Nathaniel

Shockey

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December 24, 2007

Capitalism at Christmas: The Festival of Colorful, Oddly Shaped Resources

As far as I can understand, the fundamental idea behind capitalism is that the vast majority of people will make themselves useful if they have to. If there were no competition involved, if everything was simply given to people – their jobs as well as their physical needs – productivity would go down, and everything, in general, would go to pot.

I think it’s probably the best system yet, and very likely the best one we’ll ever imagine, but it definitely has its flaws – namely, the people. Capitalism taps into many deep human characteristics. On one hand, it exploits human creativity. We think of newer, more effective, efficient ways to do things. Capitalism has played a major role in making America a superpower. It is rich with resources, cold hard cash and opportunities. It truly is a great nation.

But capitalism also exploits human greed. When you take a sober look around, you’ll see that our health care system is in shambles, our education system is much more about degrees than learning, and we’re overwhelmed with business people but quite underwhelmed with craftspeople. Everything is geared towards achieving affluence, but when we stop and take a look around, we find ourselves obsessed with possessions, getting ahead and, all too rarely, things of real value.

I cannot think of any time of the year when the peripheral damage of capitalism is more obvious than around Christmas. Somehow, Christmas exploits everything bad about our society.

If an alien from another planet was peering down through a giant telescope at a retail store the day after Thanksgiving, I wonder what he’d be thinking.

“It seems as though the entire population within 15 square miles has just discovered valuable resources at this exact location. The resources are quite strange on this planet. They’re colorful, oddly shaped, and quite frankly, I have no idea why they need any of it. I see little to be gained from studying this planet, and I’d destroy it at this very moment were I not extremely curious to see how that fat guy plans on getting into that tiny transportation device.”

We spend huge amounts of time trying to find the best deals on things we don’t need. Then we put half of them in the mail because we don’t live anywhere near the people we love the most. Many of us won’t even see our parents this Christmas because jobs, random circumstances or perhaps just general apathy has landed us hundreds or thousands of miles apart. Christmas has a way of reminding us that much of what we do is quite unnecessary, and even unnatural.

There are many places around the world where generations of families live right next door, a short walk away or, sometimes, under the same roof. People don’t have to spend tons of money in order to hop on a plane and see their loved ones for a week. I bet there are places where family doesn’t even play such a starring role on this poignant Christian holiday simply because your family is already there. It’s an odd thought.

But we live in America, and although this may be the freest country out there with the most opportunity to shape your life however you choose, perhaps we should be more careful with the way in which we prioritize.

Of course, our situation is very salvageable. While capitalism does complicate things, it also affords us the choice of un-complicating them. We don’t have to live so far from our families, and we don’t have to spend half a year’s salary on Christmas presents. It feels like we do, but logic suggests otherwise.

Christmas has taken its share of blows over the course of time, but it’s still standing. And perhaps the messiness of it all, now more than ever, can serve as a wake-up call to those of us who fell asleep all alone surrounded by colorful, oddly shaped resources.

© 2007 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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