"I love that you've brought this to attention. An extensive database of uncommon but resistant and hardy plants/foods could be developed and organized by climate. Ease of growth and processing should also be taken in to account. I will try to…"
A crash course in changing the world.
Against Social Darwinism, a Response to Pure Capitalism
i believe that capitalism has its merits, but i cannot agree that it is the perfect system. in truth, there are no countries that adhere completely to capitalism; most are hybrid capitalist with regulatory laws and socialist programs. this is similar to the fact that most countries that are called democracies are actually democratic republics. there is a very good and simple reason for these hybrid systems.
it is for preventing tyranny of the ma****, otherwise known as social Darwinism. in essence, i am talking about the fact that without representation and protection of the minority, the majority run roughshod over all who do not agree with them. in addition, without regulation and laws, people can take part in highly unethical and destructive practices with absolutely no repercussions.
in an ideal world, a totally free market would work. however, we are continually shown that a free and unregulated market is not a FAIR market. an obvious point is that monopolies prevent the competition that drives better and cheaper products. a significant number of the most prosperous multinational corporations have historiacally used and continue to engage in unethical and unlawful practices.
now lets look at some examples. the current problems in the USA banking and trade system was caused by deregulation of the markets. the practice of trading in unsafe derivatives and betting on certain markets to fail, as well as the re-re-re-re-repakaging of poor stocks are the direct causes of the market crash. in a darkly humorous way, socialism has bailed capitalism out, giving money from the poor to the rich. for more information, look up Hayek versus Keynes economic strategies.
Monsanto continues to abuse many nations of the world, especially in Africa. Monsanto pushes their Round-up POISION and poor GMO seeds on countries; especially harming developing nations. Round-up has been proven to not disperse or break down chemically as they claimed it did, and is far more poisonous than they claim as well. the GMO seeds have been proven to actually yield LESS and LESS each year.
how is this fact: Africa is by far the continent richest in natural resources, yet the people own less that 1% of those. DeBeers stole the land when imperialist conquests were taking place. they now use their tremendous wealth and power to ensure that they continue to steal from the most vulnerable. they use such dirty tactics by ensuring that all new diamond mines found by people of African nations are branded as conflict mines; if DeBeers can't have it, no one can. they make billions per day, yet pay the people pennies per day to harvest resources that rightly belong to the people of African nations.
please don't even get me started on the child labor sweatshops that Nike, Umbro and many clothing manufacturers continue to use; just travel to India and see children as young as 8 sewing those footballs(soccer balls).
the USA medical system is currently a mostly capitalist system. in truth, there are exceptional doctors and hospitals around the country. yet, the USA is ranked 37th in the world. the USA is number 1 in terms of health care spending per capita but ranked 39th for infant mortality and 36th for life expectancy. access to healthcare is dismal. the constant profit-based battle between medical care providers and insurance companies ensures that people often receive the bare minimum amount of care. products and services essential to LIFE should not be a game of numbers and profit.
being born with money and opportunities does not entitle a person to live only for themselves. i believe that it means that one has greater responsibilities to their fellow human beings. conversely, being born into a situation where there is little money or opportunities is no fault of that person. consider being born in a war-torn area, where daily SURVIVAL is an issue. such people do not have the luxury of time to think or dream. i feel very fortunate in that while i am not from a moneyed background, i have never gone without. i have had safety, shelter and food; this is far more than what the majority of the world has. as such, i believe that it is my duty to do what i can to try to improve this world. charity has NOTHING to do with capitalism. to paraphrase one of my best friends, our responsibility is to give to the less fortunate without strings attached; what they do with that is between them and God.
remember, seek the TRUTH!
