I have to admit, I’m a little confused as to what the tea partiers want. They blame Obama for bailing out the banks even though Obama wasn’t the president who bailed out the banks. And they blame Obama for doing this while at the same time they call him a socialist. So I guess he’s not a socialist, exactly; he’s… a corporatist-socialist? He’s in cohorts with American big business, while at the same time he wants to destroy it?
There’s an unresolved love-hate relationship with capitalism going on here. It’s been like this ever since the American Puritans decided that working hard and becoming financially secure was the only way to show that they had been saved by God, while at the same time issuing jeremiads against the prosperity they themselves had created.
Capitalism’s great, but along with the good stuff, there’s some not-so-good stuff, too. Ultimately, capitalism is about money, not morality, as the Puritans might have hoped. If you have capitalism, you will have Family Guy and wardrobe malfunctions, because people like to laugh at dirty jokes and look at boobs and that’s what sells. In fact, the people who like to laugh at dirty jokes and look at boobs are — gasp — the very same people who say it’s bad to laugh at dirty jokes and look at boobs. No wonder we’ve got a problem. People don’t know what they think about something as personal as sexuality; how can they know what they think about capitalism?
People want to live in a world where they have the freedom to get rich, and then they get mad when other people get rich instead. That’s why they can simultaneously believe that Obama both loves and hates big business; it’s because they do, too.
In the war of Big Evil Government versus Big Evil Corporate Banks, whose side do they take? Thinking about this would make their heads explode. But it’s not even that simple. Sometimes Big Evil Government is on the same side as Big Evil Corporate Banks, and sometimes not. Because sometimes what’s good for the big corporations is good for the little guy, and sometimes it’s not.
There are no clear “sides” here. There’s a spectrum. And Obama is somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. He doesn’t want to destroy the capitalist system; he just wants to soften its rough edges. There are so many people who don’t seem to understand this. They prefer a simpler world where they can have enemies.
It’s frustrating to listen to all the ranting.
Just one quibble. The only thing great about capitalism is that it exploits the greed of the few to amass greater concentrations of wealth than could ever have been conceived in other modes of production.
In doing so, however, is destroys lives and kills souls – like my friend who is now contemplating suicide because he can’t find a job.
I knew that mentioning capitalism would elicit a comment from you. :) I don’t feel knowledgeable enough to discuss the topic thoroughly, but I would guess there have been plenty of suicides under economic systems of all types over the millennia. Life is never perfect and never has been, and it doesn’t seem to me that getting rid of capitalism would lead to a post-historical paradise.
Anyway, we could no more get rid of capitalism today than we could get rid of certain aspects of human nature, good or bad. You can go on about how great it would be if we all lived in a communistic society, but can you really see that happening? Doesn’t communism only work on a very small, tribal scale? And isn’t it impossible to recreate the old-fashioned, decentralized world that used to exist, unless you get rid of the internet? And can you see anyone giving up the internet? Would you give up the internet?
A mixture of capitalism and social welfare seems more realistic and achievable, and people seem to have done generally well under it. I don’t know why the whole edifice needs to come down. Our society just needs a little bit more social welfare than it currently has.
You forgot to mention Obama is black. That is really the problem. All the rest of the crap is just sorta random whining and sound bites. The tea partiers “Want our Country Back” because they never, ever imagined one of the black guys would be running it.
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You’re right, Jeff. There is very little hope for a socialist revolution at this time. I would be happy with a more European system with a robust safety net. But look at all of the screaming and kicking and yelling that we had to face to get the meager health care reform we have!
I really believe that the future is a boot stamping on a human face, forever.