Capitalism - The System of Greed and Exploitation

I used to think the problem in our system was the divide between Democrats and Republicans and that our stalemates were the cause of problematic laws and inequality. But more recently I've started to see a hard shift in my views. The GOP and the Democrats are not the problem, they are just a symptom of the problem, capitalism. Now before you get yourself all excited, I am not promoting communism in this article. That is a completely different topic. This article is solely to critique our capitalist system.

The basic principle of what capitalism has become is a system of greed. Take labor from the poor and barely pay them, strip bare the earth for resources and leave it to deteriorate, convince people they are happy by filling their lives with more and newer useless items, and most recently ending restrictions on donation caps basically equating that money = free speech.

Supply and demand are a strong advocate of capitalism, but with the amount of manipulation in the system, the brainwashing images of what beauty is supposed to be, the idea that you cannot live a fulfilled life unless you have the newest gadget, all of these pointless goals in our lives create a place where happiness is confused and misplaced. You don't NEED that new insert: whatever, you likely already have an older whatever.

This system, where money is the ruler of all things, is crazy because it is based on something that has no value, paper or electronic currency. If I'm starving, what good is a dollar bill? You can't eat it, it doesn't give you cover from weather, but you can burn it for warmth.

Unarmed students.

From finding a message I agreed with in the Occupy Wall Street movement, I found my eyes opening to the failures of the system I am supposed to embrace with every aspect of my life. Seeing business booming for large corporations while thousands lost their homes and livelihoods. Watching a president get voted in when losing the popular vote (Bush), followed by a president voted in with promises of change to find even the most noble sounding people can be full of empty words (Obama).

I and my generation are witnessing the destruction of the earth for wealth.

Armed Tea Party.

While the system is supposed to draw a balance between the worker and the ruler, it does not. It has become increasingly obvious that the rich are becoming richer, and the poor are suffering. And what I saw during the Occupy Movement was shocking and reminiscent of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and 70s. Police started looking more and more militant, breaking up peaceful protests and using overreaching amounts of brutality against unarmed, peaceful protests. Yet the Tea Party was allowed to protest armed with no police harassment. Seriously?

This gap in treatment really shows how powerless people are when they want change that can upend the system to stop the wealth-hoarding of the rich and how people who follow the ideology of the Koch brothers are safe and sound, and that's not to mention they have guns. Change is an uphill battle to put it lightly.

Photo From RadGeek.com

We have created a prison system that destroys lives, families, and communities for profit. A war on drugs that fills these prisons with people who, in the majority of cases, do not belong there. A policy that is racist to the core and promotes fear and hate. Convince the people that they should fear and hate each other while the strong bleed us dry.

We have a system that is built to scare us into submission allowing for the NSA to spy, the TSA to see you naked, a government that warns you of the horrible terrors of the world, promising protection with drones, guns, violence. But what is it all for?

Oil. Economic Domination. War Contracts. Profit.

We have allowed education to crumble for profit. While tuition skyrockets, classes are getting more difficult to get into, making it extremely challenging for students to graduate within four years. And the few that actually do finally graduate, aren't well rounded enough to survive in our society and there aren't enough educated people to make a strong, smart work force.

With climate change a serious and real concern for my generation, and those that will come after, our current system drudges forward while our politicians prattle on about how we need to reduce emissions while allowing companies to continue and expand their destructive ways. The inability of politicians can not be totally faulted onto them either. The system we have been living under does not allow them (if they are to last in politics or to be looked at seriously) to stand up against the giant corporations who own them.

So what do we do? Do we vote more? Do we ignore our societies/earth's problems and troll Facebook? Do we have a bloody (second) revolution?

Sadly, I have not found the path to change yet. For me, I'll just keep blogging. Reading. Signing Petitions. Protesting.

Viva le Résistance!