The Weekly Poll
Results
The 'So Says Michael' Edition
Capitalism is evil. That is the conclusion U.S. documentary maker Michael Moore comes to in his latest movie "Capitalism: A Love Story," which premiered at the Venice film festival Sunday.
Do you agree with his assessment?
Adam in NoHo cites the negativity of natural resource exploitation...
I have not seen Moore's latest, I don't know what his conclusions are.
I know this: Unrestrained Capitalism is unsustainable in the long run. Look at the Fishing Industries in this country. Anyone is free to buy a boat and pull up nets of fish. Without any regulation, eventually all the fish get netted before they can reasonably reproduce and have something for fishermen to catch next season. Same with Timber- if you cut down ALL the trees NOW, there will be nothing to cut down later (never mind that the rest of the environment and food chain suffers up and down the line).
Sustainability of wealth and resources requires long-term vision and management.
Regulation prevents catastrophic decisions by business, and sets expectations for customers. That is the recipe for long-term growth.
The Vidiot answers...
It is an institution and as such is amoral. Its function has nothing to do with morals. It performs its primary objective of producing wealth using its own logic. It is, frankly, the most efficient and powerful economic system human society has ever produced.
One can't even say that those who function within it are evil. Those people merely function within the logic of a system that envelopes them and provides with all their perceived wants and needs. They can only function in that system as the system requires. Any variation of function, any behavior contrary to the system, will not benefit the system and therefore won't benefit the individual.
That being said, from the human perspective, on one hand, it is the most destructive and violent institution ever created and on the other, it is the most powerful and profitable. Those who benefit from it and thrive in it see it as a beneficial tool to be utilized. Those who are enslaved by it don't quite see it that way. Unfortunately, the number of those who benefit from it are far, far fewer than those who are enslaved by it.
So the real question should be why do so many acquiesce to an institution that enslaves them?
DC Madman succinctly said...
I don't think capitalism in itself is evil. The real evil is the control corporations exert over government and the justice system. They've negated any sort of checks and balances that capitalism is supposed to have.
Joe S. sent three separate replies
First...
YES
Then
Some rob you with a six-gun, some with a fountain pen.
and finally
Capitalism is like that old "Highlander" series. You got a couple of guys going along doing guy things and the next thing you know, WHAP! one guy cuts off the other guys head and steals all his power. And that's the way it is, all these guys running around claiming to be elite and better than everyone and they are killing each other and gaining power so they can kill each other more efficiently. And what's the purpose of gaining all this power? To help mankind? Oh Hell no, they gain power to gain more power. And what's their motto? "There can be only one!"
joe b cynically observes...
They want you to work for peanuts and then expect you to buy all their overpriced products. I live in the rust belt and the few new jobs pay less than half that the old jobs did. I'm glad to be older and just a few yrs. from retiring, I feel sorry for the young people. Capitalists don't share the wealth.
mj eruditely writes...
Capitalism is no more inherently evil than socialism. Neither is either inherently virtuous. Each is an economic system based on models of human behavior as formulated by human beings.
Both systems distribute wealth and apportion assets, albeit in greatly differing ways.
When I was an undergraduate, my economics professor (one of the dullest lecturers I ever had) would write differential equations describing economic systems on the board. Being a math/physics major, I recognized the equations as those for a harmonic oscillator with a damping (or driving) function. If the function was a damping function that was too strong, things ground to a halt. If it was an forcing function that was too lively, things went out of control with extreme highs and lows that would eventually over drive the system. It took great balance to make things work in the long run.
I see the damping functions as the danger for socialism and the forcing functions as those for capitalism. I do think that the potential for damage from capitalism gone awry is more problematic, since abuse leads to opportunities for feedback to the forcing function (bad actors who've been successful buying regulators and otherwise gaming the system keep things just the way they like them, slapping away the invisible hand whose ring they claim to kiss.)
Capitalism isn't evil, but it is more easily abused by evil (or merely venal) people.
