Diary: Moral Lessons of Capitalism

The economic system that we have now rewards greed, excess, and focuses on the individual in competition with others. The system we have now highlights some very nasty traits in individuals while undermining traits such as community, sharing, and living in a sustainable manner. While some associate communal living with Marx, I can think of whole civilizations that lived that way far before Marx. The Native Americans lived that way and even some Christian groups such as the Amish still live that way. Sharing and emphasizing the common good was not invented by Karl Marx.

In the US corporations make money off of sick people. Their corporate CEOs make millions in bonuses by refusing people care and letting them die. They are rewarded by society with lots of money by doing such things. Competition, greed, and having little care for those around us are honed by having such a system.

U.S. bankers make billions by defrauding individuals who are trying to buy a house. They are rewarded by billions of dollars coming from honest tax payers to fund such dishonesty. They are placed on a pedalstool treated in a special manner because of their wealth. They are exempted from regulation, rules, and honesty while the rest of us are not even allowed to file for bankruptcy, can't pay late, and are spied upon by banks using the "credit report".

The military industrial complex makes money by making sure that there is some type of war all the time. They make money by destroying civilizations, blowing up innocent people, and wasting billions of dollars making weapons that could be made cheaper. They consume half of the US expenditures. They tell Americans that they have the right to do what they want, and when they want and where they want to do it without impunity. Might makes right. Much of our scientific community is employed making some type of weapon. They waste taxpayer's money, and they waste scientific effort that could go elsewhere into peaceful projects.

The oil industry has enriched itself making sure that it has no competitor. They would in fact prefer money in their pockets to a world that people can actually breathe in. They create psydo-science to fight the science of global warming. If it was up to them they would keep making money at the expense of the entire planet. If one group really needs to be nationalized to move forward on cleaning up the environment, then this is the group. This group's greed locks fists with the military industrial complex to make sure they maintain a monopoly on consumption, pollution, and the continuance of an expensive and ineffective system of transportation. They absolutely have no care for the planet we live on or the people, animals, and plants on it.

The economic system we have is destroying the economies of other countries, killing people in other countries, maintaining inequality, poverty, and overpopulation. Isn't it about time we came up with another idea or went back to a simpler time when people cared about the earth, and other people?