mcgillianaire (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mcgillianaire) wrote2005-11-07 11:25 am
mcgillianaire) wrote2005-11-07 11:25 am
Equity, rather... and Compassionate Capitalism
Equity and Equality of opportunity are good principles in theory but it just seems to me that even though most people have good intentions, something seems to go wrong between that and what happens in practice. It seems like (almost) everybody tries to circumvent the system, at some level or another.
That's not cool but the fact is, it happens and many people are able to get away with it everyday, everywhere. Have I become too cynical? Perhaps. Maybe it's a phase of disillusionment - I've been pretty naive most of my life and people I thought were in general very good people, in the sense, good-law-abiding-citizens, aren't quite that. People very close to me. Then there's the issue of some of the courses I've taken here at McGill - Social Context of Business, Ecological Economics and The Underground Economy.
I used to want to fight for equity, global justice and all that good stuff but now I think the only way to defend against others who seek to exploit is to deal with them in their own battlefield. In the sense, there are some people out there, a tiny minority in the 6 billion people who own the vast majority of wealth and power in the world, and while it's praiseworthy to try and fight for democratizing the situation from the bottom, the roots, I think I'm better off fighting for it @ the top.
Maybe I'm just impatient. I know (too much) power can do crazy things to decent people but I'm willing to take that risk. I see myself as a socialist who wants to take the battle to the exploitative capitalists at their own game. I don't see myself as your typical profit-maximizing capitalist, but I don't see anything wrong with people having the opportunity to earn vast amounts of wealth and power. If they do follow that path, then it's upto them to pay the price of becoming greedy and exploiting people to the point where they are displaced either by the law and/or the unhappy masses.
I know that my intentions of joining the big-bad-world of profit-maximizing corporations is to earn the big bucks, live a life of wealth & comfort etc. - but I'm also from rural India, and that means a lot to me. I see myself as a bridge between the voiceless weaver in Vallipurathampalayam (my ancestral village) and the chaps working in Wall Street & the Oval Office. Power and wealth for me is to improve my own life and then the lives of people who mean the most to me.
Unfortunately that involves an opportunity cost - others who probably deserve the payoffs equally or more around the world, but I'd rather help my own people more, than others. It's realizations such as these which have made me feel very uncomfortable recently, and I am still in the process of understanding what's really going on in my head with regards to my future but as of now, I know one thing, I'm a compassionate capitalist whose goal is to make lives better for those I identify with most (not necessarily those related to me) but also to use the system and live the good life.
If that involves circumventing the system, so be it. I just need to make sure I make the right connections everywhere. :)
That's not cool but the fact is, it happens and many people are able to get away with it everyday, everywhere. Have I become too cynical? Perhaps. Maybe it's a phase of disillusionment - I've been pretty naive most of my life and people I thought were in general very good people, in the sense, good-law-abiding-citizens, aren't quite that. People very close to me. Then there's the issue of some of the courses I've taken here at McGill - Social Context of Business, Ecological Economics and The Underground Economy.
I used to want to fight for equity, global justice and all that good stuff but now I think the only way to defend against others who seek to exploit is to deal with them in their own battlefield. In the sense, there are some people out there, a tiny minority in the 6 billion people who own the vast majority of wealth and power in the world, and while it's praiseworthy to try and fight for democratizing the situation from the bottom, the roots, I think I'm better off fighting for it @ the top.
Maybe I'm just impatient. I know (too much) power can do crazy things to decent people but I'm willing to take that risk. I see myself as a socialist who wants to take the battle to the exploitative capitalists at their own game. I don't see myself as your typical profit-maximizing capitalist, but I don't see anything wrong with people having the opportunity to earn vast amounts of wealth and power. If they do follow that path, then it's upto them to pay the price of becoming greedy and exploiting people to the point where they are displaced either by the law and/or the unhappy masses.
I know that my intentions of joining the big-bad-world of profit-maximizing corporations is to earn the big bucks, live a life of wealth & comfort etc. - but I'm also from rural India, and that means a lot to me. I see myself as a bridge between the voiceless weaver in Vallipurathampalayam (my ancestral village) and the chaps working in Wall Street & the Oval Office. Power and wealth for me is to improve my own life and then the lives of people who mean the most to me.
Unfortunately that involves an opportunity cost - others who probably deserve the payoffs equally or more around the world, but I'd rather help my own people more, than others. It's realizations such as these which have made me feel very uncomfortable recently, and I am still in the process of understanding what's really going on in my head with regards to my future but as of now, I know one thing, I'm a compassionate capitalist whose goal is to make lives better for those I identify with most (not necessarily those related to me) but also to use the system and live the good life.
If that involves circumventing the system, so be it. I just need to make sure I make the right connections everywhere. :)
no subject
Power and wealth for me is to improve my own life and then the lives of people who mean the most to me.
Unfortunately that involves an opportunity cost - others who probably deserve the payoffs equally or more around the world, but I'd rather help my own people more, than others.
If that involves circumventing the system, so be it. I just need to make sure I make the right connections everywhere. :)
Hello, Dubya.