In a time when food prices are at an all time high, gas prices for the consumer are almost unaffordable and oil companies are reporting record profits, and the housing market in the US is crashing because of the short-sighted greed of big banks, when do we say enough is enough, to this capitalist system?
A few months ago I read the communist manifesto and while I think some ideas were bit extreme, I think we can find some sort of happy medium between capitalism, communism, and socialism. While some people in Africa are starving to death, literally, and don’t even have the basic tools for survival (i.e. clean water, proper shelter and clothing, etc) other people, mainly in the western countries, have billions of upon billions of dollars which they waste on a regular basis. Why would one person ever need ten houses or five cars? Isn’t that money better spent helping a village to reduce malaria, build proper sewage systems, and have enough food to eat? Sure, that billionaire may have “fairly” earned his/her fortune in a capitalist economy, but when do we start taking responsibility for the survival of our fellow mankind?
Sure a lot of wealthy people have donated millions to organizations, some have even developed their own organizations, and that is awesome! I don’t want to take anything away from them but when is enough money enough. Let’s think about the NBA. In the NBA, the commissioner has imposed salary caps in order to allow for fare competition. So players have a maximum that they can earn playing for any team; however, the person that owns the team (and that player-yes it is modern day slavery) has no limit to the wealth that they can amass. Is this fair? I think that there should be salary caps in all industries and that the extra money should trickle down to the bottom 20% of the world.
You see the problem with capitalism is that is takes advantage of the less educated and less lucky people (yes a lot of success is based on luck). One may argue that of people try hard instead of sitting on their butts, they too can be successful, but lets face it, the capitalist system is not set up for everyone to succeed. If everyone succeeded, who would serve you your food at McDonald’s?
I thought this comic strip was pretty funny, and sadly true.
This is my utopia. (taken from a May 30th blog post)
Nabongo’s Utopia
1 cup of Buddhism
1/2 tablespoon of capitalism
1 teaspoon of meritocracy
1/2 teaspoon of Communism
1/2 cup of socialism
1/4 cup of liberalism
Mix and put in the oven for 24 minutes and voila!
