How Kids Learn to Love Capitalism

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



How Kids Learn to Love Capitalism

By Bill Reagan, PopMatters. Posted December 4, 2008.

There is no better illustration of capitalism in all its glory than the vicious games of the playground.



Capitalism, according to the Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, is "An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market."

Isn't that quaint? It sounds penned by the uptight Economics prof Phillip Barbay in Back to School, factually accurate but naively incomplete. To capture the genuine splendor of Capitalism at work, we'd do better to have it defined by Thornton Mellon from the same film, whose estimate for building a factory displays an appreciation for the "realities" of the free market system:

"First of all you're going to have to grease the local politicians for the sudden zoning problems that always come up. Then there's the kickbacks to the carpenters, and if you plan on using any cement in this building I'm sure the teamsters would like to have a little chat with ya, and that'll cost ya."

Capitalism is Darwinian economics, the strong survive and the weak sit out, and it's the strong that define the system: Predatory lenders traded short-term revenue for long-term economic collapse by arranging mortgages for people who couldn't afford to pay for them; Exxon Mobil earned $40.7 billion in profits in 2007 as the U.S. economy began treading the slippery slope of recession; Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O'Neal steered the company into an $8 billion dollar loss and arranged a $161 million severance package for himself before his departure. That sounds more like Thorton Mellon's Capitalism, the ka-ching-like sound of ambition colliding with opportunism. To quote another silver screen Capitalist, Wall Street's Gordon Gekko, "greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works."

Capitalism is synonymous with the United States, closer to a religion than an economic policy, and membership in "the church" is activated when you're issued your social security number. U.S. paper currency is ugly and monochromatic not because green ink is cheaper, but to keep people from being distracted: Money isn't fashion, it's function, and it's meant to be spent. Other nations can make their scrip multi-colored and gorgeous, but in America, it shouldn't be in your wallet long enough that you would take it out and admire it like a photograph. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/workplace/82439/how_kids_learn_to_love_capitalism/

[deaniac21]

1. Charles Darwin, 1859

“It is not the strongest of the species
that survives, nor the most intelligent,
but those most adaptable to change.”

[tjwash]

2. Thank you...I hate it when people substitute Darwin's evolutionary theories for "might makes right"

When in reality, it's the so called "strong ones" that are the first to go extinct when a system changes.

[deaniac21]

3. Unless they are adaptive to change.

[JackRiddler]

4. True, but note that Darwin's first prominent followers started the trend...

Including his nephew. And it's not clear how he stood on Social Darwinism. Luckily we can divorce the science from the politics wrongly derived from it.

[Silent3]

5. Exclusive emphasis on the negative coupled with a poor analogy.

Way to go!

Sure capitalism has its faults, and often has an ugly side. But so do most human endeavors. When you come up with an alternative economic system where the humans involved would automatically become benevolent, and no one would be making power plays or looking for kickbacks, please get back to us.

As for the article's analogy of "kill the one with the ball", the analogy is a very poor one, since (1) "winning" at capitalism carries a lot more benefits that merely being able to claim you're momentarily winning, (2) "winning" puts you in a much better position to defend yourself from attack than being a kid holding a ball that causes everyone to attack you, (3) many people can win in capitalism all at the same time -- there may be constant struggle, but there can be ongoing enjoyment of earning at the same time, (4) need I go on? The analogy truly sucks.