Enjoy Capitalism
Abookamongstthemany
Posts: 8,209
Share your thoughts on this image. Do you think it's fair assessment? Why or why not?
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r84/tangowannabe/EnjoyCapitalism.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r84/tangowannabe/EnjoyCapitalism.jpg
If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
i find that image abhorrant. that well fed child is so because of his parents. the starving child is like he is because of indifference. if we actually gave a shit about the world's people images like this would be non existant. the will to act is the only renewable resource we as people of this world actually have some control over.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
totaly off the charts and gets me thinkin.
i hope oneday human-beings can unite as one.
glutting starvation
no happy middle ground
why?
ppl are divided
greed strength ignorance
growing weakness no chance
educated selfishness
uneducated masses
limits endless
unlimited access
(Earth) countries borders (Mother)
one mankind among star filled soil
feed excess happy fat-cells
struggeling crumbs malnutrition
death gruesome morbid obesity
death poverty bankruptcy destitution
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
Compassion and empathy are not tied to economic systems. Is this picture so different when done for a socialist country, is the starving child any less mal-nourished? How about when done from a communist country, is the starving child any less mal-nourished? Were they less malnourished before white people came to America? If I go to Cuba do they magically feed all the starving kids in Africa?
when it hits you, you feel to pain.
So brutalize me with music.”
~ Bob Marley
capitalism on the rocks.
I think this is very fair.
For a nation to be wealthy, there must be wealthy individuals. Moreover, wealth will always follow a bell curve, mlike everything else, and teh further to the right the mean is, the greater the overall wealth, and the further to the right the lower end of the scale will be. Despite this, there will always be individuals greater than 3 SD from the mean to the left side of the curve.
Capitalism produces better economic outcomes for more people than socialism. This has been soundly proven over the last hundred years in a variety of cultures.
MAking the US or Australia or England poor, will not make Africa wealthy.
Further, Africa's problems really belong to Africa.
The indifference to this child's plight is a predominantly indifference from within Africa, not without. If their political systems could replace war with social programmes, these images would disappear. So far, that has shown no sign of happening.
Any attempt by wealthy nations to impose order is patriarchal imperialism.
Is the 'American' kid profiting directly from the starving kid's suffering?No he isn't,the obese kid is enjoying the fact that he happens to live in a successful country while the other kid is unfortunate to live in a corrupt country(assuming it's in Africa).
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.
www.bebo.com/pearljam06
the obese kid is in a successful corrupt country.(assuming its the USA)
but all countries have corruption.
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
perhaps a case could be made for the bolded question. if by white people you mean 'settlers' that made up the thirteen colonies and beyond---that was pretty recent history. hundreds of years before that (and during) there were great african empires like the ghana, mali, and songhai kingdoms. they were huge trading centers and were rich in salt, gold, etc. each empire was successful in their own ways so sure they could have been less malnourished than now. and this was only in west africa. there were also subsaharan civilizations as well. and then eventually people in africa were sold in the triangular trade and the continent went on to be colonized and given off in pieces such as in the berlin conference. clearly that's all a short version, but i just wanted to say that people in africa probably weren't as malnourished as they are now. and also, human civilizations began there, if they were so malnourished back then, we probably wouldn't be here, would we?
cross the river to the eastside
Africa's problems really are not just Africa's problems.
Fuckin mankind problems belong to mankind.
No one country, no one race, is better or less than another.
I wonder who went to Africa and removed MANKIND from Africa
and brought them to a distant land filled with MANKIND!
That distant land was taken from one MANKIND for another.
MANKIND abuses MANKIND and all that is within or out of grasp.
Shit like this has been going on since MANKIND.
Fuckin Man isn't kind.
(MAN) ISN'T(KIND).
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
It is also stupid to that that one economic system over another makes individuals care more about the suffering of others.
if the ppl in the free world saw more images like this these kinds of things wouldn't be happening, imo.
Yes, I blame the media.
Free market capitalism usually wants no government involvement...so i think it's very fair to look at the effects this system brings about.
Socialism and communism when done by definition and not haulted by corruption itself, are about a more equal distribution of wealth to keep images like the one I posted from happening.
And there are plenty of charities out there helping as much as they can. But even still, poverty and hunger are still alive and well in alarming numbers. The free market system isn't working, imo. The practice of capitalizing the most profits you can possibly squeeze out of an area and it's resources has consequences and too many of us like to shy away from them.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
When the 'free world' arm many of the militant groups egaged in civil war in Africa, to keep them divided and a non-factor, they kind of are the ones to blame. The people suffer and of couse we can live our happy little lives in ignorance. The US supplies over half the world's weaponry, you can be sure much of that goes to the brutal groups waging war in Africa.
