Saturday, February 21, 2009

The Secret

What if the secret to more employment for people is less employment for machines? What if we were no less committed to “the least among us” than we are passionate about our vaunted economic and political theories? What if we really did put people first, firmly above climbing over others to get ahead ourselves?

If healthy, fulfilling, honorable work for everyone was our top priority, would tens of millions of Americans know – and a hundred million or more fear – that their fellow countrymen have no further need for their services?

What if more Growth for those of us already wallowing in stuff leads us away from true prosperity? What if a tide of material consumption that rises even further would drown humankind beneath depletion and ruin long before it lifted the leaking dinghies of the poorest of the poor? What if Edmund Burke’s warning is true: we are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to our disposition to put moral chains upon our own appetites?

Because the choice today – indeed, the choice for all time – remains very simple: to love and serve one another; or abandon ourselves to the pursuit of the lowest prices, the highest rates of return, and the opportunity to die with the most toys.

2 comments:

Joseph Neri said...

When people start to realize and appreciate the political clout they possess by doing nothing, ie., not buying as much stuff as they used to and how that will force capitalism to transform into something that more rationally serves society, then we will learn one more lesson of Freedom.

Suburban Guy said...

robots and machines brought us mass production.

as a world society, we opted for quantity over quality.

Once upon a time, once could get a pair of hand made shoes or a tailored coat.

Now, those things are a rarity, becuase the people that make those things aren't in demand anymore.

Why wait for something well made, when you can have something poorly made that won't last a year, right away?

we live in a disposable life society.

if there is one single thing that comes out of this colossal mess, I hope it's people begin to understand the concept of quality.