(an excellent analysis, mj... Kudos)
Charlie asks...
Does a bear shit in the woods? (not if it's in a cage, haha) Is the Pope Catholic?
In other words, the short answer is "yes," and I didn't need Michael Moore to tell me that. Dissenters from this position will claim that capitalism has been a force for good, increasing the welfare of vast numbers of people, ignoring the fact that productivity gains since about 1970 have gone into lining the pockets of a very tiny minority rather than increasing wages. If we go into the drive to maximize profit, we are then in the territory covered by the film The Corporation, which points out that in so far as a corporation is a person, it is also a psychopath. Then there is the fact, and I do mean fact, that on our finite planet, any system that promotes endless growth is doomed. This could go beyond novella length, so I'll just provide one of many possible links to explore:.
SallyP(al) goes with the Pope thing, too... (and includes an interesting travelogue)
This Poll, B2BB wants to know if I agree that: "Capitalism is Evil?" B2BB, in turn, I ask you: "Is the Pope Catholic?" But, joking aside, I don't think that ALL capitalism is bad, just the corporate kind.
As you know, I have spent a good amount of time abroad, and lived right outside of Trieste, Italy for almost two years. While there, we spent about every weekend in (what is now) Croatia (with the in-laws). We also covered a lot of the Eastern block countries on various holidays and vacations. There, like much of Europe, retail shops, banks, the PO, etc., were open from 8 AM until noon, and then again from 4 PM until 8 PM. The difference between the East and the West, however, was capitalism. In the East, there is absolutely no effort made to, "sell" you anything - no "customer service" (ROTFLMAO at the thoughts of it) and let me tell you, doors closed exactly on the hour - sales be damned. Lines of customers wanting to pay, mean nothing to workers in government owned, state-operated enterprises. And, that covers all of the towns and cities across the Block. Most stores were overstaffed (busy work created to lower the unemployment rates) and the extra staff made shopping very unpleasant. Take, for instance, the drugstore experience: Entering the store, you hand your script to a, "greeter." She, in turn found a bottle for your Rx from a bin. She then hands the bottle and script to the next person, who writes something on the script, and hands, it to the next person - an assistant to the pharmacist! That person READS the script to a person standing behind a drug counter (the pharmacist, though dressed in the same smock as the others as not to make him/her "special") and that person calls to another person in the back, to get the bottle of medication to be distributed. After a while, the pills were counted out - and checked by the second assistant for number - and then the pills in the bottle, and script are handed to another person who hands it to a cashier. You pay the cashier (you've gone in a horseshoe direction by now) but wait - the cashier hands the Rx in the bottle to a person who places it in a small bag. Then finally, you exit the shop where someone at the door (NOT the greeter) checks your purchase! And so it goes. The lines are a real ongoing joke over there!
The open market place, however, is a whole different story. There, the people sell their vegetables and handmade wares, bargaining the prices like the best of the West.
And, there, you find a world of difference between the workers who have guaranteed jobs (and little incentive to go out of their way for better service) and the people who sell for the farmers, and the craft persons at the markets.
Surprisingly, I agree that Eastern Block socialism is not the best way for a society to function, and capitalism on a limited basis is good for all... (Cue images of Marx and Lenin rolling in their graves, LOL)
The problem arises when the big, bad, greedy, evil corporations move in to fill their bellies by exploiting the consumers, not to mention the workers. I say that industrial growth should be limited (both here and with corporate outsourcing) and then, in turn the rules and regulations would ease and more people would have a piece of the pie! Pure Communism is all about sharing the wealth, but I question if people are capable of living such a theory anymore. You have mentioned the Quakers, and Mennonites - (actually, I referenced the Hutterites to you) and apparently they have mastered such idealism - but we all know their days are numbered - capitalism keeps encroaching on their lives everyday and the corporations are waiting in the bushes like vultures stalking their prey...
