NP Worthy look at contemporary capitalism

[David Morris]

I suspect & hope that Alice is a trickster.  Something to temper into a zen
restraint of response.

On Thursday, February 28, 2013, Markekohut wrote:

> C'mon, Alice. A Reuters' journalist as economist now?
> Even under the modern world system of capitalism since the end of the
> Middle Ages,
> Things could have always been different.
>
> That is what we talk about economically, policy wise.
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On Feb 28, 2013, at 6:48 AM, alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com<javascript:;>>
> wrote:
>
> > "Inequality is indeed increasing almost everywhere in the
> > postindustrial capitalist world."
> >
> > This is utter nonsense. It's a game of numbers, numberrs that have
> > become a meaningless mantra if old-Left rhetoric, numbers that don't
> > reall add up, and can't figure in the same equation that sums up the
> > reality that real people are experiencing under late capitalism.
> >
> > Sure, we can use the numbers, the big data, the stats to support this
> > claim that the rich are getting richer, grabbing more power and
> > wealth, undermining democracy, electing billionaires to
> > government...so on. Sure, we can confirm this obvious and very
> > troubling development. We should not ignore or deminish in any way the
> > suffering this inequality is causing to people, to the planet.  But
> > this argument fails to account for the fact that billions of people
> > eat better, sleep better, work better, play better, live better than
> > they did before capitalism spread its global tenticles. When we look
> > at the world we see something else entirely. Capital with a conscience
> > is agreat success story. Look to Brazil.
> >
> > Brazil's internationally praised monthly stipend program has pulled 36
> > million people from extreme poverty since it was first expanded in
> > 2003 by Rousseff's predecessor and political mentor, Luiz Inacio Lula
> > da Silva. In eight years in office, Lula oversaw an economic boom that
> > helped create a vast middle class in a country long known as a society
> > of haves and have-nots.
> >
> >
> http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/19/us-brazil-poverty-idUSBRE91I14F20130219
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 1:40 PM, Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com<javascript:;>>
> wrote:
> >> From this month's Foreign Affairs magazine:
> >>
> http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/138844/jerry-z-muller/capitalism-and-inequality?cid=emc-mar13promoa-content-02192013
>
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