Godless Capitalism

There is plenty of food, but children are dying because their parents cannot afford to buy it.

The starvation in Niger is not the inevitable consequence of poverty, or simply the fault of locusts or drought. It is also the result of a belief that the free market can solve the problems of one of the world's poorest countries.

The UN, whose World Food Programme distributes emergency supplies in other hunger-stricken parts of Africa, also declined to distribute free food. The reason given was that interfering with the free market could disrupt Niger's development out of poverty.

I work for an organization that promotes democracy through free market development. Sometimes I wonder if we are promoting free market economics through democracy instead. The common idea is that democracy and free market economics go hand in hand, but I think they only go together to a point. So often you find that free market growth comes at the expense of what makes up the planet: people. The growthmongers are so cracked out on their free market rhetoric they forget that without people, economics would not exist. You don't think that gorillas are going to become entrepreneurs, right? What about some fish setting up a shop to sell empty shells or elephants marketing ivory to the masses?

The more I learn, the more I am inclined to seek alternatives to the free market. If governments weren't necessary, we wouldn't have them. I'm thinking something along the lines of social capitalism is better than laissez faire economics. Not socialism, per se, and definitely not communism (and I will be accused of advocating it despite the bold color), but something where economic policies are made to help all people, not those who are the wealthiest. That is how democracy is supposed to work. You know, equality for all.

Gops are always crying "class warfare" anytime we say something about how greedy are the rich. A man once said,

"That in every historical epoch, the prevailing mode of economic production and exchange, and the social organization necessarily following from it, form the basis upon which is built up, and from which alone can be explained, the political and intellectual history of that epoch; that consequently the whole history of mankind (since the dissolution of primitive tribal society, holding land in common ownership) has been a history of class struggles, contests between exploiting and exploited, ruling and oppressed classes; that the history of these class struggles forms a series of evolutions in which, nowadays, a stage has been reached where the exploited and oppressed class cannot attain its emancipation from the sway of the exploiting and ruling class without at the same time, and once and for all, emancipating society at large from all exploitation, oppression, class distinctions, and class struggles.

Do we want to be known in history books as a people who thought that buying cheap junk was more important than feeding people? Do we want to be looked at as a nation of idiots who let the ruling corporations exploit us through distorted marketing schemes while they continued to sop up the world's wealth? Do we want teachers in the future to have to explain to children that America was once the world's wealthiest and powerful nation? Some say, I don't care, it doesn't affect me. I say to them, then shut up! You should have no say in policymaking, because the policies you advocate affect others and will continue to affect others for years to come. You don't like it when others affect your life negatively. Do unto others... it's the only way we survive as a species.

There is more to life than economic growth. Putting a Charmucks on every corner, regardless of the fact that it provides a couple of low paying jobs, does not improve the quality of life on this planet. Why, instead of rampant corporate growth, can we not be a nation of small, diverse, interesting entreprises? Why, if we are making enough to live on, is it not acceptable to keep our one store the way it is? Why, instead of the Pakistani immigrant down the street from where I work opening a Subway franchise, doesn't he open a Pakistani restaurant? God knows there is a dearth of Pakistani restaurants in DC. There sure is a plethora of Subways, however. The only thing that stops us from all of these things is the prevailing theory on free market growth. Newsflash to the growthmongers: IT'S A THEORY, NOT FACT. Maybe we've hit a wall. Africans are starving at the expense of godless capitalism. A mother put her child's life in danger because she wouldn't allow the fire department to break her car window to get the child out of the locked car. We've become a soulless species in our relentless pursuit of growth. It's time to start thinking up alternatives to corporatism.

HT: Comments from Left Field

Update: Finland is an excellent example of social capitalism.