No, B2BB, I fear that as it stands today, our Democracy is much too weak to stand up to the ruthless American, Corporate Capitalism which creeps up, spreads it's web - ensnaring even the best of us - until they own us all! And that's all she wrote,
And, DanD, who pleaded "(I) got kinda' kidnapped and transported to the California hillbilly hinterlands of Visalia last week almost for a whole week by a chemically entrapped tweaker. I'm still recovering from the cognitive dissonance of it all. Under such circumstances, deadlines become the first not-quite-victimless consequence," slipped this one in late:
Capitalism is a community-utilized circumstance of commodity evaluation.
Like no other standard, money is an incorporating icon of the socialist
mind set.
Wherever the most basic needs of community survival demand a tax receipt,
invariably, the nondenominational circumstance of wealth will define just
how encompassing is the mathematically expressed whorship of lucre.
Is a capitalist circumstance used merely as a collateral tool of cultural
achievement, or is the mysticism of its numerology a cultures focus?
As a tool, is it used to bond, or wielded to cut?
Tools are only as evil as the utilizing craftsman.
Well, Poll-fans, a variety of opinions have been expressed here... And that's a good thing! Thanks to all!
BadToTheBoneBob
New Question
The 'Helping out The Man' Edition
I think I can safely say that we all support President Obama's efforts to enact an effective, comprehensive Health Care Reform Bill... Right? Right!
Well then, have you contacted your congressional representatives and senators and asked them to support his plan?
If not, here's your opportunity to do just that! Then you can answer yes and become a member of my Badtothebone for Barack club. How cool is that, eh?
Details of the plan are included in the link for your perusal...
Do the right thing, I'm sayin'! Walk the walk!
Send your response to
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Tell Your Members of Congress to Support President Obama's Plan for Health Reform
For details of the health-reform plan, scroll down.
Joe Weider: "To Sit, Perchance to Stand" (creators.com)
Tip of the Week: If it hurts, don't do it.
Connie Schultz: So, America's Kids Learned What, Exactly? (creators.com)
Our president asked America's students to "make a pact" with him. "Write me a letter," he told them in a nationally televised speech. "And I'm serious about this one; write me a letter about ways you can help us achieve our goals. I think you know the address." Oh, wait, that was George H.W. Bush, speaking to students at Alice Deal Junior High School in 1991.
Susan Estrich: Respect and Responsibility (creators.com)
The gifted woman who headed my children's elementary school, Reveta Bowers, always said that teaching kids values was as important as teaching them skills. Maybe more, I have come to believe, as my children got older.
Froma Harrop: Health Reform and Illegal Immigration: The Truth (creators.com)
In their tireless efforts to kill health care reform, right-wingers have fanned fears that it would attract
Arun Gupta: 5 Cures for the Unemployment Blues (AlterNet)
You can always learn to say "Would you like fries with that?" But who wants to eat made-in-a-factory E. coli burgers, much less sling them?
Mary Beard: Review of "Knossos and the Prophets of Modernism" by Cathy Gere (nybooks.com)
The masterpieces of Minoan art are not what they seem.
George Varga: The Beatles are Hot Again (creators.com)
Permanently disbanding 40 years ago has paid off handsomely for The Beatles. Now, with a flurry of posthumous high-profile activity slated to kick off Sept. 9 - most notably the debut of "The Beatles: Rock Band" interactive video game - it's time for another payday for the most successful and influential group in rock history.
Todd Solondz's pursuit of Happiness (guardian.co.uk)
A decade ago, Todd Solondz divided filmgoers with the hugely controversial 'Happiness.' Now he's hitting us with a sequel. Sort of. He talks to Xan Brooks.
Michael Fairman: How to Tell Your Parents You're Gay (advocate.com)
OLTL's Scott Evans and his mom, Lisa, talk about life in front of and behind the camera as Fish's coming-out story heads toward telling his folks!
