Mike Carrell wrote: > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Harry Veeder" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: [Vo]: New Segway Products > > Harry Veeder wrote: > > > <snip> >> A mainly capitalist world is what America wants is it not? > > Ah, that nasty word "capitalist". It has a different meaning to European > intellectuals than to the origins and thrust of the US economy. Capital is a > concentration of resources to allow future work or development. A farmer who > retains a portion of each year's crop to plant the next is using his > 'profits' and is a 'capitalist'. Farmers who combine resources to build > silos for storage of crops for future sales are 'capitalists'. What Marx and > other socialists railed against in England was the landed gentry of feudal > traditions who became factory owners and exploited workers as they did > tenant farmers, using their unearned wealth to build an industrial society > which indirectly benefits everyone. > > The early US took a different direction, where businessmen were part of the > community. That story was well told by Bruckberger in his 1959 "Image of > America", addressed to European intellectuals. The real revolution of the > 20th century was not the Bolshevik but the day Henry Ford decided to pay his > workers $5 for an 8 hour day, sharing the increased efficiency of his mass > production methods. It was unprecedented at the time, enabling his workers > to become customers and own automobiles. He was sued by the Dodge Brothers > for mismanagement [they covered their losses in the automobile business by > their income from Ford stock]. In the trial, Ford was asked if he motive was > not profit. His reply was that his motive was to make a useful, affordable > car and if he did that he could not help make money. > > What has happened since is complex; mass production brought its own social > problems which took time to work out. Today, actual ownership of US business > is diffused through perhaps 50% of the population through direct investment, > but also insurance and retirement plans. > > Harry is perhaps confusing 'capitalism' with a 'market economy'. It is the > latter, and free trade, which the US promotes. This releases individual > entrepreneurial energy and provides many ways for the able and ambitious > person to grow which is stifled by autocratic systems of whatever kind. One > imitative by 'capitalists' in the US is a system of microloans to people in > developing countries which enable villagers to start small businesses on the > road to independence. > > Or, Harry, would you prefer continuing government doles and continued > dependence on a bureaucracy?
Ah, that word "independence". Real independence means one is free to choose a form of dependency which suits them. He who "earns" a living is dependent on the state to provide him with a place of competition. Capitalists confound moral independence with financial independence. There is no freedom and no true prosperity where everyone in a world where everyone is obligated to compete in order to live. >> >>> Or protecting Japan with a military shield >>> so they don't have to invest as heavily in a defense establishment, and >>> becoming better competitors as 'outsourcing empire'? Or maintaining a >>> stable >>> economy so the US becomes a preferred repository for wealth so that we >>> become increasingly dependent on others assuming our debt as 'outsourcing >>> empire'? Or allowing foreign investment in, say real estate and auto >>> manufacturing here, which are beginning to eclipse our domestic products, >>> as >>> 'outsourcing empire'? >> >> So what? The British Empire had slums at home. > > Do you advocate policies which guarantee equality of outcome as opposed to > equality opportunity? Be careful of what you wish for, that produces equal > poverty for all. Sure, I value equality of opportunity. However you forget that opportunities are politically engineered, so the provision of opportunities for the pursuit of happiness overlaps but is not identical with the provision of opportunities for the accumulation of capital. harry
