[MD] No more SOM and no more money!

[craigerb at comcast.net]

[Stephen Hannon] 
> Does capitalism require that some people suffer in such extreme poverty? 
> If it doesn't than why do some people suffer in extreme poverty?


No, capitalism does not require any particular distribution of wealth.  The free
market tends to distribute wealth to individuals based on how their value is perceived by
others in the marketplace.  But not everyone's values have to agree.  One can patronize a
business because it hires the disabled (like, Goodwill Industries), uses recycled materials,
pays above average wages, or whatever you chose.  Or you can avoid doing business with
those you don't want to.  Of course, there may be a premium cost for doing so.
Also, one can opt out of capitalism & join another economic system (like a commune, for
 instance).  Try establishing an alternative economy (or school system) where the state is
forcing a non-capitalistic economy on you (& taxing you to subsidize it).
There's the story of the lamp manufacturing plant in the old USSR.  The lighting commissar
 was going to put a quota on the plant.  But instead of making the quota in number of lamps
(since the lamps were of various sizes), the quota was put in terms of the total weight of the
 lamps produced.  So the head of the plant made all the lamps out of lead.
Craig