Thesis:“Capitalism has done a good job for the people who are well off but if we look at the disparity of the poorest and the rest of the world that gap is growing…There are clearly some things that these large companies with their great resources and innovation power, if we get them to apply them more significantly to those with the most need, we can reduce impoverishment far faster than simply relying on government alone…”
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Primary Exhibit A: Bill Gates: How to fix Capitalism
Supporting Evidence B1:"We've got into a cycle where business has evolved and we've narrowed the scope on how you create economic value and increasingly companies are being perceived as creating profit at the expense of the community... not creating profit that ultimately benefits the community"
Supporting Evidence B2:“Profit is not inconsistent with society's needs, but if you think about creating economic value in a narrow way, if you don't understand the broader and more subtle and longer term influences on the ultimate sustainability on a firms success you can get to a situation where that profit does come at the expense of society…We need to think differently.. what’s good for society is good for business…creating societal benefit is powerful way to create economic benefit for the firm and we’ve missed by in large many of these opportunities to create profit the right way. Profit that comes from meeting society’s fundamental needs…”
Antithesis: "It is immoral to use [capitalism] in order to alleviate the horrible evils that result from the institution of [capitalism]... this kind of trade with the rixh is not a solution..."
Supporting Evidence A:"People find themselves surrounded by hideous poverty, by hideous ugliness, by hideous starvation. It is inevitable that [capitalist] should be strongly moved by all of this. Accordingly with admirable yet misdirected intentions they very seriously and very sentimentally set themselves to the task of remedying the evils that they see. But their remedies do not cure the disease they nearly prolong it. Their remedies are partly the disease... The proper aim is to reconstruct society in such a way that poverty would be impossible. And the altruistic virtues have really prevented the carrying out of these aims...”
Primary Exhibit A:Charity - First as a Tragedy, Than as Farce
RSA Animate: Charity - First as Tragedy, Then as Farce
Debate Topic:Can we fix capitalism to more fairly benefit all of society and if so how? “Can we take some of the caring and innovation power of the resources of corporations and get them to focus more of that on the needs of the poorest?…”
The Mission: Create a more progressive society with fairer more equal access to opportunities..
Please provide your thoughts below for a chance to win a copy of Living in the End Times by Slavoj Zizek. The rules of engagement are simple: The participant with the most positive votes on his single comment wins. You have ~4 weeks to complete your mission.
