- Capitalism and Alternatives -

America 'ain't as rosy as all that anyway

Posted by: Brian B. ( Whether Beaten?, UK ) on October 04, 1997 at 17:34:38:

In Reply to: Jealousy posted by --- on October 02, 1997 at 15:18:50:

: It seems that Americans are happy with capitalism because it has worked for us while people of other nations appear to be jealous of our prosperity.

There may be some countries where people are jealous of Americans and where people dream about some day getting the chance to go there. Countries like Ethiopia where a lottery is held every year that give people a chance to make it to the land of plenty (you will see hawkers on the streets selling entrys forms by the hundreds), where children crowd into bars to watch "Acupulco Bay" every week and where Coca-cola is the most common totem.

While there are other countries, like New Zealand which is now effectively not an ally of the U.S because we chose to become nuclear free, where people do not think that much of America. We see the hypocrisy of a country that appears to take the moral high ground when it has failed to do anything other then take advantage of it's situation as the king of the capitalist jungle. Offering all the answers while failing to take the real steps in creating a sustainable solution, i.e. no commitment to even stabilise carbon dioxide emissions, refusing at the last minute to sign the agreement against landmines, to be seen as taking a major hand in resolving international conflict while accounting for 44% of total arms sold, to pressure other countries into freeing up their markets while protecting it's own..... etc, etc.

The paradox is that America 'ain't as rosy as all that anyway. More and more people are living in secured compounds, the police in L.A are now carrying M16s, 20 million are homeless, crime, this that and the other.........................

Gotta
go
Bri




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