- Capitalism and Alternatives -

Yeah, you can choose....

Posted by: Ashley ( Australia ) on April 07, 1997 at 11:44:52:

In Reply to: capitalism means you get to choose how you live your life posted by Paul (PDK) on April 04, 1997 at 22:18:46:

Anyone above first grade understands only too well that capitalism "works". You are right: capitalism does give you the right to "choose how you live your life". For example you can choose to live on the streets with the growing numbers of poverty-stricken cast-outs of capitalism; you can try and get a job working for some boss somewhere who will do their best do get as much work out of you for as little return as possible; you can turn to a life of crime to survive; or you can do your best to join the other bosses and parasites by standing over as many people as is required to get to the top. The choices are many, and people are of course "free" to choose whichever of these they find most desirable; no form of economic compulsion, coercion, or force is used against people to get them to do anything.

If we turn to the so-called "socialist" societies, we can see how capitalism, democracy, and freedom, have liberated the masses. In Russia, it is a workers' paradise; so much so that record numbers were recently on strike (over a million) and many have not been paid for work done months ago. Albania is experiencing similar utopian conditions: that's why over the past five years most of industry has gone down the gurgler, a third of the population invested in pyramid schemes devised by financial companies which have now too gone down the gurgler, one in six are "officially" unemployed, and the biggest revolt seen since the East European revolutions has occurred. Serbia and Bulgaria, and the rest of the former state capitalist regimes, are also finding out what the virtues of the market are.

Forgetting the ugly future which the inhabitants of these countries face, we can see life in the great "democracies" (U.S., U.K, Australia, etc.) is decidely better. Lots more people living on the streets, lots more out of work, lots more without a decent pay-packet, public education under attack, and becoming increasingly the domain of the rich, health-care and pensions are no longer affordable, "free" unemployment benefits no longer acceptable, and so on.

But with a few "fine tune adjustments", everything will turn out just fine.




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