Clyde Howell wrote in 5705
>Capitalism is much touted as the superior form of society on this planet
>by those who are benefitting from capitalism. However, I have to question
>the premise of this viewpoint when I consider the increasing numbers of
>homeless people and the unemployed in this country.
I am reminded of Winston Churchill's remark to the effect that democracy
is the worst for of government, except all others. It seems to me that in
every instance that people, governments, have tried to control the use of
labor or capital that they have caused more pain than free capital market
places. I include the control imposed by monopolies or cartels.
Particularly in the last point above I am not ready to turn over full
control to capitalistic people -- there is ample evidence of greed self
serving behavior that manipulates any system to the detriment of masses of
people.
>Someone mentioned our low unemployment rate in a previous posting. ...
<<<Some good words snipped
>"We're no worse than anyone else!"
I think the mention of the low unemployment rate in the US was in way of
saying 'aren't we doing better than other countries?' I personally think
we are. Are we as a community of people doing as well as we can, or
should? My answer is emphatically no! It there a better system of
commerce or system of government one the face of the earth in which the
problems of unemployment or homelessness can be resolved? Better that the
US system, I don't think so.
As good as, surely there must be some, England, Australia, South Africa
maybe some others, please don't be slighted if I failed to mention your
favorite. But I think that all of the other societies that are struggling
with these vexing social problems have more intractable in built problems
than are in built in the US.
Further Clyde poses a great question
>Would you buy a product or service from that company? Yet, this is
>precisely what we, in all of our capitalistic glory, are asking the world
>to do with regard to us.
This country is still the country to which people from many countries want
to immigrate. I am not ready to either refuse them nor am I ready to
advertise that this is not the place to come.
IMHO many countries, the US perhaps most, have devils choices to make. We
must give up some of our close held beliefs and embrace other beliefs,
*and act on these new beliefs* to build a more collaborative world.
Of all the institutions, world wide, that I see trying to build a
collaborative world, transnational businesses seem to be at the forefront.
Many non-profit relief agencies are doing great jobs at plugging holes and
filling emergency needs. I do not at all belittle their contribution. But
IMHO the business people working together -- yes to make profits -- are
best at emplacing trust and structures that improve the life styles and
head off the emergencies rather than react to them.
Change to this world wide system is slow, albeit much faster than we
think, I only hope that it is fast enough to avoid many more human
disasters.
bhobler@cpcug.org ( William J. Hobler, Jr.) Bill
-- "William J. Hobler, Jr." <bhobler@cpcug.org>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>