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    Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 06:04:18 EDT
    From: ANTIFEDGOV@aol.com Add to Address Book
 Subject: The Folly of Capitalism (Preface)
      To: ANTIFEDGOV@aol.com


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THE FOLLY WHICH IS CAPITALISM
(PREFACE)
by Ed Bruning
(ANTIFEDGOV@aol.com)

Preface

We would all agree that America as a nation has many social, economic, and
political problems.  We would all disagree as to what is the source of these
problems

I believe I have found that source.

That source, the very root cause of most, if not all, of the country's ills
is our economic system of capitalism.

Capitalism, we have been told for decades, is the economic system which makes
America "great."  It is said that capitalism has benefited all of us, to the
point where an average laborer has access to more wealth than ever even
dreamed of by ancient kings.

We have heard that capitalism has given to each individual, native or foreign
born, an equal opportunity to "make it" here; and that our standard of living
reflects the highest attainment of liberty and equality than can be found, or
was ever found, in any nation on the globe.

Yet neither of these assertions by capitalism's cheerleaders contains more
than a grain of truth.  Capitalism, which is little else than a continual
quest for private gain, is not our savior but rather is our persecutor.

Capitalism has caused to be erected in America two houses of weath:  The
House of Have, for the few to recline in luxuriously; and the House of Want,
for the many to dwell in despairingly.

Yet the degree to which one labors to produce wealth has little, if any,
bearing on which of the two Houses he will inhabit at any given time.  For,
in capitalism, it is not considered a virtue to work for one's money, but
rather to have one's money (or better yet, "OPM" or "other people's money")
work for you.

This being the case, and incongruously it would seem, one who has his money
"work for him" will generally reside in the House of Have; while one who
merely works for his money will generally dwell in the House of Want.

It is claimed by its many fervent supporters that capitalism gives to each an
"equal opportunity" to gain wealth.  In reality, capitalism gives us no more
than an opportunity to become as unequal in wealth as possible.

Capitalism, it is proclaimed, is the economic system wherein any one of us
can "win the race" to great wealth.  While it is true, however, that someone
can win a given race, it cannot be true that everyone can win the same race.

It is the losers in the capitalism "race" who throng the House of Want, and
whose losses make possible the building of the House of Have for the
"winners."

A continually lowered moral standard based on such principles as "business is
business," "your necessity is my opportunity," "the ends justify the means,"
"your loss is my gain," "let the buyer beware" and "what's the bottom line?"
is an unavoidable consequence of capitalism.

Are not our thick law books the very creatures of capitalism?  In these books
you will find laws creating:

1.  minimum wages, maximum hours and overtime pay;
2.  worker safety guidelines and compensation;
3.  automobile "lemon" procedures;
4.  product safety standards;
5.  deceptive and fraudulent advertising and practices protection;
6.  stock and bond exchanges regulation;
7.  retirement and pension security provisions;
8.  unemployment compensation; and
9.  fair credit reporting and fair debt collection.

Also existing are laws creating the several hundred governmental agencies
required to enforce these laws--and the revenue laws needed to pay for it all.

What gave rise to these numerous laws?  Simply put, the natural workings of
the capitalist economic system.

With such laws in place capitalism's inherent destructive tendencies are
checked to a minor degree....but laws are not nearly enough to stem the tide
of the capitalist wave which every day sweeps more and more of us into the
House of Want.

Of course, before one can entertain economic alternatives to capitalism it
will be necessary for him to understand how capitalism truly works, or more
precisely, does not work.

Toward that end, the next installment of this story will commence.

--TO BE CONTINUED--

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