Pandemic and food crisis highlight failure of capitalism

Major crises, like this "trifecta" of a pandemic, economic implosion and political bankruptcy, reveal in stark relief the shortcomings of any major social system, and so it is with America's "Way of Life," its beloved capitalism. While Congress and the White House have done literally NOTHING to assist the tens of millions thrown into complete destitution, it is the people—like Farm Link, portrayed in this news segment on ABC News— who spontaneously organise themselves to help each other, and they do. Mind you, this is not charity, per se; this is people properly and promptly doing what needs to be done to solve a social problem. There is solidarity here, and a lesson that we hope will not be forgotten: the people really don't need the capitalist structure oppressing their lives. The irrelevancy, the gross negligence of that class-directed structure of misgovernance—its parasitic financial and political leadership— has shown itself for what it is, an instrument indifferent and inherently inimical to the needs of the ordinary citizen. The people in any civilized nation need proper representation, but under capitalism, despite the professional politicos' protestations and the constant lies of the media justifying their acts (see Jimmy Dore's piece in our addendum below), they are simply not getting it. The "1%" is well represented, but the 99% is not. That's the real truth and sordid ugliness of "American democracy". To think we have the audacity to try to "export" this model to other nations strikes me as the height of cynicism. —PG