“CAPITALISM DOESN’T WORK”: Scenes from a Miniscule High School Newspaper Controversy

With my senior year coming to a close, I decided to do something special with my last few articles. One was the Bush retrospective I put up here. The last one was just published and will be put up here shortly. The first article was something I’d been considering for awhile but refrained from in fear of the furor it would raise. Realizing that controversy was what every journalist should aspire to, I finally did it. Here’s the article in question, in it’s original unedited form:

CAPITALISM DOESN’T WORK
And here’s why

By Sean Doyle

In America, we consider certain notions to be inherent and inalienable. Say something contrary and the nimble hands of society quickly label you and quarantine you from the good, sane citizens. War is a big one. Only useless hippie scum would suggest that war is often pointless and unnecessary. But I’d hazard a guess that nothing will earn you your status as a looney, America-hating, left-wing, Commie nutjob quite effectively as making the simple point that capitalism doesn’t work.

And that’s exactly what I’m doing. Because capitalism doesn’t work. Say what you will, but the system is just plain flawed.

Everyday in America, someone is being layed off or screwed over or kept down by a privileged few who hold all the cards and have all the power. 40% of the world’s wealth is held by 1% of the population. And that 1% routinely gets away with whatever they want in America with little more than a slap on the wrist. They ruin lives and treat people like cattle. They buy their way into every level of our government and send our soldiers to die in order to keep themselves in business.
In this way, capitalism is in opposition to America’s basic values. When instituted, the first thing capitalism does is divide society into three parts: the low, the middle, and the high. And so there is always an inherently unequal society. But some will argue that the people at the bottom deserve to be there, that capitalism’s greatest strength is that it rewards those with initiative, those who know how to compete. The problem is that in capitalism, there’s always three classes, even if - hypothetically speaking - everyone was filled with all kinds of good old fashioned ambition. There’d still be a lower class and they’d still be dirt poor. Ask yourself: Have you and your family just been a bunch of slothful idiots for your entire lives? If you’re middle class or lower, capitalism says yes, you must have. Being successful in this system isn’t about being more ambitious or a better person or a harder worker. Initiative wasn’t what got that 1% where they are. Capitalism rewards dishonesty and viciousness.
I don’t know, this all just seems so obvious to me. But I’m in the minority. That’s because capitalism does an excellent job of hiding just how bad of a system it is. The message is hammered in over and over again that, thanks to capitalism, anyone can be successful in America. I hate to be the pessimist here, but the life of any average America would tell you that this isn’t true. But capitalism is good for America in general though, right? This where “Reaganomics” or trickle-down economics comes in. It’s a theory that if you let the rich prosper, their wealth will be reinvested into society and everyone will benefit. It was designed to take full advantage of one of the biggest hidden mechanisms of capitalism: the visibility and influence of the rich. The poor are always invisible to general society. You will always be far more concerned with Paris Hilton than that homeless man you pass on the street. You may think that that’s wrong, but you can’t deny that it’s true. The general atmosphere of the nation will always be most highly influenced by the well being of the upper class. In short, if the rich are doing well, then all of America must be doing great. America becomes confident in how rich and powerful it is and the middle class can forget that they’re living under a system that leaves so very many out in the cold to die.
The rich control the country through media and information. Essentially, the media is entirely owned by about six massive corporations. They tow the line, and make sure that any alternative to capitalism is equatable to Satanism. They’re telling us what to think. And we can’t even represent ourselves because you can’t run for public office unless you have the money. They’ve had us beat from the start.

If this sounds like “class warfare” then yeah, it is. I don’t like the rich and I don’t trust them. I can’t stand to see so much concentrated into the hands of so few, while so many live with nothing. It’s not right.
I see no benefit in capitalism other than to that upper class. I’m not saying other economic systems aren’t flawed, but there’s got to be something better than this. But I doubt that the American people will ever make a stand against it. That’s capitalism’s greatest weapon: the dangling dream of success, no matter how far out of reach it is.

People reacted, as I’d hoped and I got quite a few questions/criticisms about it. Then, while we were setting up for the District Art Show, I met this Junior who disagreed quite vehemently with the article. He shall remain nameless, as I don’t want it to look like I’m using my blog to smear kids from my school. Anyway, we debated for about ten minutes until we both got tired of it and I gave him the proper info on sending in a response to the paper and he did. Here it is, from last month’s issue:

And so, naturally, I responded:

I’ll leave it up to you to decide who won this little debate.

(HINT: It was me.)

- Sean, Professional Amateur High School Journalist.

May 08