[MD] Dynamic Development at all costs?

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Chris]
I see you are having fun here, but correct me if I'm wrong - is Platt 
really attacking the principle of balance in the market on the 
grounds of the US system? Because - Surprise Buddy! - balance isn't 
really the word to use there, and it hasn't been even close since 
Roosevelt's days I'd say.

[Arlo]
Right. We've lost balance in a number of areas. We (America) 
over-regulate in some ways and accept the ills of under-involvement 
in others. And I think a large part of our troubles in that regard 
stem from the ridiculously polarized fantasies politicians feed us. 
The only options, we are told, that exist are 1890's America and 
1980's Soviet Union. That's our only choice. No middle ground. No 
balance. So whatever "balance" is achieved is never "crafted" but an 
accidental circumstance of Party Power See-Sawing.

There are some general questions the American people must answer, and 
one is "if the free market is best for the distribution of goods and 
services, does that mean that EVERYTHING is a market commodity?" Marx 
had lamented that under such a system, human beings become 
commodities to be used and disposed of with no greater thought than 
we'd give to our supply of towels or wrenches.

[Chris]
You have got the American Dream - climb to the top, make it on your 
own - so what if some people don't make it, starve to death or have 
to turn to crime to survive in their American Dream - it's liberty!

[Arlo]
Underlying this is the belief in Social Darwinism held by many in 
this country. Those who don't make it don't because they are lazy, 
worthless, bottom-feeding wretches. Let them die off. Decrease the 
surplus population, as it were. What we have done is replace the 
Aristocracy with a Capistocracy. This was pointedly evident at the 
turn of the 20th century. My grandfather used to talk about his 
childhood a lot, about seeing the mine foreman drop the dead body of 
a miner right outside the shack where he lived with his wife and 
kids, and then turn around an post an "evicted" notice on the door (I 
suppose that was easier than "knocking"). But you know somewhere up 
on the "Castles of the Hudson" (as Pirsig calls them) the mine owners 
lived like royalty. But while we've dealt with the more overt 
egregious sins of this system, the foundational dialogue continues.

[Chris]
Where is the Quality in that? The Human Quality?

[Arlo]
Shhh... talk like that will only get you outted like the commie, 
Marxist you are.