I live in a very poor neighborhood, and I see people struggling to make ends meet every day--yet the university I attend is a very wealthy institution that caters (more often than not) to very wealthy students and families. For the past year, TCU has been in the process of constructing a gigantic apartment complex on their grounds--a facility complete with its own parking garage.
Most of the people who ride the bus with me smile when they see the apartment complex and say, "Boy, those are gonna be nice when they're finished, hih?" Some even think about moving there (after all, apartments are just that--apartments--whether they're on a university campus or not).
I don't have the heart to tell them that TCU is planning on charging at least $900 a month for rent.
I'm not a fan of capitalism, never have been. People say it's an economic system of freedom, but it seems to me that if one wants to start a business, one needs to have money first. And if one wants to buy a house or lease a multi-room apartment or raise a family, one has to have a decent job with decent income.
More than that, I see in my neighborhood how capitalism actually inhibits freedom. Most of the people who live where I live are African-American, and it seems that a lot of African-Americans just aren't catching the same kinds of economic breaks that whites in the area have. And the more I talk to people and see how things are played out here (in a community where it seems that people can't manage to move up from poor working class to some semblance of middle class status), the more I understand that the current economic system in the United States generally hurts as many people as it helps.
I wish I could say, with the certainty of an Upton Sinclair, that the solution for this problem is a socialist economy, but the fact is, governments have shown just as much (if not more) capability to conduct themselves callously or incompetently as private corporations have. Also, given the previous century of social, political, and economic upheavals (and our own apparently weak economy), I can't say I'm a fan of sudden broad-scale socioeconomic changes, unless they are changes that redress long-term injustices, such as slavery or Jim Crow.
I'm not sure exactly what the solution is, but I do know that capitalism's most endearing trait is its dependence on buyers. If one begins to make socially conscious decisions (such as not shopping at a store that treats its employees like slaves), and encourages others to do the same, it is, I think, a beginning.
Most of the people who ride the bus with me smile when they see the apartment complex and say, "Boy, those are gonna be nice when they're finished, hih?" Some even think about moving there (after all, apartments are just that--apartments--whether they're on a university campus or not).
I don't have the heart to tell them that TCU is planning on charging at least $900 a month for rent.
I'm not a fan of capitalism, never have been. People say it's an economic system of freedom, but it seems to me that if one wants to start a business, one needs to have money first. And if one wants to buy a house or lease a multi-room apartment or raise a family, one has to have a decent job with decent income.
More than that, I see in my neighborhood how capitalism actually inhibits freedom. Most of the people who live where I live are African-American, and it seems that a lot of African-Americans just aren't catching the same kinds of economic breaks that whites in the area have. And the more I talk to people and see how things are played out here (in a community where it seems that people can't manage to move up from poor working class to some semblance of middle class status), the more I understand that the current economic system in the United States generally hurts as many people as it helps.
I wish I could say, with the certainty of an Upton Sinclair, that the solution for this problem is a socialist economy, but the fact is, governments have shown just as much (if not more) capability to conduct themselves callously or incompetently as private corporations have. Also, given the previous century of social, political, and economic upheavals (and our own apparently weak economy), I can't say I'm a fan of sudden broad-scale socioeconomic changes, unless they are changes that redress long-term injustices, such as slavery or Jim Crow.
I'm not sure exactly what the solution is, but I do know that capitalism's most endearing trait is its dependence on buyers. If one begins to make socially conscious decisions (such as not shopping at a store that treats its employees like slaves), and encourages others to do the same, it is, I think, a beginning.
posted by Brian Bly at 8:00 AM
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