: With several billion people occupying this planet there are probably several billion opinions as to how it should be run. No one of them is completely correct, any more than any one of them is completely wrong. This leaves us with a problem. Several billion ways to do something fitted into a system which is acceptable to the vast majority (You will never satisfy everyone).But ensuring that all of these billions have an equal voice in a democratic society is something you are against? That is all we are trying to accomplish, democracy, with one vote per person, not per dollar.
: If you believe that fundamentally human beings are good and will do the "right" thing, then you must believe that letting them do as they wish is the right thing to do. If you believe that people will NOT do the "right" thing then you have no faith in mankind and therefore believe that your ideas are superior to the billions that inhabit this planet. I would hope that the majority of these billions are good people that have the same basic goal as myself. To live my life the best I can and enjoy the fruits of my labors, both economically and in my personal life.
Most have no where near the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Billions live hand to mouth in poverty unimaginable by western standards, and these hungry masses are viewed by our current economic system as a resource: cheap labor. Starving people will do ANYTHING to stay alive, and it is easier and cheaper to prop up despotic governments to break strikes and make laws favorable to exploiting multi-national companies.
People who are deprived of an equal voice never get the chance to do the "right" thing or the "wrong" thing.
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: Not being a fool though, I believe that there are a few people who will not do the right thing and will actually do harm to others both physically and economically trough the use of force or fraud. These people are present in our world at all times in all walks of life. They occur in politics, police, businessmen, teachers, clergy, doctors, lawyers, laymen. The list goes on and on.
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: Based on my belief in the human race, it is possible that capitalism will begin to flourish in much more of the world in the next 50 years. The basic premises of capitalism that society will "reward" you for doing what it wants or needs. Farmers receive rewards because we need food; doctors get high rewards because we need medical attention, etc. etc.
How are the Nike factory workers getting rewarded?
Farmers, by the way, are incresingly forced out of their land by agribusiness and strip malls.
Doctors these days are agents for pharmacutical conglomerates, pushing the drug-of-the-month. Remove the profit motive and a doctor is a healer.
Capitalism is not a system that rewards for doing, it is the system that rewards for NOT doing. It is a system of making money from the lending of money. And it is REPLACING small businesses and enterprises who are doing something for the sake of doing it.
The Everett Citizen
