Capitalism is for the Greedy!

Januarly 15, 2006 (No matter what the postdate says.)

So some kids were talking about their study hall teacher who was explaining the world to them... This is for her:

I understand that you teach that communism is for the needy and capitalism is for the greedy... I would review the history of communism and I don't just mean the old USSR... I mean the various failed communes throughout history in which the members starved or otherwise suffered until the system was ended.

Even today in China, the needy people have only received help since their totalitarian rulers began introducing capitalism to the economy... now look at their success.

When the UK ended national ownership of major industries in the last 25 years, they returned to prosperity for all the people.

France remains in love with socialism and has 11% - 15% unemployment, a failed medical system, old people dying in genocidal heat waves, and a sinking economy.

Same with Germany.

Business avoids these countries (as best they can) as there is no way to close a failing business there... once you employ people, even if you can't make a go of it, you have to take care of them... directed economies always make the people suffer... nobody opens business in these countries anymore because of the anti-capitalist trend... so nobody works in these countries...

The U.S., a rural, agrarian capitalist economy until the late 19th century, has among the lowest unemployment, highest per capita income, best medical care, most privately owned homes (80% ownership - that's really high) and greatest mobility between classes in one generation of any country on earth.

By the way, your argument that we have a poor infant mortality rate is due to the advanced medical service our families receive. The more technology we use, the more babies we save, the higher the rate of mortality among the ones we simply can't. Babies that would otherwise never have been born are delivered, sustained and then, sadly, some die. But, these were babies, most of whom would have never been delivered before. You see, we're actually attempting medicine that creates fuzzy statistics... Whereas in other countries, they can't even try to achieve our rates of success. Those stats were like bikinis... showing what you want, hiding what you want. Making things sexy for you, but, concealing a basic truth.

The challenge is to truthfully back up a biased statement denigrating capitalism, which is the private ownership of the means of production and the promotion of a free marketplace in the face of the exisiting statistical comparisons which prove the opposite.

I know it's kinda cute to use such easy rhymes to help kids learn civics, but, really, you can hate who and what built this country, you can hope that more people will earn a good living and you can wish for greater benefits for those in need - still... you can't find a place where you have the combination of economic advancement, intellectual freedom and in spite of some truely left/right wing nuts, more civil rights than anywhere else in the world. Due in part to the inherent nature of capitalism.

As to social justice... just look at France today. In most of Europe you aren't accepted unless your family has been there since the glaciers melted. While we are still struggling to become a more homogenious culture, the rest of the world thinks we are a mongrel state with no racial identity...

Even Oprah Winfrey can't get the French to kiss her ass and she's a billionaire.

By the way... where are all of the "non-french" but native born billionaires in France? Or Germany? Non-Anglo/europeans get rich in the U.S. in a way nobody does anywhere else.

Of course, you think that's just the greedy taking what rightfully belongs to the helpless.

We think it's going to be more jobs for everyone. C'est la vie.