My last post made the point that we are living in a state of rising inequality and a root cause of that is a society that has become increasingly money-driven, and not people and planet driven.
Everything is done in the name of self-interest and very little in the public interest.
And the things proposed to be done in the public interest are decried as being too expensive, or, worse, socialistic.
I did not, however, mention a word that looms large in my argument…
capitalism,
or, better, capitalism run amok.
The reason that our system has become completely “money-driven” as opposed to driven by an interest in the betterment of people and planet, is partly because of our deeply entrenched notions of a “free market” society.
We regard the free market as an indispensable hallmark of our freedom.
But I am here to tell you that a free market, really isn’t free at all.
And that price is called greed.
Here’s the thing. We have so embraced the notion that capitalism and the free market are inherently sacred in our society that we shun any idea that might tend to regulate them, or apply brakes to their sometimes careless and wreck-less forward motion.
Oh no, that’s socialism, we gasp in unison!
This idea is ingrained into the culture of American thought, as if it was enshrined in the minds of our founders…
When the truth is that our founders were very anxious and worried about just the sort of situation that has now reared its ugly head…
The situation I like to call “capitalism run amok”,
or, a system that has become wholly and completely driven by economic self-interest.
That’s what is feeding this growing inequality that we’re witnessing rise to levels not seen since the roaring 1920’s…the decade just before the advent of two seminal events in our history…
The Great Depression, and
World War II.
History has a way of repeating itself.
Capitalism and the free market are simply economic ideas, and pretty good ones, I might add.
However, they are not religiously inspired notions, as many seem to believe.
They are not God-breathed expressions of how man should govern his affairs.
The sort of capitalism run amok we are now seeing unfold is largely based on the idea, espoused by Milton Friedman, that man is wholly governed by self-interest…
that his economic decisions will always be made in that light.
And that it’s best for government to get out of the way of his doing so…
That’s what will move society onward and upward to greater evolutionary levels.
It’s as if there’s an invisible hand guiding such unregulated self-interest, so that in the end, the common good of all will prevail.
Well, truths are only truthful when based on a solid foundation of observable facts…
So that money is the driving force behind most of what’s done.
We go to wars to make money.
We build jails and incarcerate our citizenry to make money.
We educate our children to make money.
We care for the health of our populace to make money.
We worship according to our faith to make money.
We run for office and exercise our duty as “public servants” to make money.
We basically, to put it harshly, become a system of capitalistic whores.
We sacrifice our national character on the alter of the “free” market.
That we begin to evaluate not only its virtues, but also its vices.
Because, in my humble opinion, when it comes to action that is public interested, rather than self-interested…
or impact over interest, as I am fond of saying…
the relentless pursuit of money in an unbridled free market becomes an imposing barrier, or impact blinder.
Our society becomes corrupt…we lose the capacity to govern ourselves in the name of the public good.
And that seems to be exactly what’s happening.
We pay the high price of a free market…greed…
and our society becomes increasingly vulnerable to ultimate collapse.
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