EPOCH6

First of all let me make it clear that I'm not some kind of anti-capitalist, I'm quite convinced that capitalist systems are the best answer we've got right now. Like any other system it has its faults and cannot address every economic or social problem, but it works better than anything we've known thus far. A system primarily based upon the concept earning your keep and competitively striving for more is a system that accelerates technological, economical, and social progress. We wouldn't be anywhere near where we are today as a civilization without all of the products of capitalism, both good and bad.

But we're only kidding ourselves if we fail to acknowledge the system's shortcomings, you can't fix a system without first addressing its faults. Work ethic is extremely important, it's a quality that will take you a long way, but getting anywhere in North America (or whatever other capitalist societies) isn't as easy as 'work hard and you win'. Equal opportunity is a myth, we're all on different levels of opportunity the minute we're born. So many factors that are out of our control have a massive effect on how we'll have to play the game to get anywhere in life.

You we're taught at a young age to work diligently to earn your keep, so was I, so were most of my friends and family, and that concept has probably been working pretty damn well for us, but that doesn't happen in every home, we all know that. Kids born into families that aren't in a position to raise children have to work many times harder than we did, and if nobody helps them or gives them advice or shows them the way to growing and looking after yourself, they just go on to have underprivileged children of their own, and the vicious cycle repeats.

We simply can't expect people born into neglect to automatically know how the system works, we can't just tell them "work hard and you win". They need to be coached, they need to be shown how to use computers, they need to be taught how to purchase and insure property, they need to be taught how to manage finances, they need to be taught how to drive, they need to be taught how to communicate in a professional environment, they need to be taught about expectations and tradition and culture and a million other things that we all take for granted because our parents or some other guiding figure taught us.

We have all of these uneducated folks that don't know how to play the game over here... and then over there we've got people born into the game, people who were coached in the ways of the game, people who had mentors, people born into wealthy families, and people who have learned how to exploit and cheat the system, people who make a hundred large in a day without leaving their office chair. There are people who work their hands to a pulp and people who work themselves into heat stroke every week who still get relentlessly ****ed over all of the time because there are other people that are better at the game than they are.

That's where capitalism fails. It succeeds in so many other ways but it's not a fool proof system. Behind the car loans, two-piece suits, mortgages, savings accounts, ATMs, and penthouse suites it's extremely brutal to those who aren't taught the ins and outs. It's so much more complicated than "work hard and succeed". It's more like "work a certain way, lie to certain people, don't say certain things, fill out the right paperwork, meet the right people, never have less than $5000 in your bank account, and then pray you don't accidentally **** up or get in a car accident".

__________________