Monday, March 28, 2005
Things that capitalism has fucked up.
Medicine - healthy people don't need to be treated with the expensive stuff, therefore sick people are good for the bottom line while healthy people are not.
Journalism and mass media - all the news that the owners want to print or broadcast, all the ideas that the owners want their audiences to believe, (like the belief that a boob job will enhance one's self-esteem, or that a candidate is not lying). Propaganda is great for profits.
Justice system - rich guys get their day in court, often with media coverage, all others must plea bargain.
Elected officials - special interest cash and PACs pre-empting ethics through loopholes. If it isn't codified, it isn't illegal.
Some of these items have been fucked up at the same time as they have been vastly improved:
Medicine has advanced human life expectancy (how long we live and the quality of said life).
Journalism by ENG and satellite reporting, the mini-camcorder and camera cell phone.
Elections can potentially revert to true democratic form via the internet.
The justice system can potentially embrace digital justice to correct the snarls created by a postoral and archaic system of trials.
Interactive television as mass media can potentially change television from mindless pandering to actual relevance.
....................................
The technologist believes these scientific solutions hold the key to humankind's salvation, and he or she may be right, but with the unabashed profit motive of corporate personhood, technological advances tend to take the back seat to happy stockholders.
Oil interests and automobile manufacturers are an example; Through use of lobbying and special interest cash paid to corrupt politicians (they know who they are), they misappropriate taxpayer funds away from the taxpayer's highest interests, and they influence passage of restrictive laws, thus driving down competition in alternate energy and environmental technologies. Because of this tendency, the pace of possible realization of environmental reforms are sporadic and unpredictable, therefore too slow.
Automobile manufacturers and Oil Refiners do not need until 2020 to implement reforms of their technology, they just need to tell their stockholders to back off for awhile.
Fat chance.
Journalism and mass media - all the news that the owners want to print or broadcast, all the ideas that the owners want their audiences to believe, (like the belief that a boob job will enhance one's self-esteem, or that a candidate is not lying). Propaganda is great for profits.
Justice system - rich guys get their day in court, often with media coverage, all others must plea bargain.
Elected officials - special interest cash and PACs pre-empting ethics through loopholes. If it isn't codified, it isn't illegal.
Some of these items have been fucked up at the same time as they have been vastly improved:
Medicine has advanced human life expectancy (how long we live and the quality of said life).
Journalism by ENG and satellite reporting, the mini-camcorder and camera cell phone.
Elections can potentially revert to true democratic form via the internet.
The justice system can potentially embrace digital justice to correct the snarls created by a postoral and archaic system of trials.
Interactive television as mass media can potentially change television from mindless pandering to actual relevance.
....................................
The technologist believes these scientific solutions hold the key to humankind's salvation, and he or she may be right, but with the unabashed profit motive of corporate personhood, technological advances tend to take the back seat to happy stockholders.
Oil interests and automobile manufacturers are an example; Through use of lobbying and special interest cash paid to corrupt politicians (they know who they are), they misappropriate taxpayer funds away from the taxpayer's highest interests, and they influence passage of restrictive laws, thus driving down competition in alternate energy and environmental technologies. Because of this tendency, the pace of possible realization of environmental reforms are sporadic and unpredictable, therefore too slow.
Automobile manufacturers and Oil Refiners do not need until 2020 to implement reforms of their technology, they just need to tell their stockholders to back off for awhile.
Fat chance.
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Though I am critical of capitalism, I believe that capitalism can fully provide for human needs. The places that need work are protectionism, monopoly, and all other characteristics that interfere with innovation, creativity, and balance of wealth.
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