Capitalism would be great if the element of greed could be eliminated. Our founding fathers (in the US) could never have imagined the business monstrosities that have grown like malignant cancers within our country and beyond. I refer to the WalMarts, the McDonalds, the Super X drug stores, the media conglomorates etc. that hold as tight a grip on our lives as did any Medieval noble. Case in point: I recently talked with a local guy who had started his own Pharmacy and was doing quite well until Super X moved into town. Now he can barely make ends meet, and may eventually have to give up his drug store and go to work for the very conglomorate that put him out of business. And what about the family operated office supply store that existed in our downtown for 50 years. They are gone now, killed by office supply conglomorates Staples, Office Max etc. The capitalist purists would have us believe that the only thing that matters is cheaper price, more variety, etc. ad nauseum. What about the personal service that comes from a smaller business? What about a small businessperson's contribution to his own community, as opposed to a WalMart's siphoning of wealth away from an area and into the pockets of obscenely wealthy stockholders and corporate executives in some distant city? This is truely the age of grotesque (plutocratic) capitalism.
I believe that small is better and I believe this world is headed full speed down the wrong path -- that path of "bigger, faster, more powerful is better". Every day our media machine subliminally extols the ostentatious lives and projects of the greedy manipulators and gives lip service to the kind, the self-sufficient, the reasonable and the just.
Capitalism was a good idea when the chips were evenly distributed around the table, but when the bulk of wealth is heald by a very few it turns out to be the same old system that has prevailed throughout history: control of the many by the few. i.e. the greedy and already rich always seem to rise to the top and the honest and reasonable people always get shafted in one way or another.
Furthermore, perhaps our "capitalist" system is too efficient. The focus on faster, cheaper, more powerful has led us into a mode of thinking in which a pursuit for more automation, computerization and energy intensive production takes precedence over work for the many. If you are an architect of this system you've got it made, but if you are an average person, without the brains to understand, let alone jump on board this insanely technocratic tidal wave, you're sunk.
Of course, the idea of "appropriate technology" would never catch on because the movers and shakers of this world couldn't care less about the "masses" and thus the economic regime exists only to serve itself, and not to create a fair and equitable system in which everyone has a chance to do fulfilling and fair paying work, rather than suffer a life of drudgery in a job that makes no sense and provides no fulfillment (as is the fate of many).
Now, I've gotten all of the negatives out of my system. Perhaps there's a glimmer of hope in there somewhere. If there is, I'd sure like to hear it.
None.