Will Harris: A Chat with Sam Trammell, Co-star of "True Blood" (bullz-eye.com)
On Sam's chances of seeing Season 3: We just have to hope that Sam survives! I'll just have to leave it at that. But somebody's in big trouble in the last episode, I'll tell you that. We'll have to see how things play out, but it's gonna be a pretty crazy finale.
"Sylvia" by Nicole Hollander
Dareland
Two Girls, One Idiot
wrote:
Convention Picture
that Mad Cat, JD
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly overcast and gray.
Bridge School Benefit
Neil Young
No Doubt, Jimmy Buffett and Adam Sandler are among those on the lineup for the Bridge School Benefit concerts, an annual two-night fundraiser organized by school co-founder Neil Young.
Also on the bill, anchored by Young, are Coldplay's Chris Martin, Sheryl Crow and Monsters of Folk, among others. The concerts take place October 24 and 25 at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California.
In addition to the above-mentioned musicians, day one will include performances by Fleet Foxes, Wolfmother and Gavin Rossdale. Buffett performs only on day one, and comedian Sandler performs only on day two.
Young, who hosts the mostly acoustic event, has played every year since launching the benefit in 1986. Proceeds from the shows support the Bridge School's work with children with severe physical and speech impediments.
Neil Young
No Lev For You
Elton John
Elton John won't be able to adopt a 14-month-old HIV-positive child from Ukraine because the pop star is too old and isn't married, the government said Monday.
Adoption and gay rights advocates expressed regret about the determination by Family, Youth and Sports Minister Yuriy Pavlenko, while a children's charity had reservations about John's weekend announcement that he and his male partner, David Furnish, wanted to adopt the boy.
Pavlenko told The Associated Press that the adoption will not happen because adoptive parents must be married and because the pop star is too old.
The singer is 62 and Ukrainian law requires a parent to be no more than 45 years older than an adopted child.
Elton John
Lost On Earth
Moon Rocks
The discovery of a fake moon rock in the Netherlands' national museum should be a wake-up call for more than 130 countries that received gifts of lunar rubble from both the Apollo 11 flight in 1969 and Apollo 17 three years later.
Nearly 270 rocks scooped up by U.S. astronauts were given to foreign countries by the Nixon administration. But according to experts and research by The Associated Press, the whereabouts of some of the small rocks are unknown.
Genuine moon rocks, while worthless in mineral terms, can fetch six-figure sums from black-market collectors.
Of 135 rocks from the Apollo 17 mission given away to nations or their leaders, only about 25 have been located by CollectSpace.com, a Web site for space history buffs that has long attempted to compile a list.
Moon Rocks
Baby News
Dante
Less than a week before his "Peace Without Borders" concert in Havana, Colombian rocker Juanes and his wife, Karen, welcomed their first son over the weekend.
The singer announced on his Twitter page Saturday that his wife had given birth to the couple's third child, a boy, Dante, in Miami.
Juanes posted on his Twitter page Monday that the newborn and mother were doing well. His publicist in New York did not respond to a request for additional details.
Dante
Millions Embezzled
Bolshoi Theater
Russia's top investigative body said Monday that millions of dollars have been misspent in the reconstruction of the renowned Bolshoi Theater.
The Investigative Committee of the General Prosecutor's Office said it had opened a criminal investigation into the matter, adding to the troubles of the reconstruction that is years behind schedule and has kept one of Russia's main attractions closed for four years.
A statement from the committee said the Kurortproekt company, which was contracted for planning the reconstruction, had been paid three times for the same work - for a sum totaling nearly 500 million rubles ($16 million). The payments were made by the federal Directorate for Construction, Reconstruction and Restoration.
Bolshoi Theater
Convicted Of Bribery
Gerald and Patricia Green
A U.S. jury has convicted a pair of married Hollywood producers of paying more than $1.8 million in bribes to a former Thai government official in charge of tourism, in part so they could manage the Bangkok film festival, American authorities said on Monday.
In return for the bribes made between 2002 and 2007, Gerald and Patricia Green obtained Thai government contracts for the festival and other dealings that funneled more than $13.5 million to their companies, U.S. prosecutors said.
