There is no alternative to capitalism that can produce material wealth on a comparable scale, and therefore capitalism is the system we must have. But it must be understood that the free market is not a moral imperative, but a tool for the benefit of society. When it fails to accurately reflect the true moral, social, and environmental costs of products and services, the governments role is to correct it - people do not have the time or necessarily the inclination to vote well with their dollar. More importantly, it must be understood that the lifestyle of the wealthy elite exists not because people are morally entitled it by dint of their (or their forebears) labors, but rather at the sufferance of the masses so that the system functions. It is never the moral choice to spend millions on a yacht instead of contributing to a worthy cause; however, if people contribute enough value to society because they want that yacht, better to let them have it. But legions of people get rich off schemes that benefit no one else at all, and they are lauded for it. At the end of the day, money is not in itself an indicator of virtue. The absurd belief that it is is a cancer in the heart of our society that is eating it inside out. See my last post on Shirley Ann Jackson. It is not only she who is overpaid. Look at Form 990 for RPI. The highest-paid 20 employees could all be paid over 100,000 dollars a year while still saving 5 million dollars on their salaries (annualizing Shirleys 10-year deferred compensation package), or nearly 10,000 dollars of debt per RPI undergrad to pay for these 20 people, only two of whom are professors. The trustees think this is right and proper, because they come from the culture of business where the people at the top get paid outlandish sums. The alumni elect the trustees because they were successful in business, which is taken to imply that they are fit to run a university. And at the end of the day, the students and the faculty and the sum of human knowledge lose. This is happening to universities all across America, because that is what our system mandates. It values the overpaid pencil-pushers and marketers who administrate a university over the faculty and students who embody its purpose. Education and research only have value to the market in so far as they can be monetized, and competition will not save the university system when the entire larger system suffers from the same fatal flaws that lead to the same mistakes being repeated everywhere. And this is but one small facet of the devastating consequences of our collective blindness.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 07:07:37 +0000
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