ITS THE SYSTEM, NOT THE INDIVIDUAL: CAPITALISM IN AMERICA

When you wish to really avoid analyzing whether a certain system inherently leans towards evil, you quite frequently run into the rebuff that its the people not the system which creates the problem. This frequently is not an argument that can withstand the light of day. It is nowhere more obvious than with respect to laisez faire capitalism

I disagree with the argument that it is not capitalism, but selfish people who are the problem. This argument is like the one made by the NRA, its not guns that kill people, but people. To quote Eddie Izzard, "...umh, I think guns might just have a little bit to do with it." The problem with the people not system position is that capitalism is an amoral system which has two tendencies one is to concentrate wealth in the hands of the few, and the second is to require selfishness in order to work efficiently. Even the moderate free-market capitalists indicate greed is a virtue in such a system because of the so-called constructive destruction theory. Capitalism requires us to measure things and money and materialism provides the medium of measurement. I would also state that Soviet style communism suffered from the same problem. The social system needs to be community based and the economic system needs to be designed to support the social system, rather than the social system being designed to fit the economic system. This clearly differs from the neo-conservatives. Once when I was getting career advice from my great Uncle, he pointed out the window to his shiny new T-Bird and Lincoln Continental (this is late 60' mind you) and said "See those." I said "yes." He said, "That is how America keep score." I think that pretty much sums it all up -- capitalism is the game, materialism denotes the winner.

This concept of a game is interesting, since Kemp said on the floor of Congress in relation to the World Cup, "Football is an American capitalist game, soccer is a European socialist game." I would agree, since football is considerably more violent than soccer -- both as a sport and as a symbol. Football has also been referred to as the modern form of gladiator fights, which is also appropriate since that was a favorite pastime of the first major Western empire.