Replying to LO27833 --
AT,
Thank you for your response. I find myself in agreement with your
perspectives in many respects. My thoughts below are, I hope,
complementary to yours.
Capitalism is one outgrowth of human endeavor for improvement, just as
communism once was, and as socialism is for some. To speak of capitalism
is to speak of human endeavor to "improve". When we speak of capitalism
we focus on "capitalists", and that removes us from the more central
issue, which is that all "isms" are metaphors invented by people to
describe behavior meant to provide a richer life.
So in my view, neither capitalism nor profit is the issue. The issue is
the inevitable and unavoidable human endeavor to enrich, through whichever
ism they choose. From your vantage point, you may wish for maximum
compassion. I hope we may someday move in that direction, but it is not
yet in the foreseeable future.
If we hope so to see a more responsible approach to living on and working
in our environment, that approach will have to encompass the notion of the
inevitable human endeavor to enrich. Why do I say this? Because each of
us as human beings operate in our own "micro" environment, doing whatever
we must do to enrich. We do not operate in a macro world in which we
think, "Now, let's see, what is best for the world today? That is what I
will do."
What I have observed is that it is not capitalism, nor capitalists, that
lead to pollution. It is little tiny local "entrepreneurs" who have found
a tiny way to enrich themselves by the classic mechanism of "buy low, sell
high" that has been in existence at least since the Phoenicians, probably
much longer. Before capitalism was discovered. So the African
entrepreneur will buy a TV in the capital for $200, transport it by truck
and bicycle to a remote village, and sell it for $300. When the new owner
turns on the TV, he will begin to contribute to pollution. But that is
not the visible point. The visible point is that the local Afrcan
villager will feel enriched by his new ability to watch TV.
Likewise the Peruvian entrepreneur will discover that he can fairly easily
increase his factory sewing capacity, so he will get a plane to New York
to see if he can sell some shirts to the rich Americans. A buyer in NY
says "great, these are good shirts at a great price. I'll take 400
dozen." And there we are with fewer American jobs, and more pollution
from shipping goods from the far away. None of these activities are
initiated by rich capitalist manipulators. Just people with a small
enterprise.
Rol
>Greetings dear Rol,
>Thank you for a very fine contribution. I myself feel it not necessary to
>change your observations and comparisons. They correspond largely to also
>mine. However, the reason why I respond is for the sake of "increasing
>wholeness". Hence I will add to what you have written, hoping for the
>emergence of understanding in what looming cataclysm lies ahead for
>umankind.
--"Rol Fessenden" <rol@fessenden.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <Richard@Karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>
"Learning-org" and the format of our message identifiers (LO1234, etc.) are trademarks of Richard Karash.