Re: McFree

[pnyboer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (peter nyboer)]

>historically, the most prosperous economic systems have been ones based upon
>free-market systems.

Did someone say history?  Is it fair to mention foundations built on slave
labor, genocide, war, and colonialism, then?  I hate to bring it up, for
fear of sounding like a broken record....wait, that's a good thing...how
about sounding like a soppy liberal?...but look at the G8, and tell me they
don't ALL (my ignorance will give Canada a break, however, their unreal
amount of natural resources gives them a bizarre global advantage) have
some sort of rancid history that increased their economic standing,
arguably much more than any sort of "free market": United States, Britain,
Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia.

Really, stop kidding yourself that the free-market has been responsible for
your good fortunes.  At best it is a cute ideal, at worst a shiny body that
hides an ugly machine.
Freedom is not a "wonder of capitalism," it's a human ideal.  If anything,
capitalism is an product of freedom, not the other way around.  But,
besides freedom, we need to consider things like justice, equality, and
sustainablility, so, really, to gape in awe at the amazing freedom that
capitalism supposedly brings is pretty myopic.

>it's a beneficial system whose focus remains not the company, but those who
>continue to benefit from the economy: the consumer

If it is so beneficial, why are the vast numbers of people NOT benefiting
from it ????  Because they haven't gotten with the program?  Or, perhaps,
this program is making their own ideas about a program incredibly difficult
to survive?

"These lands are rich with oil, uranium and precious lumber. The government
wants them for the great transnational companies. We want them for all the
Mexicans. The government sees our lands as a business. We see our history
written in these lands."
--Subcomandante Marcos


Pete.


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