Capitalism
Two things I read in the newspapers today:
The number of black Americans under 18 years old who live in extreme poverty has risen sharply since 2000 and is now at its highest level since the government began collecting such figures in 1980, according to a study by the Children's Defense Fund, a child welfare advocacy group.
In 2001, the last year for which government figures are available, nearly one million black children were living in families with after-tax incomes that were less than half the amount used to define poverty, said the new study, which was based on Census Bureau statistics and is to be released publicly today.
And
Like many tech companies, PeopleSoft skidded through 2002.
The Pleasanton software firm's shares plummeted 53 percent. It earned $182. 6 million, down 5 percent from 2001. And sales tumbled 8 percent.
But Chief Executive Officer Craig Conway won a raise. Including options, PeopleSoft estimated his total package soared to $188 million, quintuple his 2001 compensation, according to the company's proxy statement filed earlier this week.
To me items like these illustrate the barbarism at the heart of capitalism, a system designed to benefit the few at the expense of the vast majority, a system that enables CEOs of failing companies to amass bounties while millions in America (and billions worldwide), especially communities of color, live and die in abject misery.
It is a system that rationalizes the heaping of billions more dollars into the destruction of another country, Iraq, so the oil wealth there can be plundered and used to "fund" the rebuilding of that same country. This is nothing more than theft. The U.S. has destroyed Iraq and has taken the oil fields. Now it will sell the oil and will use the profits to continue to pay U.S. corporations to rebuild what the U.S. government just spent billions destroying.
We don't need to defeat capitalism to stop a war, but we do need to defeat capitalism to stop all wars.
originally posted by zagg
Comments
Also, keep in mind that the standard of living that we call "poverty" in this country is quite a bit higher than what it is in other countries. I'm not suggesting that we don't have some desperately poor people in America. But on the whole people here are a lot better off than they are in many other countries. That's one reason that the poor of the world want to come here.
Posted by: Bill | April 30, 2003 1:59 PM
Me again. I can't believe I'm wrapped up in this post...
You wrote: "To me items like these illustrate the barbarism at the heart of capitalism, a system designed to benefit the few at the expense of the vast majority, a system that enables CEOs of failing companies to amass bounties while millions in America (and billions worldwide), especially communities of color, live and die in abject misery."
Argh! The beauty of our system is that we have shareholders, customers, etc who are FREE to boycott products, fire CEOs, set salaries, etc... Contrast this with Iraq - Saddam lived in luxury, while his people starved.
Should the PeopleSoft CEO have been compensated liks this? Well, I find it pretty stupid. But sometimes freedom allows us to act stupid. He got the job, negotiated his compensation, and the shareholders and board of directors went with it. Freedom!
The tinpot dictators of the world compensate themselves at the barrel of a gun. They rip off their people and the people have NO RECOURSE. You on the other hand can research companies, see how they run their business, see how they pay their CEOs, and then you are FREE to boycott, organize protests, not buy their stock, report on their practices, change the system. I just can't imagine why you are against such freedom. The alternative is having a governmental body decide what things cost, who gets paid what, etc. It's been tried (Russia, China, Cuba, NK, etc). It has been an abject failure and (look at your history) resulted in millions of deaths.
Posted by: Bill | April 30, 2003 2:06 PM
Be careful, Zagg - you're messing with a THINKLING!!!
Posted by: david | April 30, 2003 2:53 PM
Be careful, Bill, you're messing with a rabid ideologue!
Posted by: the beast that shouted "ugh" at the heart of the world | May 5, 2003 9:15 AM