Capitalism Versus “Crapitalism”
Submitted by Dean Alexander, Wrightwood
Labor Day has come and gone, and Christmas is in the air. So are the TV advertisements poised to pounce on our hard-earned dollars. I accept this as a fact of life since they support programming I watch. This trade-off is our America, and watching “Limu Emu” 2,000 times is a price I’m willing to pay (though he/ she had better watch his/ her step around Thanksgiving!!) My own capitalist instincts led me to invent a specialized shoe lace tying product that was lauded twice in the L.A. Times, sold through Nordstrom in the 90s, and awarded two U.S. patents.
What I cannot accept with ANY equanimity is the promotion of products that knowingly do harm to others. As a developmental psychologist, this is an especially hard pill to swallow when the targeted audience is young people. As if the smoking industry hasn’t wreaked enough havoc upon health, here comes e-cigarettes and vaping. JUUL, BLUE, VUSE ALTO, with ads that grab through “breakthrough technology,” appealing flavors, and psychedelics. In your mind, in your mouth, in your face; in your lungs, your vessels, your heart. The result: A slow onset of difficulty breathing, shortness of breath and chest pain, vomiting, diarrhea, and severe fatigue. Preliminary research points to vascular, respiratory, and cellular damage, and the possibility of seizures and pulmonary disease. Injury has occurred from exploding devices. All alongside nicotine addiction. (TIME magazine).
The census, i.e., the toll, increases daily. Several days ago, according to NBC, the CDC office (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) was aware of 450 confirmed or suspected cases in 33 states; and deaths in Indiana, Illinois, and Oregon. The number of deaths reported today has climbed to six (CNN). The U.S. Surgeon General has declared youth vaping an epidemic.
Recent studies indicate that 27% of high schoolers use vapes or e-cigarettes on a regular basis.
(BREITBART). Most are under-aged, i.e., illegal for teens. These products are not FDA approved, and many practitioners consider them “gateway” to traditional combustible products.
Christmas is in the air. So is smoke from e-cigarettes and vaping. With some irony here, the most popular story told and re-told at Christmastime is a tug-o-war ghost story. Ebenezer Scrooge is a “Crapitalist.” He personifies a readiness to make money off of the suffering of others who have fallen under his sway. Not outside the margin of the law, but anguishly exploitive. He no doubt would have died exploiting others but for an other-worldly visitation by his former business partner, Jacob Marley. Even witnessing Jacob in ponderous chains, Scrooge is reluctant to believe his own senses, in sharp contrast to life-long business sensibilities.
‘Business!’ cried the ghost, wringing its hands again. ‘Mankind was my business.
The COMMON WELFARE was my business, charity, mercy, forbearance,and benevolence, were, all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!” (Jacob Marley)
For a few, cautionary ghost stories may be as empty as a sheet with no body to support it. For many others of us, “A Christmas Carol” is as much a tale of our time as when Dickens penned it for his Christmas readership. The holiday season is time to take stock of what we have to offer to family, to friends, to humanity. Do we give or do we take? Are we helping others to break their own bonds- here, addictions- or forging unforgiving chains for them and for ourselves- link by link, yard by yard, puff by puff? Capitalist or Crapitalist? Time to take stock of our Better Angels.
Wishing you the season’s best,
