Will Capitalism Save Us?

Steven Forbes appears to think so. http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2008/1110/018.html Fact and Comment How Capitalism Will Save Us Steve Forbes 10.22.08, 6:00 PM ET Forbes Magazine dated November 10, 2008 He shows nothing of the sort. It is a preposterous display of erudite blathering, going nowhere, showing nothing. Read it. He recapitulates the story. The only thing it shows me is that our form of Capitalism is systemically prone to such crises every half century or so. The people who paticipate in the economy have no enduring memory nor knowledge to prevent this from happening, so it will happen over and over again. It reminds one of Asimov's Nightfall, where a civilization rises and falls again every 2,000 years when the 4 suns of its planetary system enter complete eclipse, thus driving men mad. This is not a good form of Capitalism. The fact that Greenspan may see all in hindsight, that the causes of the malaise were so easy to spot immediately after they had had their baneful effect, all this indicates that it will happen again. Even though mankind grows through suffering endured, God does not approve of egregious and superfluous suffering which we bring on by our greed. God does not approve of the neglect of the poor. God does not approve of the displacement and dispossession of the aged. The suffering brought about by this economic debacle is more than pain: it is a sin and an affront to God and His love, for He did not will that we suffer this. It was brought about by the cruel Irony our leaders constructed over the last 25 years. As great men spoke of Governments, so also do we speak of the conjunction of Government and Economy, for they are inseparable: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. The old form of Capitalism imperils our Lives, our Liberties, and our Pursuits of Happiness. It endangers our Fortunes, Families, and will degrade our Sacred Honor should we be lulled into the delusional rat-race of letting it re-establish itself for another half century danse macabre of economy.