Re: Whoa up there, Dan!

Mark Peterson (mpeterson@uaex.edu)
Thu, 19 Dec 1996 12:34:02 CST

Good Afternoon Woody -
I am intrigued with your defining capitalism as the blind
pursuit of profit as the only good, i.e. the corporate mentality. I
know of many people in private business who do not pursue profit as
the only good. They have other values that are more important, but
find it necessary to make a profit to sustain themselves and their
families.
I wonder if the problem isn't grounded in human nature rather
than systems, realizing that some systems are better than others. In
a socialistic state, instead of corporate greed, we have bureacratic
greed and power seeking.
Regards,
Mark Peterson

To: dan.worley@juno.com
Cc: sanet-mg@amani.ces.ncsu.edu
Subject: Re: Whoa up there, Dan!
From: woodyw@juno.com (Woody Wodraska)
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 09:52:42 EST

Dan: In an otherwise sensible post you wrote: <<What is so wrong with
capitalism? Is there a social order where the people are better off
generally than here in the western world?>>

What's wrong with capitalism is that the blind pursuit of profit as the
only good--what I call the corporate mentality--to the exclusion of other
goods such as life, harmony with Nature, understanding, right livlihood,
*requires* the application of linear/industrial thinking to living
systems in agriculture, as I wrote earlier. Nature operates in cycles,
not in straight lines, and such an industrial approach (e.g., weaner pigs
or day-old chicks go in one end of a confinement facility, consume tons
of imported, medicated, hormone-laced feed and come out the other end
ready for slaughter) is doomed to failure in the long run. If we base
our being "better off" on such practices, we too are doomed.

Woody Wodraska
woodyw@juno.com
"There is no scarcity abiding in Nature.
Any scarcity we see is our own doing."