[MD] No more SOM and no more money!

[Ham Priday]

Hey, Steve --

> I am not talking about the same people Ham is talking
> about, which describes "unemployed" people instead.
> I assume we all agree that a starving African child isn't
> guilty of "Celebrity worship" or "Criminal behavior"
> or "Laziness" etc... :-)

Your question relates to Capitalism.  You asked: Does capitalism require
that some people suffer in such extreme poverty?  If it doesn't than why do
some people suffer in extreme poverty?

I was not aware that the people of Angola, Ghana, Mauritania, Nigeria,
Zimbabwe, etc., enjoy the opportunities of a capitalistic system.  Since I
haven't been following this thread, I had no idea that what you really meant
was why capitalists allow poverty to exist in underdeveloped countries.
Which I guess translates to: Why aren't capitalists altruistic enough to
feed, clothe, educate, and cure all the impoverished people in Africa?

The Bush administration has pledged $674 million for famine relief in
Africa, plus debt relief for 18 African nations totaling about $16.7
billion.  Tony Blair's Commission for Africa is calling for increases in
official development assistance that could reach $75 billion annually.  But,
as Richard A. Joseph, director of the Program of African Studies, notes:

"At the core of the continent's problems has been the failure to effectively
use and distribute resources, whether they come from inside or outside.  The
G-8 leaders can double, triple or quadruple aid to the continent and strike
from their books billions of unrepayable loans.  But unless such largesse
can prompt fundamental transformations in the way African institutions work,
or do not work, these efforts will produce only another decade of deep
frustration."

As some wise person once said: "You can feed a starving person and relieve
his hunger, but unless you teach him how to fish, he will never be
self-reliant."  Throwing money at a problem is the least effective way to
solve it.  Humanitarians from Albert Schweitzer to Mother Theresa, and
numerous privately funded organizations, have administered to the poor of
Africa, but such charity is a drop in the bucket when a country has not
advanced to the point of establishing a free enterprise economy.  This is
the kind of "evolution to higher quality" that Pirsig talks about.  The free
world cannot impose it on those who are not ready for it, as has recently
been demonstrated in Russia and Iraq.

But to say that capitalism "requires" people to suffer is ludicrous.

Cheers,
Ham