Bumper Sticker installment for Labor Day

 I ' m going to skip ahead on bumper sticker to match the occasion: " Capitalism lifts people up from poverty. "As usual, I ' m not sure exactly what the implication of this is supposed to be. In grand historical terms, it is true that human material well being has increased enormously since the advent of industrial capitalism in the 19th Century. That is the economic system that converted fossil fuel into the astonishing technological development and material infrastructure that distinguishes the modern world from all of previous history. But it doesn ' t seem to be much of a political point. Nobody on the left or right disputes that. There are people who don ' t think it was worth it, but only a tiny fringe of radical environmentalists literally wishes to undo it. (And Ted Kaczynski is dead.) The story is a bit more complicated in that the Soviet Union achieved rapid industrialization,  albeit at the cost of brutal oppression and mass murder. But it ' s economy then stagnated, and hasn ' t done a whole lot better under its present regime of crony capitalism. China achieved rapid economic growth only when it abandoned Communism, although the government role in its economy is still much greater than the countries of the West. But I don ' t think the bumper sticker is intended as an assertion about world history.If we take it as an assertion about present day public policy, within the boundaries of reasonable alternatives, it seems utterly vapid. There is f...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs