Capitalism is Ethical?
I have observed the real quality of life deteriorate over the last few decades. Many people complain of working hard for a living, then having to put up with higher costs, poorer food, appalling service from authorities, etc.. It is there to see if you look.
Currently, unregulated Capitalism, where a few people with power and money use the masses of people (most of us and I am included) to increase their personal wealth is the accepted norm. The personal wealth of the controllers of Capitalism comes at the cost of our wealth whether in money, living conditions, health – both physical and mental, the food we eat, our lives in general.
Why do we allow this to happen? While people are obscenely rich in our country others are obscenely poor. It should not be like this; we are all one. Capitalism is unethical.
In so-called ‘Western’ countries few people starve to death, yet in so called ‘Third world’ countries countless people starve to death but there is enough food for everyone in our world. The controllers of Capitalism simply do not want to share their wealth (food in this case) because they are selfish, greedy and inhuman so they let people die. Is this ethical? Is this right living?
It isn’t simply someone else’s problem. That is the maxim of an individual who has no connection at all with the mass of humanity. It is all our problem; we have to see this. Simply because children and babies are starving to death in some country far away does not mean that it isn’t our problem. We are all one so we should share what we have.
We should share information, technology, knowledge which is all our wealth but what do we do? We allow information to be patented, knowledge patented, seeds patented, food patented, medicine patented so that people without financial wealth die.
This is the hell of Capitalism and we are all a part of it. We are the problem but also we are the solution. Think about this.
You have your so-called ‘religions’ but what have they done to help? They might make a few of you feel better after exploiting other people less better off than yourself but religion for most is a public palliative to suppress their feelings of guilt – if they have any.
It is time to stop exploiting other people – our people, our land, our seas, our forests. We all do this because we allow the few rich and powerful people to carry on with a system that is destroying us and our world.
What we need is a more holistic approach to living and life, one involving, for lack of a better word, ‘spirituality’ – a sense of everything and right living. A sense of the fact that we are all that there is.
At the very least consider going to a spiritual center for a while to see the truth of this for yourself or, if you are courageous, stop everything and sit alone and think it through but most of you can’t because you are so busy, busy, busy supporting the machine labeled ‘Capitalism’, earning money to buy the trinkets of unregulated Capitalism – of you have the money.
A Capitalist community will kill us all; an ethical community based on engaged philosophy will support us and our world.
Class: Politics and ethics.
Tags: right-living, spiritual development, spirituality, unethical Capitalism.
Date: 2014-03-14.
Posted by Keith Gascoigne at www.yoruk.co.uk
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It would be good if you could let me know where it goes. Many thanks.
Of course, you can disagree with what I write and email me about this.
