Reality TV Hits Rock Bottom

The success of capitalism depends on this grim account of "reality". "You can't change human nature" is the first article in the credo of capitalism; a mildly sorrowful recognition that human beings are "essentially" selfish, irremediably "fallen."

Not just another meltdown, another bear-market recession like the one recently triggered by Wall Street's too-greedy-to-fail banks. The entire system of capitalism will collapse. Get it? It will be a total disaster and we'll only ourselves to blame.

Bankers have invoked Christianity to defend a banking system that has created wealth and inequality in capitalist societies. And this justification for greed: “The injunction of Jesus to love others as ourselves is an endorsement of self-interes.,”

Obama's package to stabilize the financial system — reducing interest rates to near zero, bolstering big banks with taxpayer money, guaranteeing billions of dollars of financial institutions’ debts — helped set the stage for a new Wall Street boom.

Greed is dangerous. Encouraging it is stupid. For society to work efficiently, never mind fairly and cohesively, there has to be a balance between the competitive and co-operative parts of the system. This goes right to the heart of human nature.

Greed - grabbing the maximum for oneself in any given situation - isn't some exceptional trait that financiers in the last few years suddenly displayed. It's central to capitalism; the system functions precisely through the greed of the capitalists.