They were convicted late on Friday by a Los Angeles jury of multiple counts of conspiracy, bribing a foreign official and money laundering but the sentence was only widely reported on Monday. Patricia also was convicted of a tax violation.
The Greens were prosecuted in U.S. federal court, under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a law that makes it illegal for Americans to bribe foreign officials.
Gerald and Patricia Green
Did Her Part
Oprah
Oprah Winfrey may have been instrumental in getting Barack Obama elected president, but now claims she's on the sidelines.
"I have not said one thing about this political situation and don't intend to," Winfrey said. "Everybody knows that I was a big campaigner for Obama and I still am. I think he's doing a great job. I think that it's the toughest job in the world with the economy and health care and all of that."
Winfrey made her comments Sunday night at the premiere of "Precious" at the Toronto International Film Festival. Winfrey is the executive producer of the movie, adapted from Sapphire's novel "Push."
"My job was to make people, or allow people, to be introduced to Obama, who might not have been, at the time," she said. "I wanted him elected, and I think I did that."
Oprah
Circle Of Life
Marcus The Lamb
A group of schoolchildren who reared a lamb from birth and named it Marcus has overridden objections by parents and rights activists and voted to send the animal to slaughter.
Marcus the six-month-old lamb has now been culled, the head teacher of the primary school in Kent confirmed on Monday, after the school's council -- a 14-member group of children aged 6 to 11 -- voted 13-1 to have him killed.
The decision has provoked fury among animal-loving celebrities, animal and human rights campaigners and the parents of some of the children, and led to threats against Lydd primary school and its teachers, according to a member of staff.
The intention had been to buy pigs with the money raised from slaughtering Marcus, but those plans have been put on hold following the furor created by the lamb's culling. The school said the program may now have to be stopped.
Marcus The Lamb
50 Years
McDonald's
A 68-year-old man who still works at the first McDonald's restaurant in Missouri has been honored for 50 years of service. Leonard Rhomberg began his job at a McDonald's restaurant in the St. Louis suburb of Crestwood in 1959, the year after it opened. And he still works there five days a week.
KSDK-TV reports that the restaurant's owners, Patrick and Tom Hillmeyer, thanked Rhomberg on Wednesday with a cake, gifts and a St. Louis Cardinals jersey.
McDonald's
In Memory
Crystal Lee Sutton
Crystal Lee Sutton, whose fight to unionize Southern textile plants with low pay and poor conditions was dramatized in the film "Norma Rae," has died. She was 68.
Sutton died Friday in a hospice after a long battle with brain cancer, her son, Jay Jordan, said Monday.
Actress Sally Field portrayed a character based on Sutton in the movie and won a best-actress Academy Award.
In 1973, Sutton was a 33-year-old mother of three earning $2.65 an hour folding towels at J.P. Stevens when a manager fired her for pro-union activity.
In a final act of defiance before police hauled her out, Sutton, who had worked at the plant for 16 years, wrote "UNION" on a piece of cardboard and climbed onto a table on the plant floor. Other employees responded by shutting down their machines.
Sutton's son said his mother kept a photo of Field in the movie's climactic scene on her living room wall at her home in Burlington, about 20 miles east of Greensboro. But despite what many people think, she got little profit from the movie or an earlier book written about her, he said.
Jordan said his mother spent years as a labor organizer in the 1970s. She later became a certified nursing assistant in 1988 but had not been able to work for several years because of illnesses.
Sutton donated her letters and papers to Alamance Community College in 2007. She said: "I didn't want them to go to some fancy university; I wanted them to go to a college that served the ordinary folks."
Crystal Lee Sutton
In Memory
Paul Burke
Paul Burke, who was twice nominated for an Emmy for his role as Det. Adam Flint in the gritty crime hit "Naked City," died Sunday. He was 83.
Burke was featured in dozens of TV series in his four-decade career, including prominent parts on "12 O'Clock High" and "Dynasty."
