Reply to Margo

Thanks, Margo, as always, for a thoughtful post. As usual, I find
myself in 99% agreement with everything you say, and that 1% is hardly
even worth quibbling about. Still, when I read these lines, I feel
moved to comment:

[Margo:]
>While each people must wage its own struggle, the USA can and should
>act so as to facilitate rather than to impede such movements for
>justice, even if corporate interests are sometimes inconvenienced.

I hear and understand your anger toward corporations that have muscled
their way into the world for a quick buck, leaving the environment
ravaged and local people impoverished. Shell Oil, whom you mention by
name, is apparently without question guilty in a particularly egregious
example of this, unfortunately far from the only example.

My concern is to draw a clear line between what is legitimate trading
and what is illegitimate despoiling, because, to my view, all too often
capitalism as a whole is considered discredited by the examples of its
abuse.

My biases in this regard are probably already well known: I'm a
shameless promoter of freedom. And to my way of thinking, capitalism in
its legitimate form is really just an expression of basic freedom.

If a person performs some labor, and by doing so creates something which
other people value, I consider it a basic right to be able to trade,
person to person (whether face-to-face or around the world), with those
other people, taking in exchange something which the first person
values.

I consider it illegitimate for governments to intervene in such basic
trading, excepting of course activities that are destructive and/or
polluting.

Corporations are another matter. By limiting the liability of their
owners and the people who make their decisions, the act of incorporation
is probably illegitimate, IMHO. We must all be responsible for the
actions we take.

Which brings us to Shell Oil and other abusers. What typically happens
is that the people who live on a particular area of land have had its
title stolen from them by someone who lives far a way and who doesn't
give a damn about their fate. Shell Oil negotiates with the thief, and
rapes the land and the people who live on it.

In many or most cases, the fact that Shell is a corporation rather than
a business with more direct personal liability, or for that matter
another government, is not even the worst problem. The worst problem is
the theft of the land in question by the people, or government, with
whom the company does business.

I do not want to excuse Shell or any company (or government) for their
abuses of the environment, whatever words they have on a piece of paper.
What I _would_ like to stress is that the problem is not one that
derives from capitalism.

Always glad to see you on metatuning, Margo!

JdL