- Capitalism and Alternatives -
A more balanced view
Posted by: Samuel Day Fassbinder ( Citizens for Mustard Greens, USA ) on July 09, 1999 at 12:44:55:
In Reply to: It never does. posted by Dr. Cruel on July 08, 1999 at 10:44:47:
Since the rise of settled societies some eight to ten thousand years ago the majority of the world's population have lived in conditions of grinding poverty...However in the last two hundred years a sizeable minority of the world's population has achieved a material standard of living that would have been unimaginable for previous generations. But this relatively sudden and recent improvementhas been obtained at a significant price -- a vast increase in materials, widespread pollution from the industrial processes involved and a variety of social problems.
In addition, it has raised major questions of equity about the distribution of wealth within individual countries and about the comparative standards of living in the industrialized world and the Third World. (p. 315)-Clive Ponting, from Green History of the World On the other hand, one has to wonder if people who think that Red Deathy represent some sort of "con scheme" could recognize a con scheme if a real one had its hands on their wallets. One also has to wonder what this tremendous threat of a "revolution" is supposed to represent, if capitalism is so wonderful and everyone loves it so much and if its opponents are claiming to be such pacifists.
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