And the fat kid was BORN that way. It has nothing to do with his diet. And I heard that from a fat mother on the #64 heading to work last week.

Just picture this same image constructed around Halliburton and Iraq and then try to tell me there is a defect anywhere to be found in free markets and private capital.

Socialism? Damn... I'm beginning to think that idiot conservatives don't even really know the meaning of the word. Ask Europeans if this is a depiction of "socialism".

The image on the right is not borne out of socialism, but instead out of war and neo-colonialism at a grand scale. Wars and neo-colonialism, I might add, which have not been helped by American foreign policy over the past hundred years, but have created a system in which your kids can turn into bloated fat fucks that will go blind from type II diabetes by the time they're 20.

Capitalism does not require famine: there is plenty of capitalism that works pretty well; there are plenty of famines not caused by capitalism; and any kind of economic system, such as communism and feudalism and capitalism, has produced famines. So, as a proposition, this is rather lame and uninformed.

But, as a visual poem: c'est chique !
If not "radical chouette"!!
Are you going to make T-shirts?
The "Che" silhouettes are passe; there's a huge opening in the "aware," under-30, Third-Worldly set.

You're probably right that I was painting with too broad a brush with the generic 'socialism', perhaps communism or state-planned totalitarianism would be better.

Capitalism=voluntary transactions (albeit sometimes those choices are bad or unhealthy).

This picture doesn't work. Fat White babies are not killing Black babies with their capitalism.

Capitalists are profitting off both of these kids in two different ways. They are both vitims.

The difference, though, is that the one on the left has a much greater likelihood of getting to be a perpetrator when he grows up than the one on the right does (assuming neither die of their starvation/extra-early-onset-type-II-diabetes first).

I have hankerin' for a Big Mac.

If only capitalism had ignored Africa.

Capitalism and imperialism is a problem. It's a problem that Africans don't have control over the diamond market, because DeBeers does. It's a problem that European nations exploited African countries for specific cash crops for centuries ruining their lands.

Africa has plenty of natural resources full of things westerners want. The problem is that Africans aren't in control of those natural resources. Westerners are. And that is the failure of capitalism.

A big part of the problem in Africa is a larger population then economy. Much of this is due to things like medicine and cheap imported food. Both are products of capitalism, but not exactly nefarious ones.

In non-industrialized societies most kids die before reaching adulthood so population growth is restrained. People might have 10 kids, but 6 or 7 of them die.

Cheaper food, medicine, World Vision and the like come in and save those kids resulting in massive population growth. unfortunately no one really gave any thought to what those kids would do as adults.

Large populations with no jobs, food, or houses equals revolution instability and further poverty.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Holodomor.jpg

1. Somewhere there is a fat white kid
2. Somewhere there is a starving African kid
3. Somewhere there is still a 19-year-old who thinks putting 1 + 2 together (a collage, no less! Like Kurt Schwitters!) is a radical unveiling of the truth about Capitalism.

It's really counterintuitive, but expanding access to medicine in the Third World actually helps their economies.

One example: if a family is saddled with a chronically ill family member (think AIDS or tuberculosis), that family has to waste time and resources helping that family member. The sick relative can't work and other relatives have to take time away from seeking work/working in order to nurse that relative. Take that burden away and those people have a better chance of realizing some of their potential.

And, of course, increased access to medicine equals increased access to birth control.

@ #23 Is spot on accurate. THAT is a large part of the problem.

# #30 you are clueless, and is typical ignorant liberal spin. That example is ridiculous in actual practicality and shows you are an idealist and not a realist. Most of the poor/starving have very little if any large family unit to fall back on. They don't have "work" to miss or take time away from in the first place.

Ohh .. and increased medicine equals increased access to birth control? Huh? The reality of the situation is that most of the men are taking the birth control pills thinking that it will keep them from giving babies and disease to females. For the most part they are so universally ignorant and uneducated they can't help themselves even if they wanted to.

And let's not even start going down the path of having more and more children equates to increased "wealth" and "stature" in their economy, nevermind that they don't have the common sense to think that another child might be more of a burden on themselves and their overall community.

Ultimately @ #29 sums up this post and it's relative importance.

Reality Check

You're calling Africans stupid. And Latin Americans. And most of Asia, and on and on. Everywhere you want to blame people for being stupid because you're too afraid to loosen your grip on your ideology. Oh, and of course, everybody who tries to tell you differently is stupid.

Everybody else is so, so, so stupid. If you really were so much smarter it would be easy for you to say something with a little depth and insight instead of just spewing insults.

Instead, let us resolve to cite a Rustenberg Peter Barlow, Stellenbosch, 2004. Deep ruby-red. Pure, perfumed aromas of cassis, minerals, licorice and flowers. Extremely primary wine, entering the mouth with subtlety, then building inexorably in silky texture, concentration and power. Wonderfully spicy and penetrating, finishing with noble, sweet tannins and superb persistence. A great wine in the making, but still an infant.

Ahhh...is it 5pm yet?

Outside intervention has done a number on Africa, just not in the way people often think.

Communism is discussed because it represents total government control (so far I know of no pure communist utopia without a government middleman) verses the hands off policy of pure capitalism.

This makes Communism the logical swing of the pendulum and thus totally relevant.

Personally, I think the reason the african baby is starving is not due to any ideology, but to the fact that humans are generally assholes.