In place of these, capitalism gives us the commodity, that thing which can be bought and sold. Go to the sweatshops in India, where children are separated from their families and work for pennies a day. Go to Malaysia, where old growth rainforests are cleared to make room for resorts and golf courses for rich Europeans and Americans. Go to the advertising room of any toy company, where psychology is put to use to manipulate children and turn them into consuming machines. Capitalism creeps into every aspect of life.
Science is used to manipulate people and nature for profit.
Education and knowledge themselves are not sought for their own sake, they are commodities that people purchase so they may increase their earning, and thus spending potential. Ideal communism seeks, in perhaps a naive way, to make economics less intrusive into the lives of people. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. . . Elton Wong is a junior in biology and philosophy from Ames.