Capitalism is broken

In Denmark, Sweden and Norway, education, health care, life expectancy and voter participation are far ahead of the United States. These countries treat a decent job, a secure retirement, daycare and elderly care as basic human rights. Other western European countries that have much more socialism than us also do much better for their people.

In the United States, where capitalism is worshiped, a businessperson’s only responsibility is to make money. If that means union busting, poverty wages, no benefits, high unemployment and homelessness, so be it.

But even in some Western European countries, the profits-at-any-cost greed that infests unregulated capitalism results in decisions harmful to human survival. As Jennifer Scarlott points out in one of her recent excellent “Point of view” columns (“An impassioned call to join Albany climate protest,” May 5), the small German town of Proschim produces 100 percent of its energy from non-polluting renewable sources. But the German government wants to destroy this town to get at the coal underneath it. Keep making every last dollar today regardless of whether you’ll survive tomorrow.

In the same column, Ms. Scarlott highlights the insane proposal to build a pipeline for fracked gas just 105 feet from the Indian Point nuclear plant. Add to this the insanity of a nuclear plant that’s near earthquake fault lines and not far from New York City. Add to this the insanity of fracking, which destroys towns and poisons drinking water.

Ms. Scarlott’s column the following week shows the evil of a system that allows business people to ignore morality in pursuit of money (“Justice for farm workers,” May 12). Farm workers not covered by normal labor laws make below the minimum wage and don’t get paid overtime or days off. When people work under these conditions, you cannot say that slavery has been abolished.

But even many covered by labor laws are still impoverished. The minimum wage will finally get up to $15 an hour citywide in 2018 and statewide in 2021. But that’s still a poverty wage right now.

Unregulated business not only produced a Wall Street culture perfectly summed up by Bernie Sanders as “fraud as a business model,” but it produces bankruptcy scams as well. One example is reported in the April-May edition of “Hightower Lowdown.” Glencore bought Sherwin Alumina only to drive it into bankruptcy. Why? So they could sell off its assets and then re-open it as a non-union business.

Closer to home, Riverdale Press editor Shant Shahrigian reported (“Key Food To Expand,” May 5) on the West 235th Street Key Food expansion into two neighboring stores. High rent increases forced the closing of Riverdale Fish and the beloved Mother’s Bake Shop.

In fact, there aren’t too many great bakeries anymore. There are fewer excellent restaurants. But when a landlord’s only obligation is to make as much money as he or she can, consideration for popular neighborhood businesses is not a factor.

Many business people seem to have attitudes similar to crime family bosses. I’m reminded of a scene in the classic movie “Key Largo,” in which gangster Frank Rocco (played by Edward G. Robinson) says, “That’s right. I want more, more, more!”

So when people claim the capitalism works, I have to ask “for who?” It seems that when evaluating socialism, anything that falls short of utopian perfection is considered failure. When it comes to capitalism, imperfections are overlooked.

Richard Warren is a retired transit worker and lifelong Van Cortlandt resident.