Non-Americans are not afraid to admit how backwards we, as Americans, have become.
I had an unusual opportunity a while back to participate in a political debate between an American millionaire and a ninth grade Chinese foreign exchange student at my nephew’s first birthday party.
The debate mostly revolved around this topic: The foreign exchange student very much disagreed with our system of government, saying that capitalism was more talk than do. For example, I think I remember he was saying that our governors and presidents are all talk and promises, but they never act appropriately. (I would write a lot more but i don't think that would be appropriate.)
Then the tides had turned. The debate had switched to attacking American priorities. The student said we were too focused on entertainment than school, and that America had their priorities backwards (like how more money is sent to fund prisons than schools). This is where the millionaire could not defend her self--instead, she sighed and agreed. She said he was right on it; but luckily there are the few who get it, few who understand how backwards we’ve become. This is when I finally presented Postman--I couldn’t take it anymore. I described the book the best I could, only having read up to chapter seven or something, and kept pointing out how strange it was that Postman could be used in the real world. How it seemed like they themselves had read the book, but had never even heard of it (I didn’t expect the Chinese foreign exchange student to have read it). I tried desperately to get them to understand (I think I was actually trying to get myself to understand) how exact this piece of literature was for this era.
Anyway, my question is, does capitalism have anything to do with our backwards society? I’m guessing yes, because we have some much freedom and, to be specific, the schools in California are going through a budget crises (even my town’s libraries--libraries!--are not opening on Sundays or Mondays because of the budget reductions).
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First may I say, what an interesting discussion to find yourself in. Do you know how the American millionaire became a millionaire, because I would find it highly ironic if she was pro-capitalism.
ReplyDeleteI would say yes, yes it does. To drive this point in, think for a second about smoking. It is horrible for your health, but more importantly, it is even worse for those around the smoker. So why does America not ban it, if it can eventually cause the death or the spread of cancer in a secondhand smoker? The answer: America gets a huge profit in tax money from cigarette companies. Oh, and an interesting side note: the federal government does not spend nearly the amount on anti-smoking campaigns. It is all capitalism, and it is all for the money.
Capitalism allows people to go and gain money to the best of their ability. This, however, leads to corruption. Bribery, for instance, is a form of corruption used to keep people quiet about the corners you or whomever is cutting, the deals made under the table, and the like.
ReplyDeleteThis is a list of people of congress that are corrupt. (http://www.crewsmostcorrupt.org/)
It is backwards that funding is spent more on keeping bad people in prison rather than preventing people from becoming bad. People focus on television and other forms of entertainment and push important things, such as reading the backgrounds of politicians before they vote them in to office, off to the side. The apathy of people who don't look into what they are voting for is the reason things slip by us, such as whatever laws and regulations were passed that allowed more funding to go to prisons than schools. These apathetic people are concerned for themselves and their personal pleasures. One could say the phrase "bread and circuses" describes the people of America.
Honestly i do think that capitalism does lead to mucked up society. Like the student said we spend so much of our money on keeping people in prison and it takes away from things that matter. I also suspect that capitalism has also led to our political parties constantly opposing each other and end up getting no where. However I must disagree with Warren about smoking. It may harm a second hand smoker but who are you to tell someone that they can not smoke. If you don't want to inhale their smoke then move away. Another thing that I see to be very backwards is our health care system. If not for the massive amounts of profit that they have made from the system, we would have universal health care like some other countries out there
ReplyDeleteAnd one thing i forgot, I think we would have much less ecological damage but it costs more to switch from our current process to a more ecofriendly one
ReplyDelete