Friedman in the News

Nature disaster just keeps on coming, just shortly after the devastating earthquake that took place in a month ago in Haiti, there was another earthquake hit South America country Chile that resulted huge damages to the country. But this is not what I am going to talk about, I am talking about the aftereffects that soon follow with nature disasters or human-made disasters. We all know that the first thing that follow with those disasters are the rebuilding projects, like building houses and public services, more often than not they involve major corporations coming in and making deals with the local governments. They seem like aiding with the situation but we all know there is no free meals in this world.

The closest event that I remember is the Iraq War. We killed Saddam Hussein, and found no trace of mass destruction weapons which was so the only aim that we went in there. But what happened next? We appointed a president for Iraq who signed a contract with the U.S. that allowed U.S. companies going in there and drill oil. If I am not mistaken that is government taking over its country’s economic resource, which is the total opposite of a free market economy. Friedman says that government has tendency to centralize and taking over its country’s economy, and society that can only be free if there is a free market system. He also said that the only way to achieve freedom is through free economy. The sole idea of free market economy for Friedman is that it is the key that leads to our other freedoms.

We as humans have come to a conclusion that labor is our life-activity, Marx says “that is what keeps us alive, and that is what makes us humans”. For him, labor is for someone else, that we really do not receive benefits from our labor, that is to say we sell that labor to someone else that benefits for our labor. As society progresses, labor has simply become a commodity, just like any other commodity. One sells his labor to the highest bidder there is, which is its employer. Labor is useless unless there is external goods for us to work on, our job which is adding values to the external goods. We call that added value our labor, which we exchange that value for money, in order to survive. I think the only valuable thing to us is our body, Locke says “The only thing that really belongs to us is our body and the activities our bodies do”.

Nike, Wal-Mart, Adidas, and many other corporations that are involved in the clothing industry, they all have one thing in common. That’s paying for cheap labor in order to fulfill their hunger for maximum profit. They have hired so much cheap labor overseas, and sweatshops are a product of it. Their one-day wage might not even be able to afford a McDonald meal here. They do not work there so they can buy a car or any other luxury products; they work there so they can afford meals, in other words, the basic needs for life. Someone might argue that they could find other jobs with higher wage, why would they sell their labor, their life activity, for uneven reward? The answer is simple, in order to live.

Entiltement of Water

We come to this world with nothing, and we leave with nothing. What is on Earth belongs to Earth, and to all the life forms. We have equal rights to all nature resources that has been provided to us by Earth, no one is above all, and no one is under. Locke said it the best “Property can only be owned with the use of one’s body and the work of his hands”. One cannot own or claim something that’s been given to all mankind in common, unless it’s removed from it’s original common state, which means it can only be owned privately through one’s labor.

It hit me so hard after watching documentary “Flow- for the love of water”. I knew accessible water and clean drinking-water was a huge issue around the globe, due to climate change and industrialization. What I did not know was that so many corporations were taking this opportunity to take advantage of those who suffered from it. It is wrong to dump toxins into rivers and lakes that people used to consume water from. What was even worse was knowing the situation of those people were in, not only they were not helping the situation, they had to make it worse by controlling the distribution of the water, selling it to the highest bidder. In the process, those corporations have made water industry a billion dollar business.

Is it all about the Benjamin"s? Where has humanity gone to？ Water is a basic need for not just mankind but all living life forms. It is to support and comfort our being, it is not a commodity, especially when one knows his fellow-commoners are suffering from the support of it. In Locke’s theory that when one has what’s beyond of one’s needs, is more than his share, and belongs to others. Water is a nature resource, therefore it is common to all of us, one cannot possess it when it is harming the others with knowing.

Aristotle's Theory in Today's World

We as a nation are in a very difficult period of time right now economic wise, people are losing their jobs left and right.This is the time that truly reflects the character of a nation, it’s the people that make up nation, not the other way around, we dictate where we want to be headed and how we want to be valued as a nation. I have never had any doubt that America is THE best nation in the world, not because of its wealth, its political power, or its humongous military force, but rather it’s the institutions that were installed by the founding fathers. Who would not want to live on a land that is full of freedom, and could enjoy all the benefits that the government offers. Freedom, that is the essential key element to the success of our great nation.

I think that has all changed since the recession started. Starting with the distribution of so called the bail-out plan, I think it did stop the free fall of our economy and with the help of few other nations buying our debts. The question is how did we get to where we are at today, and how we are going to move forward. We would never learn if we did not know what the mistake was. I think the free fall of our economy all started with inside trading with companys like Enron and WorldCom, and the people that were involved in their activities. All they could see was the huge profits that they were making, but not realizing the damage they were doing to the whole economy. Aristotle said that the most nature way of trading is to barter, money would be the main objective once money is involved in the trading. Currency was created so that trading would become less complex and making transactions easier, it was not created so that people could make money out of money, that would totally kill the purpose of money. I do not think that Aristotle’s philosphy could fit into today’s culture, but at the same time I agree with him with the purpose of money, the purpose of it is for us to live well, but not make a living on money.