antidisestablishmentarianism

Maybe I should look that word up, but I'm pretty sure my friend John is disestablishmentarian and I'm anti. So I wrote him this (edited for blog:)

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I just think that the criticism is ineffective. (I don't really know this for sure because I couldn't download your attachment. I'm just going on what you've said otherwise so far.) You find people who've made mistakes and then you criticize the whole economy on that basis. I don't take your criticism personally because you have no idea of where I stand on these issues because I didn't really get a turn to talk. You talked about homeless people but you didn't stop to find out that I had been homeless in the distant past.

To you, any system that allows certain abuses -- poverty, war and injustice -- is no good and should be torn down. But tune in to zeitgeist. The new socialism wants to find ways to tame capitalism into a tool we can use, instead of a juggernaut that controls us. You want to help? Give theses ideas a chance.

The research you're doing is incomplete. You turn up fascinating horror stories. I must admit I never knew that business about D-day before. Still, you know there is another side of the picture, besides the horror stories. Does your research include proof that the economy could survive an abandonment of the estabishment, or that a safe transition could be made to a system that embraces your ideals? That would be tough to prove, and, to prove it, you would need to consult economists that you don't agree with.

Everyone knows that there are unfair ways in which wealth accumulates and then defends itself. But do you have a proof to the effect that any wealth whatsoever always promulgates poverty? That would be tough to prove. No anecdotal evidence is going to get you past that one. Moreover, there is plenty of evidence to the contrary, since we have wealth to thank for a total increase in value of the wealth of the world through technology, commerce and cooperation.