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how capitalism breeds a " me " society.
April 5, 2009 at 10:16 am
Yesterday in the UK a property auction was held, run by an American company and conducted in an upbeat, high-energy American kind of way.
The lots were all repossessed properties i.e. people, families had been evicted for failing to keep up with their mortgages, as the recession bites deeper.
Thus the predators were there, individuals looking for a bargain and property speculators looking for the same...............all at the expense of the people made homeless after eviction.
The company was charging 10% on the sale price of the lots....so a nice little earner for it!
Moral of the tale? People are not born nasty, capitalism makes it inevitable.
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RE: how capitalism breeds a " me " society.
April 5, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Actually I believe people are born fairly selfish and prepared to defend what they want ... that doesn't specifically mean "nasty" but it's gotta be close. Civilisation is the way we learn to overcome our inherent selfishness and education is, IMO, the key.
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RE: how capitalism breeds a " me " society.
April 5, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Yes I really hate this. Why can't lenders sell off repossessed properties at a realistic price and then only make the debtors pay off the remainder. They can also cover their costs. This would be fair.
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RE: how capitalism breeds a " me " society.
April 5, 2009 at 3:44 pm
(April 5, 2009 at 3:33 pm)fr0d0 Wrote: Yes I really hate this. Why can't lenders sell off repossessed properties at a realistic price and then only make the debtors pay off the remainder. They can also cover their costs. This would be fair.
A better idea, but even better would be the government providing more social housing, like it used to be.
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RE: how capitalism breeds a " me " society.
April 5, 2009 at 4:23 pm
I don't think that's what people want though bozo. They want the power to choose and the perceived ability to rise to success, just like in America. personally I find it sickeningly selfish. Amazingly the UK population, along with our US counterparts, don't.
The Health Service is an amazing thing. So is UK Education; Local Authority Services; etc etc. People don't want to pay for it. The government meets out the people's wishes by constantly reducing funding to these services with the aim of making it all so that individuals who can pay, get, and those that can't, die/ starve/ rot as is their lot in life.
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RE: how capitalism breeds a " me " society.
April 5, 2009 at 4:43 pm
(April 5, 2009 at 4:23 pm)fr0d0 Wrote: I don't think that's what people want though bozo. They want the power to choose and the perceived ability to rise to success, just like in America. personally I find it sickeningly selfish. Amazingly the UK population, along with our US counterparts, don't.
The Health Service is an amazing thing. So is UK Education; Local Authority Services; etc etc. People don't want to pay for it. The government meets out the people's wishes by constantly reducing funding to these services with the aim of making it all so that individuals who can pay, get, and those that can't, die/ starve/ rot as is their lot in life.
People can't always have what they want. This country went downhill in 1979 when Thatcher was elected. She sold the myth of a nation of ( successful ) capitalists. She encouraged home ownership. She is directly responsible for the lack of social ownership now available.
I don't think you would bother with hoping to own a property in today's climate, if affordable social housing were available.
People do value the welfare state, I believe. They are prepared to pay for it, but they want it to be there when it's needed.
From Thatcher onwards, that provision has been eroded.
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RE: how capitalism breeds a " me " society.
April 5, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Adam Smith said that if everyone works for their own profit, the profit of all is maximized. Greed has been an integral part of capitalism since the beginning.
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RE: how capitalism breeds a " me " society.
April 5, 2009 at 4:58 pm
(April 5, 2009 at 4:55 pm)atrasicarius Wrote: Adam Smith said that if everyone works for their own profit, the profit of all is maximized. Greed has been an integral part of capitalism since the beginning.
Are you advocating capitalism?
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RE: how capitalism breeds a " me " society.
April 6, 2009 at 9:49 am
(This post was last modified: April 6, 2009 at 9:51 am by athoughtfulman.)
(April 5, 2009 at 10:16 am)bozo Wrote: Yesterday in the UK a property auction was held, run by an American company and conducted in an upbeat, high-energy American kind of way.
The lots were all repossessed properties i.e. people, families had been evicted for failing to keep up with their mortgages, as the recession bites deeper.
Thus the predators were there, individuals looking for a bargain and property speculators looking for the same...............all at the expense of the people made homeless after eviction.
The company was charging 10% on the sale price of the lots....so a nice little earner for it!
Moral of the tale? People are not born nasty, capitalism makes it inevitable.
That's a very simplistic way to look at it. Sure, of course there will be people who through no fault of their own cannot pay their mortgage and they will lose out. But at the same time exist people who are nothing but lazy bastards who see no reason to pay their way in life and will do anything to get out of paying a mortgage and whatever else. Capitalism doesn't fix the problem, but I think it's unreasonable to say that it exaggerates it. Lazy people will always exist, and hard-working individuals who want to go somewhere will always exist also.
Capitalism gives people the opportunity to depend on themselves and be responsible for their own welfare. And to a large extent, it weeds out those who are simply irresponsible with the way they live. But as with any system, there will be failures.
Capitalism breeds a "me" society granted, but that "me" society is the one in which you have the right to make decisions for yourself, to decide which career you want, to decide whether you want to be rich and famous or the simple life and a whole lot of other rights that we take for granted.
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RE: how capitalism breeds a " me " society.
April 6, 2009 at 9:58 am
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.
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