Hi Roger, Fintan, Don R, Squad,
It is with some reluctance that I dive into the hot waters of the
political debate started by Fintan. It was probably inevitable that this
topic would surface in the discussions since Pirsig himself raised it in
the first place. I am a
student of neither politics nor economics, so you will have to forgive
my naive simplicity. Twenty minutes ago, this contribution was much
longer, but I ended up sticking with just the summary!
Communism starts with a moral value (the equal value of each individual)
and uses the intellect to run an economic system based on this value.
The system fails if it can't provide the minimum human conditions.
Capitalism is an amoral economic system which itself knows no obligation
to provide minimal human conditions. Capitalist enterprises collapse,
but capitalism as a system can never admit to its defeat. Even if
Fintan's balloon
finally bursts, the whole capitalist progression might just start again
from where it fell.
(This is the story of evolution - great flourishing and then
catastrophic collapse.)
A capitalist system can only be considered moral if it is conditioned
and restrained by an ethical system, and a part of that ethic should be
to anticipate and forestall any collapse.
Socio-economic systems should be morally judged on their ability to
provide good living to the world's people. Currently, there isn't a
system offering that.
Jonathan
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