[MD] Where have all the values gone?

[Platt Holden]

Hi David M:

> Well it is lovely to have nice quality clothes, food, shelter,
> entertainment, art, etc. It is wasteful to have to throw all
> your clothes away because consumerism via fashion tells
> you to, it is also wasteful to build a car that is built to race
> and you never race it but enjoy the status of owning it, etc, etc.
> Waste is only bad in the context or there being others who
> suffer greatly for shortages of basic commodities.

I think your premise that there's only so much of basic commodities to go
around can be challenged. History proves that the zero sum game concept is a
fallacy. Our economy continues to grow as it has for the past 200 years,
raising the standard of living for everyone.   

> No problem
> with people being paid for producing these commodities,
> not really sure why we have to organise into companies
> where the capital is privately owned and this is used as
> a way to justify removing some of the workers pay and calling
> it profits.

Profits are needed to invest in improvements, pay for government programs,
and save for a rainy day. 

> Also don't understand why people are allowed to
> pass capital on to their children so that these children never
> have to work.

Freedom to do with your money as you see fit is entirely moral in my opinion
as compared to the alternative of somebody else deciding how to spend your
money for you.  

> I take consumerism as driven by the need
> to generate profits, & as encouraging us to spend and consume
> in an addictive manner to maximise these. Clearly not a good
> thing. I think could spend more of our time not working & not
> shopping and not consuming. We could spend time doing more
> of those things that cost nothing.

I think it's more moral to permit people to spend their time as they desire
  rather than making them do what they may not want to do. So long as you
are  free to pursue what you think best there's no moral reason not to
extend that same freedom to others. 

Finally, I can think of no other economic system that has provided as much
leisure time to the citizenery than free market capitalism. 

We all have ideas about how to make the world a better place. The question
we have to answer is "At what cost?" Morally, the loss of individual freedom
is the least desirable of all costs.

Platt



     

 


-------------------------------------------------
This mail sent through IMP: http://horde.org/imp/