Surviving Capitalism (Not) : What Isn’t for Sale?

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, March 22, 2012

What Isn’t for Sale?

Click here to access article by Michael J. Sandel from The Atlantic.

After running through a list of examples of corruption due to the "market system", this "leading philosopher" of the One Percent writes:

These examples illustrate a broader point: some of the good things in life are degraded if turned into commodities. So to decide where the market belongs, and where it should be kept at a distance, we have to decide how to value the goods in question—health, education, family life, nature, art, civic duties, and so on. These are moral and political questions, not merely economic ones. To resolve them, we have to debate, case by case, the moral meaning of these goods, and the proper way of valuing them.

This is a debate we didn’t have during the era of market triumphalism. As a result, without quite realizing it—without ever deciding to do so—we drifted from having a market economy to being a market society.

First of all, I notice the omission of the naming of the system of capitalism from his essay. (One must never use the term "capitalism" in polite company in the US.) Also, he omits any mention of the never-ending wars, of the huge industrial-prison complex, of the social-economic devastation caused by a boom and bust economic system, of all the degrading effects on the environment caused by capitalism's growth imperative.

However. overall the essay suggests to me that the One Percent ruling class is becoming very worried about their beloved system of capitalism: "Today, that faith is in question." he writes, and continues on to reassure people that we only need to "to grapple with big questions about the morality of markets", and then we can make adjustments to the system to make everything okay. Of course, he is addressing his profound remarks to other members of the One Percent. Other than soothing, moralistic pieces like this, these spokespeople for the One Percent will keep their heads firmly buried beneath the sand, and rely on their military and police forces to have their way in the world.