As the poor get poorer just exactly what do you think is happening in this capitalist paradise? Do you think the directorships are NOT interlocking, do you think the CEOs are NOT flying in their private airplanes, do you think those folks are missing a meal?

Now, as with the original post, there are simple questions. Try answering a couple. It might be fun, they sure are easy.

Government subsidies of corn ethanol to benefit crony industries is not capitalism.

In a free market, we would have been buying cheaper ethanol from Brazil, our corn would be going for whatever the unsubsidized market price would be, and things would be less expensive all around. A lot of people getting rich off taxpayer money (this is a real subsidy) would not be. Get it?

Please make note of my long-standing opinions of this program and rackets like Archer Daniels Midland.

In a socialist country, all companies are cronies. Their CEOs are government officials, or approved by them, and typically none of them miss a lot of meals or have to fly coach no matter what the rest of the economy is doing.

If a socialist leadership bought that farm, the only difference would be they’d be selling to the highest bidder instead of the original owners, and using the loot for their own aggrandizement.

South Village, pop. 5000, is very poor and starving. A younger population, unemployment rampant. North Village, pop. 5000 sits on a lake, is very wealthy, filled with retirees, and living in the lap of luxury.

South Village takes up a collection amongst it’s people, and can make an offer to the corn farmer of $1 a bushel for corn if planted for food.

North Village has a council meeting, and offers the farmer $2 a bushel if he plants it in a fuel variety and delivers it to a local plant.

$1 for food for the hungry, $2 for fuel for the wealthy.

For the capitalist there is no doubt as to what to do. The only value is capital, people are irrelevant. (Exactly what capitalists accuse everyone else of.) Harvest the wheat, trot it off to the fuel plant, and send the profits overseas into a hedge fund.

For the socialist there is no doubt as to what to do. Buy the capitalists farm at a fair market value and grow food.

Are there any lessons in ethics, values and compassion here? Is the fastest, highest profit the best for the ultimate good? What is the role of people in the human-economic equations?

How was the capitalist ethical,