The Evils of Capitalism....Part 57!
Why "Capitalism" Is To Blame For .... Everything!
Despite the enormous benefits it has brought mankind, capitalism rarely gets a good press and is rarely defended in an enthusiastic fashion. In contrast, it's critics are prominent and there seems to be a never ending stream of articles blaming capitalism for pretty much everything.
An article in today's "Sydney Morning Herald" caught my attention (see here) - "There's No Time For Love and Intimacy in Our Market Driven Lives". This pathetic bleat (originally from the "Guardian" in the UK) whines..
"What we have overlooked is how the pervasive values of market capitalism are corrupting not just the public sphere - our politics and culture - but also the private sphere of our emotional lives.
The anti-globalisation movement in the '90s rooted its analysis in how the nation state was being undermined.
What it needs to do now is to bolt onto such thinking the way our personal emotions are being distorted to fit a culture in which the values of the market are paramount."
The reference to the anti-globalisation movement kind of gives away the writer's agenda, I think. However, let's think about this for a moment.
Assume for a moment that the problem is actually real, rather than just a reflection of the writer's own inadequacies and failings. Could there be other reasons? For example, not too much capitalism but too little? The ever increasing tax burden imposed by the bloated welfare state that means people have to work harder to get ahead, for example?
Or, could it be the moral vacuum that most people find themselves in as a result of the "progressive" social revolutions of the last 50 years that did away with traditional values and standards but failed to replace them with anything? Might feminism have something to do with it (gasp!!!)?
No, of course not. How stupid of me! It's obviously capitalism that's to blame as it's to blame for absolutely everything you might care to mention! How dare I suggest that people might somehow be responsible for their own lives!
The disease of "Victimhood" is widespread in our society, particularly on the Left. In fact, promoting "Victimhood" is the stock in trade of the Left and a particularly evil thing as it results in disempowering people.
Another example cropped up, amazingly, in the weekend edition of the "Australian Financial Review". An article entitled "Greed: Capitalism's Necessary Evil" proceded to paint a picture of extreme greed run riot and this being an inevitable and necessary feature of a capitalist system. The article was stuffed full of questionable assumptions, quotes taken out of context and propaganda disguised as research. There was hardly a single fact in the article and those were used in a very disingenuous fashion.
It needs to be said loudly and often that free market capitalism, even in the limited form that exists today, has done more to improve the lot of mankind than any other system of social organisation. It's also the system that is the best guardian of the liberty of the individual. Nothing else has even come close.
Despite the enormous benefits it has brought mankind, capitalism rarely gets a good press and is rarely defended in an enthusiastic fashion. In contrast, it's critics are prominent and there seems to be a never ending stream of articles blaming capitalism for pretty much everything.
An article in today's "Sydney Morning Herald" caught my attention (see here) - "There's No Time For Love and Intimacy in Our Market Driven Lives". This pathetic bleat (originally from the "Guardian" in the UK) whines..
"What we have overlooked is how the pervasive values of market capitalism are corrupting not just the public sphere - our politics and culture - but also the private sphere of our emotional lives.
The anti-globalisation movement in the '90s rooted its analysis in how the nation state was being undermined.
What it needs to do now is to bolt onto such thinking the way our personal emotions are being distorted to fit a culture in which the values of the market are paramount."
The reference to the anti-globalisation movement kind of gives away the writer's agenda, I think. However, let's think about this for a moment.
Assume for a moment that the problem is actually real, rather than just a reflection of the writer's own inadequacies and failings. Could there be other reasons? For example, not too much capitalism but too little? The ever increasing tax burden imposed by the bloated welfare state that means people have to work harder to get ahead, for example?
Or, could it be the moral vacuum that most people find themselves in as a result of the "progressive" social revolutions of the last 50 years that did away with traditional values and standards but failed to replace them with anything? Might feminism have something to do with it (gasp!!!)?
No, of course not. How stupid of me! It's obviously capitalism that's to blame as it's to blame for absolutely everything you might care to mention! How dare I suggest that people might somehow be responsible for their own lives!
The disease of "Victimhood" is widespread in our society, particularly on the Left. In fact, promoting "Victimhood" is the stock in trade of the Left and a particularly evil thing as it results in disempowering people.
Another example cropped up, amazingly, in the weekend edition of the "Australian Financial Review". An article entitled "Greed: Capitalism's Necessary Evil" proceded to paint a picture of extreme greed run riot and this being an inevitable and necessary feature of a capitalist system. The article was stuffed full of questionable assumptions, quotes taken out of context and propaganda disguised as research. There was hardly a single fact in the article and those were used in a very disingenuous fashion.
It needs to be said loudly and often that free market capitalism, even in the limited form that exists today, has done more to improve the lot of mankind than any other system of social organisation. It's also the system that is the best guardian of the liberty of the individual. Nothing else has even come close.
posted by Kevin Francis at
4:45 pm
