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By Griffith Fuller
By Griffith Fuller
In America we are taught that financial competition is the way to achieve success and establishment.
The more that we consume as a society, the more money put into the system for circulation.
This theory may satisfy neoconservatives that supported Reaganomics, but ignored the possibility for inflation.
America is $9.3 trillion in national debt yet people are still purchasing on credit and collecting unnecessary material items.
Capitalism is a horserace for wealth and financial gain.
It is a system that tells its citizens that the more money you make the better off you will be as a person.
A grave misperception is that money equals happiness and success.
It has been proven time after time again that money in excess can complicate an individual’s life instead of enhance it.
Next to land, money has arguably caused more deaths than anything else in the history of modern civilization.
The race to attain money can turn people cut-throat and ruthless.
A capitalistic system breeds materialism and greed, which is why corporate companies such as Tyco and Worldcom can take advantage of the public for their own profit.
The reinforcement of the idea that they live in a country that permits them to compete for “unlimited” capital gain allows them to justify their actions and abuse of power.
Corporate companies have worked closely with the Bush Administration, protecting him in his presidential runs as he “conveniently” grants them tax-cuts.
Advertisement is greatly in excess.
Pharmaceutical companies create drugs for anything you can think of to make money with little concern about its effect on the public health (because they know people are stupid enough to buy the medication).
Our country is in need of a wake up call.
In America people compete on television to become millionaires, but not to help solve homelessness and poverty.
MTV and VH1 shove down television viewers’ throats the images of spoiled teenage girls that demand expensive cars and lavish parties for their birthdays and air shows specifically created to calculate the wealth of Hollywood’s “hottest stars.”
Corporations became so money hungry that they felt the need to market on “cool.”
Even MTV is guilty of hiring people to do “cool hunting,” which is when marketing professionals observe, interview, and document traits in the youth that can be exploited by the popular marketed and sold back to public through commercialization.
Products of “cool hunting” include the exploitation of goth and punk by Hot Topic or Sprite’s recent hip-hop campaign.
Recently Myspace, owned by Rupert Murdoch of News Corp., is used by corporate companies to look for trends amongst young people to commercialize and market on.
Not only are these companies exploiting the trends of young people, but they get to do it for free via Myspace, whereas in the past they had to pay to view cool hunting Web sites.
Myspace in itself is worth about $6 billion.
Riverside County has the worst air quality in the country from industrial factories and traffic.
Commuters must travel to attend work, and factories must manufacture to contribute to economic profit.
Many companies who produce excess pollution get taxed, yet don’t do much to correct their errors.
While some people are choosing to switch to smaller or eco-friendly vehicles due to gas prices and environmental awareness, there are many who refuse to change their ways.
Automobile companies such as General Motors place profit over public health, once again exercising the evils of capitalism.
Gas-guzzling eco-unfriendly Hummers and oversized SUVs imperialize the road making things more complicated for other drivers, yet gas is at $4 a gallon as of today.
Why do sports athletes get paid millions of dollars to kick and throw balls on a field or court, yet the average salary for K-12 teachers is about $40,000 a year?
Why is America a country that is so entertainment driven that it allows record companies and film studios to throw away millions of dollars to overpaid actors and musicians who society puts up on a pedestal and praise to no end?
Think about how beneficial it would be if all of the money that the cast of “Friends” made, and the 2007 salary of all players in the National Baseball League and National Basketball Association was put into education budgets, social programs, or health care programs.
You and I would probably be going to college for nearly free and there would be more jobs available for people.
We live in a culture that has brainwashed its people to believe that success is owning as much stuff as you possibly can until you die.
Why is it that people can spend $1,000 for a sweater or $300 for glasses, yet some students can’t even afford to pay $112 for a textbook.
The gap between the haves and have-nots is widening.
The middle class is shrinking.
Not to depress business majors, but the goal of entrepreneurship in America is often driven by greed, the need to make money excessively.
So imagine a society with no money, no currency, nothing to “kill or die for” as John Lennon brilliantly put.
Imagine a society with free-trade, where there was no cost to going to school, attaining groceries, attaining healthcare, producing entertainment, or running for office as a presidential candidate.
Imagine if there was no money-driven competition, no corporate crime and almost non-existent street-crime.
Now wake up.
These are utopian ideas.
And although they seem ethical and fair, they are unrealistic for an American society.
Men have already been tainted with the abuse of currency.
It would be impossible to retract it and establish it in a capitalistic country such as America.
One thing that people can do to be better citizens is to not over consume.
As Ron Paul indicated in a Fox News interview, every child born into this country today has a $30,000 debt attached to them.
As Americans it is not something to be proud of.
If people can change their mindsets, then they can change their spending habits and elect better leaders.
Then, the country would be in better shape and better equipped to tackle poverty.