Free Market Capitalism Is Not the Answer

I have a feeling this may be a multi-part article as the various aspects of this stretch so broadly.

First let me say that the capitalism of today is not the capitalism I was taught. The capitalism I was taught was one where entrepreneurs compete in a market place of products and ideas and "consumers" determine what (and who) is successful or not. This is the "capitalism" with a little "c."

However, today's capitalism is not "free market," but hegemonic. The biggest players have virtually unlimited control of both supply and demand, and the environment they operate in. The concentration of wealth - both nationally and globally - gets more and more extreme. This capitalism has gotten further and further away from human needs - or planetary realities. Its purpose seems to be complete control. The aim appears to be to implant corporate control between every resource necessary for life and human's ability to survive.

Examples range everywhere from food supply, to energy supply, to water supply. They range in services from health care to education to governance.

However, the inadequacies and the inequities of this system are quickly becoming glaringly obvious. We are increasingly seeing failures in food supply (human and animal), response to need and reconstruction (the debacle of hurricane Katrina), the treatment and operation of our armed services; control of national borders, and ownership of ports, airports, and roads. All of these are big and complex issues - which is why I said this is likely a multi-part series.

Of particular concern to me lately is the pet food recall which keeps broadening and deepening. So many issues at play here from concentration of production, to globalization (and globalization of food supply); to profit over all other considerations. Interestingly this is not so different from the various recent disasters with the human food supply - e-coli outbreaks from processing and handling facilities; salmonella outbreaks; the Star Link contaminated corn debacle.

It is telling that two weeks after the public finally knew something was going on that we still do not know what is the exact problem - or how broadly it stretches. What we do know is that it continues to expand. How many companies are really in the pet food business? I have a feeling it is very few. While over 100 brands of pet food have been recalled, how many actual companies is that?

We have discovered that from high end pet food (including specialized Vet prescribed brands) to "low end," are all being made in the same place with the same ingredients. Hmm.

We have discovered that one ingredient supplier can have an issue that impacts virtually the entire pet food supply chain.

We have discovered that there is no way of monitoring or reporting animal illnesses, disease, or death. My guess is that the same is increasingly true for humans.

We have heard reported that Menu Foods knew since December of 2006 that they had contaminated product, but continued to produce and distribute contaminated food until May of 2007. Is that how much wheat gluten they had on hand? Did they knowingly exploit the lack of a reporting system that would throw suspicion on why so many cats and dogs were experiencing kidney failure? What was the cost benefit analysis of this series of decisions?

Then there is the other side of this that has me increasingly concerned. Included in this contamination were most house brands - including those sold by Wal-Mart. Who are most likely to feed their pets only house brands, and to shop at say Wal-Mart? Those who are economically constrained. Those same people are the ones who have the least amount of money to take their pets to the Vet. Or, if they do take them to the Vet are least able to afford the treatment needed for this type of organ collapse. Of the thousands of animals now being reported dead from this contamination across the country, how many more are there that never even made it to a vet? My guess is more than who did.

How does this contamination affect humans? Is anyone even asking that question? We all know that there is a significant numbers of people in the US who eat canned cat and dog food because they can't afford anything else.

Where is all this recalled food going? Might there be a resale market outside the US? Who is monitoring it?

Lest one think I have drifted totally away from the original topic, I have not. All of these issues are symptomatic of increasing corporate and hegemonic capitalist pressures and forces.

We keep dealing with these issues piece-meal as if they stem from different sources. Increasingly, I think they stem from one. If we do not address this source, and looking at restructuring and realigning the "way things work," the scale of the "mistakes" are going to continue to grow.

Posted by rowan at April 8, 2007 10:18 AM | [eMail this article!] |