hope that this will continue and capitalism will fall. As to why this is, the first step is to take one look at a capitalist country; lets take the USA.
The USA, a superpower, is ruled by democratically elected government and tyranny is impossible as the federal system dictates that the president, senate and supreme court all 'check' each other and can stop each other from going out of control. The country owns huge businesses, it has a high quality of life and it is the richest country on earth. So far, so good. But, the world economy has collapsed. People have lost their jobs, and the education system simply does not work. The healthcare system is a joke. To get the best healthcare, you have to have money, but the people who need the healthcare are the poor, those who have a poor quality of life, bad conditions and nothing better to do than crime, especially if they have no jobs.
Society, in this case the US society, has many levels. There are the ruling elite, who make the decisions and govern the country. There are the officials and administrators, who administrate and manage large companies or facilitate government laws. Then there are the middle classes, people employed in the service sector who drive the economy by running the shops and piloting the planes and teaching the children. But the most important level is the bottom. The western world outsources its working classes, from Asia and Africa, where there are more than enough (?) people there to satisfy demand for both their own country and the West. They create the raw materials for clothes, build the machines and fashion the very wheels and cogs of the great machine. If one of these cogs stops working, then everything stops. If there is a teacher strike, a few kids get off school. If there is an oil worker strike, whole countries come to a standstill. Therefore how can a society in which everyone is constantly trying to get to the top work?
It can't. As the skilled climb, so the unskilled and 'garbage' of civilisation fall and are buried, forgotten. We find many ways to bypass them, leave them to rot while we politic and talk, going in circles, doing nothing. They have no hope of climbing either, because the higher classes want to cater for their own kind as a general rule. So they are left. 'Every person is an individual and deserves a chance', is the capitalist motto, but what have individuals ever done to further the causes of humanity? The collective, the cooperation of millions is what makes the cogs move, not the constant inward conflict of the 'induvidual'.
Also, with all the communist atrocities in the Khmer Rouge, China and Russia, people forget that the Socialist philosophy itself is actually the more ethical and humanitarian.
"I swear -- by my life and by my love of it -- that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
Is that what Ug the Caveman said when the bear attacked his village? No, he said
"Go, Ugatha, and hide our children, while the men ward off these foul beasts with our cooperation, that which separates us from the beasts. Look at the lion, the wolf, the elephant. They are the kings of their lands, and why? Because in their society, they protect each other, and work with each other for the betterment, for the Greater Good. So man must do."
What is civilisation anyway? Is it individual men, living for their own selfish needs and not caring about others? No, it is people who joined together in the face of danger, and help each other, in return for reciprication.
Now onto my final point for the moment: freedom of action and self-preservation. Freedom of speech, something that on principle i am not opposed to, is however how hatred and enmity is free to grow unchecked. If i cannot criticise evilness and corruption, then that is wrong. However, if i must listen to hatred and evilness go unpunished, then that is equally wrong. "The Greater Good dictates that necessity must overrule freedom, which is in noone's interests, therefore socialism and communism are evil" is the argument most often found for capitalism. But that is where Aldous Huxley, George Orwell and co. are wrong. Of course that is in noone's interest, so it is not in society's interest either. 'Good' must be weighed up, and if good seems to infringe on any greater good, then it is not the greater good. Self-preservation, in capitalism acheived by one's own endeavour, is far more efficiently portrayed in socialism. The utopian socialist society is one in which everyone does what they are best at, therefore everyone is happy. Necessity and happiness go hand in hand, and what better freedom is there than happiness?
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Originally Posted by Pacifist Hummingbird
