Capitalism and Compassion

If you think about it, evolution and compassion have little in common. After all, as the theory goes, it’s survival of the strongest. Well, not quite. It’s survival of the best adapted to the environment, and if the environment needs strength, then, obviously it’s the strongest that wins out. Capitalism and evolution have a lot in common. Capitalism isn’t very compassionate either. It also works on survival of the strongest or best adapted, and just as, in the jungle, it’s the lion that eats the buck and the crocodile that eats the little fish, so in capitalism, it’s the King of the Carnival who has the peasants for breakfast.

Civilisation
If you look at the word, civilisation, you’ll notice it contains the word ‘civil.’ The word comes from the Latin word, civis (my Latin teacher would be most proud that I remember something from my five years of studying that dead language). Civis meant citizen, and to be a Roman citizen was considered to be really prestigious. Citizens had duties and responsibilities to Rome, and Latin, of course was the language of the Romans - the people of the city of Rome.

Through the years, the meaning of the word, civilization grew from meaning ‘law which makes a criminal law civil’ in 1702 through ‘civilized condition’ in 1772 meaning the opposite of a barbarian.  Around that time, to quote from wikipedia, “In a classical context, people were called "civilized" to set them apart from barbarians, savages, and primitive peoples...”

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2012/06/08/2076858/compassionate-capitalism.html

Civilisation, Civilized, and being Civil to Each Other
So right now, when we think of being civil to each other, we’re talking about being polite and making sure that we don’t offend others. When we talk about someone being civilized, we mean that they’re treating others fairly, politely, and with compassion. In other words, civilization is the very opposite of survival of the best adapted, the big guy eats the little guy, or might is right.

Capitalism and Compassion
Looking at it the way I’ve just explained it, it becomes clear that there is quite a conflict between compassion and capitalism. However, we’ve taken a big picture here. Let’s break it down in some more detail.

Profit, Wage Slavery, Compassion, Charities.
Every guy at the top will tell you that it’s the rich people who donate to charity, and that if they weren’t permitted to earn that amount of money, then a lot of poor people would suffer even more because there would be no rich people to help them out.

The truth is a little different.

The rich people couldn’t accumulate the amount of money they do if they paid a fair wage for the work performed. A fair wage is related to the worth of the work. Unhappily, as a result of commercial propaganda, very few people understand the full worth of their work and accept being paid at a feudal rate because they think that’s all their labor is worth.

Okay, that aside, ask yourself, “Just how much compassion has the head honcho got for his staff if he puts his profits and wealth ahead of the basic needs of a member of staff. In other words, the profit motive in capitalism is in direct conflict with compassion, and it’s not really possible to call oneself a civilized nation or people if compassion for all is missing from the equation.

Learn about Trade without Profit
"...mankind has always traded. Take, for instance, herdsmen in the distant dawn of time. Herdsman one traded two sheep for one cow with herdsman two. The trade was considered fair and equal by both herdsmen."

Trade Without Profit
It’s totally radical, I know! However, it’s quite possible to run business successful without having to make a profit. So long as people are paid a livable wage and the business is covering its costs, it really doesn’t have to make a profit.  And it’s time we seriously considered switching to a financial model that got rid of the profit motive and started becoming a truly civilized people. A world without compassion is not a good place to be.