In a pair of notable big screen appearances in the late 1960s he played a cop who chased upscale art thief Steve McQueen "The Thomas Crown Affair" and had the leading male role in the tale of young women and Hollywood excess "Valley of the Dolls."
Burke was born in New Orleans in 1926. His father was a boxer, Martin Burke, who had once fought heavyweight champion Gene Tunney.
He studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse, and after a slew of bit guest spots on television shows, he landed his first starring role in 1956 playing veterinarian Dr. Noah McCann in the short-lived series "Noah's Ark."
In addition to his wife, Burke is survived by three children from his first marriage, Paula Burke-Lopez, Paul Brian Burke and Dina Burke-Shawkat.
Paul Burke
In Memory
Jim Carroll
Jim Carroll, the poet and punk rocker who wrote "The Basketball Diaries," died from a heart attack at his home in Manhattan. He was 60.
In the 1970s, Carroll was a fixture of the burgeoning downtown New York art scene, where he mixed with artists such as Andy Warhol, Patti Smith, Larry Rivers and Robert Mapplethorpe. His life was shaped by drug use, which he wrote about extensively.
Carroll also published several poetry collections, while his 1980 album, "Catholic Boy," has been hailed as a landmark punk record, and he became known for one of its songs, "People Who Died."
But it was "The Basketball Diaries," his autobiographical tale of life as a sports star at Trinity, an elite private high school in Manhattan, that brought him his widest audience. The son of a bar owner, Carroll attended the school on a basketball scholarship.
The book, which began life as a journal, was first published in 1978 and then became even more popular, particularly on college campuses, when it was issued as a mass-market paperback two years later. A 1995 movie version starred Leonardo DiCaprio.
His poetry career started even earlier. Carroll was in his teens when he first received recognition for his poems, especially "Organic Trains" in 1967 and then "4 Ups and 1 Down" in 1970. Among his other works are collections such as "The Book of Nods" (1986), "Fear of Dreaming" (1993) and "Void of course: Poems 1994-1997" (1998).
Carroll left New York in 1973 and moved to California, where he formed the Jim Carroll Band. Among his other albums were the less successful "Dry Dreams" (1982) and "I Write Your Name" (1984).
Jim Carroll
In Memory
Patrick Swayze
Patrick Swayze, the hunky actor who danced his way into moviegoers' hearts with "Dirty Dancing" and then broke them with "Ghost," died Monday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57.
Fans of the actor were saddened to learn in March 2008 that Swayze was suffering from a particularly deadly form of cancer. He kept working despite the diagnosis, putting together a memoir with his wife and shooting "The Beast," an A&E drama series for which he had already made the pilot.
A three-time Golden Globe nominee, Swayze became a star with his performance as the misunderstood bad-boy Johnny Castle in "Dirty Dancing." As the son of a choreographer who began his career in musical theater, he seemed a natural to play the role.
It became an international phenomenon in the summer of 1987, spawning albums, an Oscar-winning hit song in "(I've Had) the Time of My Life," stage productions and a sequel, 2004's "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights," in which he made a cameo.
Swayze himself earned three Golden Globe nominations, for "Dirty Dancing," "Ghost" and 1995's "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar," which further allowed him to toy with his masculine image. The role called for him to play a drag queen on a cross-country road trip alongside Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo.
Swayze was born in 1952 in Houston, the son of Jesse Swayze and choreographer Patsy Swayze, whose films include "Urban Cowboy."
Off-screen, he was an avid conservationist who was moved by his time in Africa to shine a light on "man's greed and absolute unwillingness to operate according to Mother Nature's laws," he told the AP in 2004.
Swayze was married since 1975 to Lisa Niemi, a fellow dancer who took lessons with his mother; they met when he was 19 and she was 15. A licensed pilot, Niemi would fly her husband from Los Angeles to Northern California for treatment at Stanford University Medical Center.
Patrick Swayze
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
