Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The Burden of the Rich

If this article in the New York Times doesn't make you bothered by Capitalism, even in just the slightest bit, I'm not sure where your heart is. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a socialist and I do understand macroeconomics, but I am troubled by some of the fundamentals of Capitalism. When it boils down to it, Capitalism relies on our selfishness. How can that not bother you? I'd like to think that investment and generosity will pick up our economy from the bottom up, but it seems that those principles are not as valuable to a struggling economy as selfish extravagance. Our economic prosperity as a whole, relies on our demand for the unnecessary.

There's got to be a bottom up solution to our recession that involves lifting up the working class, rather than just finding things for rich people to buy. I hate the entire concept of redistribution, but I also think that there must be some way in which the wealthy can boost our economy other than simply pissing away their money. The desire to spend is what got us into this whole mess, so it troubles me that our best economic minds think that it is also the solution.