Views: 42
-
Comment by Michele Baron on April 7, 2010 at 4:31am
-
my compliments to you for a well-written post, and to both you and your friend for your "no strings" concept of charity (although would you agree that if recipients learn a skill or trade, or improve some part of infrastructure/daily operations along with the presentation of the charitable act/gift, that the entirety of the charitable donation will be, therefore, more effective and complete? I am reading "no strings" as "no returns expected," not "no participation needed"--I think everyone could benefit from the confidence of taking responsibility for learning as much as possible to help their lives become more wh***, more secure, sustainable and flourishing...)
thank you for your post.
-
Comment by nomadHAR on April 7, 2010 at 6:28am
-
that is exactly what i meant. perhaps i should have stated it as 'give and expect nothing in return'. i also like the point you make concerning continuation of assistance once charity is given. this is a matter of both foresight and accountability; giving a gift and making sure that people know all about that gift. i actually talk about those in the blog post i did on 'charity: water'.
on a side note, i noticed a few misspellings i made. this is highly embarrassing, as i have taught English and ESL. i guess it's back to grammar school for me.
-
-
please don't worry about misspellings--with tweet, shorthand, etc., you can say you were speed blogging. my fingers seem quite independent of any discernible brain function at times. I did like your post; good thoughts! --I will read more (tomorrow--it is 3 am here. crashing..) Regards. Thanks again.
-
Comment by Chema Caillet-Bois on April 7, 2010 at 7:11am
-
I mentioned this in the "Europeanization" blog, but I'll comment here as well: Firstly, thank you for a well written and articulate post. I wrote a paper a few years ago called Profit at the Cost of Life, it was about how capitalism has many problems, several of which you have articulated here (and far better than I did), and I concluded that the inherent problem of capitalism, fundamental to all the problems we have discussed, is allowing profit to become the primary goal, as opposed to sustainable prosperity for everyone. I noticed, again, while reading your post, that all of the problems you brought up were directly tied to the pursuit of profit. This is what I am talking about with fundamental problem of capitalism.
Comment
Latest Activity
Fourth of July on the Lake
This past weekend was the annual celebration at the lake house in Connecticut. It is amazing that the lake is still so clear and beautiful after all these years. The watershed association has done a wonderful job protecting these waters from the damaging effects of development.The wood grill was finally ready to cook on, so we didn't miss the propane tank fueled grill anymore. The food actually tasted fresher than in the past and was easy to keep fueled.Dad was very proud of the solar hybrid…See More
Stinging Nettle
In this blog post I will focus on a plant that is abundant in our nature, and which is immensely nutritious. It's of course the Stinging Nettle. Let's start with the chemical constituents of this plant:37 % Non-Nitrogen-Extracts19 - 29 % Ash9 - 21 % Fiber4 % Fat22 % ProteinOnce the leaves are drid, their protein content can reach an astounding 40 %, which is much higher than beef, which even under the best of circ**stances can never exceed 31 % protein. In addition the Stinging Nettle consists…See More
The meal
It is 7'oclock, I was late home from work due to an assignment that i wanted to get ahead on. By the time I get home I am feeling extremley tired and I cannot be bothered to make a proper meal. I walk to the fridge and open it to see what there is for me to eat. All of the out of date foodstuffs have been automaticaly thrown away by the fridge, they will be recycled tomorrow as animal feed or something. I see i have organic local eggs and some local cheese. Foods are vacc** sealded for easy…See More
Future
FutureToday is 2020/1/1. It is just like yesterday. The war is still continuing. It has started since 2010. In 2010, that year was a horrible year. Almost every energy ran out. Every country’s governments were crushed down at the same time. There were riots everywhere. All of the big company’s bosses were killed xdeadx in the riots. Troops fought each other everywhere. Food was bought up xawayx at once. There were no more food supplies in any shops. The economy was all crushed down. All the…See More
public servants
The exchange works directly for state and public workers and servants. It gives them credit in exchange for the amount of public work they contribute to the community. The more constructive they are based off a base rate the more credit they recieve.
© 2024 Created by Alchemy.
Powered by
You need to be a member of Urgent Evoke to add comments!
Join Urgent Evoke