Religion,politics and religion are cultural constructs.They reflect the culture which invents them.
None of those inventions has managed to eliminate human selfishness, greed or cruelty as far as I can tell.
Capitalism is a modern invention,only a couple of hundred years old. Pre industrial societies were a lot nastier than capitalism at its most exploitative. I've seen no evidence that capitalism is any worse than any other form of social organisation which has be tried,with the exception of anarchy,in some tribal cultures.
My view is that arguing about "the perfect society" or even "the vastly better society" than a free society based on a market economy is utopian and naive.
The raison d'etre for human society is survival of the genome,not human happiness,nor any lofty ideal or moral value. Morality itself is based on pragmatism and the human propensity to put self interest above everything else..
"Fairness" never enters the equation in any consistent way. Trying to tell others how they 'ought' to behave is a pretty useless exercise,unless you have a lot of power.
As for the victims who've lost their homes due the the current fiasco: Yes,many have been exploited.Just as many are the victims of their own greed and stupidity.OF COURSE the banks have lot of responsibility,but so to do the people who took on credit they could never hope to repay. The victims bear SOME responsibility for the consequences of their own actions.
None of those inventions has managed to eliminate human selfishness, greed or cruelty as far as I can tell.
Capitalism is a modern invention,only a couple of hundred years old. Pre industrial societies were a lot nastier than capitalism at its most exploitative. I've seen no evidence that capitalism is any worse than any other form of social organisation which has be tried,with the exception of anarchy,in some tribal cultures.
My view is that arguing about "the perfect society" or even "the vastly better society" than a free society based on a market economy is utopian and naive.
The raison d'etre for human society is survival of the genome,not human happiness,nor any lofty ideal or moral value. Morality itself is based on pragmatism and the human propensity to put self interest above everything else..
"Fairness" never enters the equation in any consistent way. Trying to tell others how they 'ought' to behave is a pretty useless exercise,unless you have a lot of power.
As for the victims who've lost their homes due the the current fiasco: Yes,many have been exploited.Just as many are the victims of their own greed and stupidity.OF COURSE the banks have lot of responsibility,but so to do the people who took on credit they could never hope to repay. The victims bear SOME responsibility for the consequences of their own actions.
