Capitalism is NOT the Answer

I've written before about capitalism and how it cannot possibly work in conjunction with democracy, and which is more important blah blah. Well, I've got more. I'm "flipping" it and approaching it from a different perspective, that of a reasonable American who wants to save the planet.

• I started to watch FrackNation but had to turn it off when I got sick to my stomach over all the capitalism being crammed down farmers' throats. The movie is a retort to the fracking issue brought up in Gasland. Basically, it interviews farmers who say that they need those fracking wells on their property; otherwise, they couldn't make ends meet. They can't survive just by farming alone; they are forced to house these wells, and the worst thing of all is that they think the wells are a good thing!
  I'm thinking, why can't we support them as farmers and make sure they can make a living that way instead of forcing them to do business with frackers?
• Obama's attempt to change the face of healthcare -- why are they looking at it in terms of insurance? Why does every person have to have insurance? By providing "free" insurance to those who can't afford it otherwise, isn't resentment being built in, where one citizen turns against another because the second is seen as lazy and "working the system"?
  I'm thinking, why can't we just cut healthcare costs dramatically, if not entirely, and quit making it about ensuring that health insurance companies make a profit? Why don't we make it about people instead?
• The same can be said of Finland's idea to provide a living wage for anyone who has no job. Those who "work" are going to resent those who don't. Those who receive a living wage will be seen as lazy. Others predict that many would quit their jobs to get the living wage. It's all about a work ethic whose success is measured in dollars.
  
  But if we "flip"it and look at it in non-capitalistic terms, then I'm thinking why can't we quit obsessing about money, which has absolutely no value except our undying belief that it does, and look at a resource-based economy? I know I'm asking a lot but it would be a fair way to go and it doesn't pit people against each other. In fact, it builds in productivity; everyone can contribute.
  
• Looking at the notion of a global economy, after watching many documentaries about it, I've come to see that governments and big business are talking about capitalism/corporatocracy, not a resource-based, economy. Governments can be bought.
  
  Mega-corporations are spreading their brand of business to countries like China, where workers risk their lives everyday to earn a measly wage and where the air is so bad that citizens are buying canned air from Canada! There's capitalism for you -- selling air.
  These countries put up with outside corporations because they generate jobs, no matter how demeaning and dangerous. Jobs are more important than the health of our people and our planet. American corporations are doing to other countries what they are not allowed to do in the United States, and they are doing it BECAUSE they can't in the US. It's a disgrace.
  
  So let's again flip this thing! Let's go local. Let's go organic. Let's communicate with the rest of the world without political intervention, just community to community.  Let's get our power back and simply quit buying into corporatocracy/capitalism, quit competing for jobs. Let's pull together as communities to solve problems, pooling our resources and helping each other out when times get tough. 

That's all I've got for now. Today, I'm headed out to a composting presentation at a senior center in Abq. Going out to learn something new, New Mexico!