Capitalism has failed to bring about the well being of most of the people on this planet and the current financial crisis should be a wake-up call for those who complacenly thought that "the fundamentals of the economy are sound."
By Dada Vedaprajinananda
If you did a search on Google, a few years ago, using the words “miserable failure” the first search result you would see would be George Bush’s official presidential site. This result was due to “Google bombing” a technique in which many people linked to the president’s website using the words “miserable failure.” Google changed its ranking algorithm and you no longer get the presidential site when searching for “miserable failure” but maybe a more relevant result for a miserable-failure search would be to find the Wikipedia page on “Capitalism.”
Despite all the euphoria of 1990, when communism fell and capitalism was anointed the winner of the cold war, a hard look at the economic and social condition of the world today reveals that capitalism has failed to provide the people of this planet with a good life.
Of the world’s six billion people, half of them live on two dollars a day or less. While people die from diseases related to overeating in the so-called developed countries, children die of malnutrition elsewhere on this small planet.
Apologists for capitalism have always said that it was just a question of the developing countries acquiring democracy, free-market economic systems, and some good elbow grease and they too would enjoy the “good life” like the citizens of Europe and North America. But the long awaited “take-off” for the economies of the poorest countries seems nowhere in sight. In these countries capitalism is a clear failure, but what about in the “developed” world, surely capitalism is successful there!
A few years ago one could have indeed argued that capitalism has succeeded in the industrialized countries of the Northern Hemisphere. But even in the countries with high per capita income there were and still are tremendous disparities. Under capitalism wealth is not evenly distributed and even in the USA, 25% of the people live below the poverty line. Can we really say that we have an ideal or even a well-working economic system when millions of people are struggling just to survive?
The current global financial crisis underscores the inequality, fragility and unpredictable future of the capitalist economic system. While the US government gets ready to bail out banks and financial institutions that have failed due to their reckless greed, no one is there to save the thousands of ordinary people who are about to lose their homes and life savings.
It’s time to take a stark look at capitalism and shout down the politicians who continue to shamelessly chant that “the fundamentals of the economy are sound.” The fundamental premise of the current economic system, that the unlimited accumulation of wealth by a few individuals will result in the good of everybody, is a clear lie and the sooner that we face up to this, the better off we will be.
Well said Dada. I've actually been Googling for +Capitalism +failed +ideology for a few years new. Your hit today was found as I let Google autocomplete "capitalism fail". I'm a 25 year vet of the I.T. industry, a 4th generation Black American who has benefited from the sacrifices of my ancestors. In spite of my own relative financial success, I believe that humankind *can* lift up all to a level of safe and nourishing existence such that the individual can then fulfill her or his potential *but* capitalism is not and will never be the path. By design, Capitalism will always be plagued by the basest nature of Man. I do believe Democracy is more than the requisite social order.
As long as human fail to understand the dangers of monetizing debts and the effects of compounding interest (USURY), crises like that will occur over and over. "some" at the top grasp theses concepts very well, and use it to enrich themselves at the expense of monetary illiterate masses. This has NOTHING to do with capitalism... but education. DEBTS and USURY would destroy any system in place.... for how long are we going to keep looking at the symptoms instead of the root cause?
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'If all the bank loans were paid up, no one would have a bank deposit, and there would not be a dollar of currency or coin in circulation. This is a staggering thought. We are completely dependent on the commercial banks for our money. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash or credit. If the banks create ample synthetic money, we are prosperous; if not, we starve. We are absolutely without a permanent money system. When one gets a complete grasp upon the pic...
That is just blaming the victims (the overwhelming majority that are exploited by Capitialism). First there was this idea, that the lower and even the middle class were lazy and did not work as hard as the wealthy. Reality is that the middle and lower classes work much much harder they just earn much much less.
Most people aren't "monetary illiterate", they just aren't obsessed with money (or power), excessively greedy, corrupt, ruthless, cunning, manipulative, exploitative enough...or willing to be for personal gain and power. People shouldn't be required to be morally bankrupt in order to survive in this world...if that's the case, there is absolutely no point at all in even having governments control the masses. The only differences between Charles Manson and Philip Morris is that Charles didn't kill nearly as many people, didn't profit nearly as much and he's where he belongs instead of free to buy off corrupt politicians. Philip Morris has killed more people than Hitler...
Apologists for capitalism have always said that it was just a question of the developing countries acquiring democracy, free-market economic systems, and some good elbow grease and they too would enjoy the
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