To divide and rule...
Also the resources of the region aren't benefitting the people of these regions. A recent example, Haiti was exporting grain to the US (while we were exporting it to China) while tens of thousands starved, a decade ago.
The masters of capitalism care about only one thing.
BUt the solutions belong to Africa. They need to come from withiin, they ceratinly haven't come from without.
We know who bought the slaves, but who sold them ?? Who took free men and turned them into slaves ?? Africans, maybe ??
Slavery wasn't invented in the New World, it came from the Old World. Zanzibar existed for thousands of years before the white slave traders came along.
MAN isn't kind, that's true, but I'm not sure what your point is, or how it relates to capitalism vs another social system that might eliminate poverty from Africa.
Placing blame on anyone but you and me is ridiculous. Blaming government is ridiculous, remeber the government is we the people. Blaming corporations is ridiculous, corporations are owned by people like you and me. The fault lies in the mirror and the miirror only.
when it hits you, you feel to pain.
So brutalize me with music.”
~ Bob Marley
Yes thats exactly what capitalism wants. A divided poor Africa. Capitalism loves, a "non-factor". Nothing creates demand and profit like a "non-factor".
Like I said fucking idiotic to blame starvation on capitalism.
I see it as long these lines though not as direct.
'Starve the poor so they can be well fed
Line their holes with the dead ones bread'
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
yes i agree.
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
Well yes, his parents obviously need to teach the child proper nutrition and the consequences of over eating but the point I was wanting to stress is that one kids has access to food in abundance and the other has to go without.
But yes, the fat kid could do with sharing a nugget or two.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
My first thought is that both mothers must be uncaring... one for making horrible meal choices on a regular basis and the other for having a child in those living conditions.
After thinking about it a little more and doing a quick google search, it's interesting to note that most technically obese children are minorities in a low income household. People with money and an education don't make bad food choices overall.
although there is a big contrast in the photo images, the 2 are similar in many ways....
I'm not really sure how capitalism plays a part in that... It's obvious that the photo is supposed to make the US look bad...can someone fill me in?
-and I'm not being argumentative, I really want to know.
people with money and an education have the resources to eat healthy, balanced diets. processed junky foods are more affordable than a balanced meal with protein, good carbs, dairy, vitamins, etc. look at how cheap a box of mac and cheese or a package of ramen noodles is compared to a cooked meal of meat or soy, fresh veggies, fruit, whathaveyou.
cross the river to the eastside
well one kid lives in the US and the other lives in a desert.
In a perfect world, we would move them all over here and make most of Africa a tourist-only zone. Those pictures really tug at the heartstrings. All those damn flies!
I wonder... should we be more concerned with the starving kids in Africa or the obese kids here?
this is exactly what Abook was trying to say.
one kid eat to much.
i promise ya that kid is eating tons of junk food
and all day long.(exccess)
while the other child starves to death in agony.(excess)
you'd think after all this time we'd have learned
to become a loving peaceful world.
like that saying the 3 musketeers use.
all for one and one for all.
makes sense to me.
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
Our policies here affect the lives of those who live in the countries we do business with.
You can be concerned about which ever you feel is the most dire. I'm personally concerned about both but I tend to care more about poverty and hunger than bad parenting/diets.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
obviously. They don't call it "Whole Paycheck" for nothing.
Plenty of low-income people don't have a problem.. this (childhood obesity) is something that has exploded over the last 20 years. How is capitalism to blame?
not all of africa is desert. a perfect world would entail moving hundreds of millions of people here? wow. then i'd really not be able to find an apartment or a job.
cross the river to the eastside
i was just addressing that part of your post about low income obesity (in the u.s.), i wasn't tying it into the capitalism u.s./africa photo. i think poverty issues in africa aren't the result of only capitalism. some things we do as a capitalistic nation don't help their problems, but i think poverty is due to much more.
cross the river to the eastside
I'm also concerned about both but I'm a parent so I tend to be more concerned about other parents. (and I still question why someone would get pregnant while living in a fly-infested shack in Africa... do the women there just part there legs when they're told to do so?)
It's not that hard to feed yourself and your kids on a limited income. If you have acces to dirt, sunlight and water, you can plant seeds and grow things. The other nutrients aren't THAT hard to find, either.
Sure, it's easier to buy some ramen or buy off the dollar menu at McDonalds... that's an education issue in my mind.