Capitalism and Its Evils
I am a part of the underbelly of capitalism. I am the lower subserviant loser in this economic system. I serve those who have more (or those who like to pretend to). I am a waiter. I have just finished working 2 days in which I worked 12 hours shifts. It was awful. My feet hurt, my voice is scratchy and I may have the perminant smell of steak in my hair. If I ask one more person how they would like their steak cooked I may explode. So what did I recieve for my pains? 215 dollars after taxes. I guess thats not that bad.
posted by Mikethelawstudent @ 10:41 PM
3 Comments:
clever hon
We both know what you really wante to watch...pervert.
I criticized laundromats today during this physics lab I have to take. I said that laundromats rip people of. I was working with this econ major, who never smiles and has pop-belly that's been getting rounder every year since I met him freshmen year. "No they don't" he said - it was more like a yell - "they provide a service." My bad, dude. I forgot that everything in your world is evaluated by money. If something can be defended as "free market" then clearly it's moral, biblical, humanitarian, worthwhile, self-improving, kind, beautiful, and poetic.
Laundromats are a service. Very true. An unnecessary service that wastes space and money - can't we who don't have washing machines just wash our clothes in the bath tub? "No," says my lab partner (I can hear him now), "That costs time. Time is money." And I fill the rest of the list out for him in my mind: "Time is money. Money is happiness. Money is the end of man. Money is the only justifiable pursuit. Those who do not have money are lazy and cursed by God. May God bless you with money. May he give you great stores of cash. May your stocks rise when you pray to the father. May God bless capitalism, for it is truly an economic system that he hath made. 'Here is my economic system, Capitalism, in whom I am well pleased.' May money bless you and keep you. May stores of money fill your life with peace."
Already I can hear the angry responses to this parody (I'll have to imagine them, since no one reads your blog). "Have you ever used a washing machine? Thought so. Hypocrite! You're like the pharisees!" I must raise my hands in surrender to this. It's true - I have contributed to the capitalists. I have even paid for a laundromat. I buy things I don't need just like the people I criticize. Maybe that's what makes me so unhappy - the system has implicated me too. It has swallowed me up.
But can't I be allowed to imagine a world where we don't fill up our houses with things we don't need? Can't I imagine a country where we have money, but we don't think about with all our mental energy?
I sold vacuums this summer. I sold 2000 dollar vacuums door to door. I knew people strictly on a financial basis. I saw the struggle when they saw how good my product was - it was the struggle of greed. What was the justification we always offered people for buying the vacuum? Money. You've already spent so much money on carpet - shouldn't you protect that investment...by spending more money? It brings up Henry David Thoreau's quotation at the beginning of Walden: "I discovered that possessions were much more easily acquired than got rid of."
And it's not just that possessions hold us down, though that would be enough to forsake them. They are more viscious than that. Have you seen the way a rich man talks to a poor man? He tries so hard to be egalitarian - a very revealing thing. Since he has to try to treat the poor man equally, he must feel in his heart that he is better.
I'm not advocating the pursuit of poverty. I haven't gotten that extreme yet (though who knows what the future holds). I'm saying that living below one's means is virtuous. I'm also challenging the assumption that capitalism is necessarily Christian, although elements seem to be. Here's what I'm saying: there are several ways to judge an enterprise, so why must we always choose economics first? Does money have to be the first concern?
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