In a galaxy far, far away…
The planet Earth is being ravaged by an economic system called Capitalism that seeks to destroy the planet. Through an ideology plagued with fear, greed and a disinterest to consider the welfare of others above private and personal gain, companies like Peanut Corp. of America have continued their attack on their customers:
The owner of a peanut company urged his workers to ship tainted products after receiving test results identifying salmonella, according to internal company e-mails disclosed Wednesday by a House committee.
The company e-mails obtained by the House panel showed that Peanut Corp. of America owner Stewart Parnell ordered the shipments tainted with the bacteria because he was worried about lost sales.
Okay, this is beyond out of control. This is murder. Of all the reasons (wars of aggression for example) we should be lining the streets in protests and demonstrations and demanding with clenched fists that we put the house in order, this example gets to one of the most important issues: economic systems.
How long should we sit idly by and watch an economic system – Capitalism – that is completely and thoroughly anti-social while it destroys human lives and bankrupts the working class?
The issue is that a) there is an "owner" who is b) motivated more by "sales" than he is by the welfare of those who do the consuming. This is one of the chief problems with market systems: markets encourage participants to fleece others, and if necessary to accept a situation where an outbreak causes "600 illnesses, eight deaths and one of the largest recalls in history, more than 1,800 products pulled." (Let’s not forget that the "market" for gold and diamonds has led to an unimaginable but real genocide of Africans.)
We need to be taking to the streets, occupying our politicians and corporate offices and demanding that we do away with private ownership of productive assets and that allocation be done through more social, transparent and democratic processes (i.e. participatory planning). While we are at it we should also address remuneration (i.e. paying workers based on the intensity and duration of their work) and division of labor (i.e. balanced job complexes).
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