I was inspired to write this by Ocelot71’s July 12^th blog; Not funny.

When I was a young, being the rational, logically thinking person I was, I read, “all men¹ are created equal”, believed it, and assumed that everyone is given the same opportunities in life.  What anyone did with them was their own responsibility.  Starting with first principles and working forward, it seemed to me that we all have the same chance in this great country of ours: therefore, laws protecting, promoting or in anyway equalizing people were unnecessary, if not downright unfair.  These assumptions led to a lot of ‘right’ thinking on my part.  It is only logical that if everyone has the same chances then it isn’t appropriate to make laws that are particularly advantageous to certain individuals.  However, like all logical conclusions, that one was only as good as its assumptions. 

What I started figuring out once I got to college was that it simply isn’t true that everyone is equal and has the same chances.  It became clearer and clearer that the rules were made for straight, white, well-off men (SWWOM).  The Macro Culture² defined the ‘average’ person as a SWWOM, then based what is reasonable on what the ‘average’ person would expect.  What I realized is that just ain’t fair.

In the old days of democracy, they solved this problem by defining citizens as those who fit the mold.  The American Constitution did not do this.  This may have been an oversight of our Founding Fathers; nonetheless, here and now a citizen is a citizen no matter what their shape, color, health, wealth and gonadal position (inside or out).  Because of that, we have a much more complicated task than did those crafty ancient Greeks.

This concept of the average person was so embedded in our minds that most people didn’t even realize it. The medical profession used white men as test subjects and applied the results indiscriminately to men and women of all races.  Since SWWOM was the average person, this was considered good science.  Granted, things have changed, but it was just in the last decade that airbag safety tests were done using dummies the size of men as the ‘average’ person.  Funny, airbags designed that way were found to kill children and small women.  Who would ‘a thunk?

My natural inclination is toward justice and fairness.  I do not have a bleeding heart³.  I have very little patience for people who are lazy or irresponsible.  I had to learn heart.  What my heart told me was that the assumptions on which American justice was based were flawed therefore the conclusion that we all have the same opportunities was just as flawed.  If someone didn’t fit the SWWOM Macro Culture mold, then something was wrong with them; when in fact, the problem was the mold itself was defined too narrowly.  It became clear that either the ‘average’ needed a larger sample size (or at least a more representative sample population) or there needed to be more “averages”.⁴  In recent years the courts have come to recognize the concept of the “average woman”, who may have a different perspective on sexual harassment than would the “average man”.  Things do change.

These old assumptions of Justice have broken down when it comes to gender, race, sexual orientation and class based income.  All people in this country do not start out on an even footing, and we do not all have the same opportunities.  Some of the reasons are due to accidents of nature, but some are due to historic institutionalized discrimination (slavery, genocide and internment being rather glaring examples).  The latter are unjust and the institution has a responsibility to attempt amends for the wrongs it has done and created. ⁵

Now that I have covered politics, I have a few things to say about economics.

Free Market Capitalism does not work.  The Great Depression demonstrated that.  Unregulated capitalism will eat up our world and the lower ¾ (or more) of our citizens.  When capitalism is practiced without limits it treats people and the environment as simple disposable commodities to be used up and thrown out.  The highest priority is profit.  This is wrong and it does not create a world in which I want to live.

Again, I came to this conclusion by observing the world.  What I learned was that the worse case scenario under free market capitalism is a much bleaker, miserable place to live for more people than under socialism (Note:  I am talking about the economic system of democratic socialism, not the political system of communism).  Without regulations some people will continually foul our nest and rest their fat butts on the shoulders of the poor.

It happens over and over again that some capitalists, pushing the limits, cause more real damage than do socialist.  They just barely a pay a living wage⁶ or claim no responsibility of their waste (environmental laws had to be enacted to stop them from filling up our land, water and air with pollutants), their products (chemicals seem to have been elevated to that of citizenship, as they are now considered innocent until proven guilty), or for working situations that are dangerous (OSHA has done much to improve that situation).

I am not saying that socialism automatically works or has no problems.  I am saying the worst evils under socialism are more humane than the worst evils under capitalism.  It is clear that socialism did not save Eastern Europe from environmental disaster.  But that was the choice the Eastern Europeans made; they did not value the environment.  The arguments in America against socialized medicine are “no choice” and “long waits”.  These are less evil than having no help when your life depends on it, or going bankrupt because of a disease.

Ayn Rand, the poster child for capitalism, wrote Atlas Shrugged as the quintessential novel portraying the evils of socialism.  She painted a world that was dreary, inefficient, lazy and detrimental to creativity.  The creative people escaped this world and built a beautiful, efficient, fruitful capitalist world in a hidden valley.  Personally, I thought the novel sucked.  But, it is consider the seminal work on capitalist promotion.

On the other hand, novels such as Zola’s Germinal or Sinclair’s The Jungle describe what it is like to work and work and work and get nowhere.  Unlike Atlas Shrugged, these novels portray real events.  The worlds they paint are bleak, deadly and desperate.  In these worlds, the wronged people have no escape.  They are so imprisoned in this world that they fight to the death, and then some.  It is a much more despairing place and much closer to real events than was Atlas Shrugged.

The myth is simply not true that people have money because they worked hard to get it.  Certainly it happens, and certainly it can happen, but many people are poor because they just can’t get a break.  The bottom line is that the evils of run away capitalism cause greater harm than those of run away socialism.

When I took ethics in the Accounting department as Colorado State University, the other students took pride that accountants historically governed themselves.  “It would be wrong for the government to do it” was the common outcry.  However in this country, the accounting profession did not take responsibility for its self until after the 1929 crash at which point the government stepped in and said, “Do it or we will!”  Even then, after every accounting crisis since the government has had to step in and force the accounting profession to address the problem.  In every case, the accountants have dragged their feet and muttered “we can do it ourselves” the whole time; not actually regulating themselves until pushed to the wall by government agencies.  But, as we have all seen in recent years, it isn’t just the accountants or the corporate owners who lose when accounting slips under the regulations.  Many, many people have been swindled out of their retirements because of this accounting that doesn’t need government regulations.

Having said all that, it galls me unmercifully to hear those self-righteous right-winger bastards say they voted for morality or patriotism.  All of my politics is based on morality and ethics not self-interest.  And, I am VERY patriotic.  I love this country.  The more I travel to other countries the more I wonder at the beauty of our constitution.  It was a real revolution in the evolution of society.  I just hope that our society will have the strength to live up to it in the coming years.

1. You would think a die-hard, born feminist would have taken this as a hint.  But, I was TOLD that it was an inclusive term, as it should be.  Unfortunately, it is only inclusive when men want it to be as are many identity terms (such as Gay, Guy and Goy (I only added that last one because I was on a role.  But, it might also apply.)).
2. ‘Macro Culture’ is a term I heard years ago in San Francisco.  I love it.  It means the generalized, mass culture that tries to define and homogenize our worldview.
3. When it comes to people, that is.  When it comes to doggies…that is a mammal of a different color.
4. In fact, the ‘average person’ is actually a woman, as there are more of us then there are of men.
5. The former is not the fault of the institution but that doesn’t mean it is not the responsibility of a democracy to address needs and rights of its citizens no matter how diverse.  Examples would include such things as the disparity between the sexes in regards to childbirth, differential educational abilities or physical disabilities.
6. If you think such things are ancient history, check out this story about the homeless men who were solicited as migrant farm workers in Florida: (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4753236).