Capitalism

I was going to be in bed by 11:30 tonight. However, I needed also to get some things done after volleyball. So two emails, three Craigslist postings, one enneagram test and about 40 photos (still uploading) later, here I sit. I realized today that I didn't really have any pictures to take along with me, so I figured it would be a good idea to get some printed.

Anyway. We had a really loaded session today at training. I honestly had a rough time following everything this morning because it seemed based around economic theory and some comparisons to physics and biology that I couldn't wrap my head around. Plus, I was having a hard time following along because I couldn't see the powerpoint.

But in the afternoon, I think I got the gist of what was going on. Basically, the point that was trying to be made was that Capitalism makes people into marketshares or things that can or cannot produce/spend/transfer money, which devalues the person and strips the person's job of its dignity. Another economic model, Catholic Social Teaching, puts more emphasis on distribution of wealth and valuing the worker, the person.

If you know me, you might have at some point heard me complain about how America is losing the middle class, and the disparity between the rich and the poor is growing too much for a "successful" economy to be sustained. (By the way, if this doesn't make sense...it's midnight, so you'll just have to work with me.) So I think this Catholic Social Teaching kind of puts legitimate economic thought to my random critiques of United States capitalism. However, I found myself in the session thinking about how impossible it is to change "Americans" point of view.

The idea is that there is an opportunity--given the economic state of the country--to change peoples' way of thinking and get them to buy into the idea of equality and wealth sharing and legitimate opportunity for everyone. Problem is, how do you change the beliefs of a people four plus centuries in the making. You can go back and look at the history of how badly the "others" of this country were treated. Native Americans, women, blacks, homosexuals. Those are the ones the pop into my head most readily. Supposedly, these "others" (I use the term to describe how they were seen at the point of their greatest struggles) have been given more opportunity than they ever have, but are they really equal? Native Americans were given little plots of land in a country that was stolen from them. Women make, what, 80 cents to the dollar of what a man makes in the same job. It's great that we have a black president (one-drop theory comes to mind here, though), but look at the rest of the federal government. And the gay community is still struggling for many rights denied of them.

Point is, I'm not sure the people in the US can truly adopt a new economy. I think people can kind of see how Capitalism failed them, but if the economy bounces back within a year or two, it's going to be hard to convince people to make serious changes in their way of life. I would love for the "person" to be valued and not simply seen as a worker that produces goods or buys goods or whatever. It would be great to see a better distribution of wealth so everyone can have what they need instead of one person owning a huge flat-panel TV and another struggling to get enough food to eat each month. How do you do that with HUMANS though? There's always this sense of entitlement (this was also brought up this morning, but briefly). How are you going to get people to become doctors if they get the same pay, or near same pay, as someone who does some mindless, low-stress job?

Anyway, my apologies for the negative thoughts. My pictures are done printing and I should probably get to a bed. Maybe I'll learn more about this in the future and be able to talk about it with more reason than my own intuition.