The Brock Press, June 22, 2004

Even as the Press' official lefty, I have to admit, capitalism isn't inherently evil. It rewards innovation, allows for personal liberty and makes it possible for me to have three different choices for vegan salami replacement.

It's just that the North American model of capitalism has quite a nasty side that people tend to ignore, a side that is rooted in North America's individualistic, "me first" ethos, and can encourage job flight and Enron-style financial mismanagement.

It doesn't have to be this way.

Like us, the Japanese have a capitalist economic system, but there are marked differences between North American capitalism and the Japanese version. The most impressive aspect of Japanese capitalism is how workers are treated. Workers enter a job and most often remain with the company their whole lives. The corporation isn't viewed as a faceless entity whose main goal is to make as much profit as possible, but rather as a community to which everyone, from factory floor to boardroom, belongs. Everyone feels as if they belong to something greater. All workers are viewed as an integral part of the company; every part is essential. Japanese assembly lines have a stop cord at every station, meaning any employee can stop the line if they see something wrong with the product in front of them. Morning calisthenics, nap rooms, meals and unquestioned paid leaves during a major family emergency are all features of the Japanese corporation.

Another interesting feature is the way that upper management takes responsibility for their actions in the Japanese system. For example, Merle Okawara, CEO of Ebay Japan resigned his position because he did not perform as well as he should have. Was he pressured out by his board? Was he offered a position at another company? No. He felt as if he was dishonouring the company with his performance and gracefully stepped aside. It was shame that made him leave.

Compare this to the recent departure of Michael Eisner from his position of chairman and CEO over at Disney. He tried to hold onto power as long as possible, even though his performance was less than stellar. (Under Eisner's rule Disney lost the distribution rights to Pixar studios due to a lack of flexibility on profit sharing.) After the annual stock holder's meeting, where many were out for Eisner's head, was he finally pressured to step down from one of positions. Even though he stepped down as chairman of the board, he is still Disney's CEO even though his "approval rating" at the annual shareholder's meeting was an unprecedented 43 per cent.

So what does this mean? Why is a lefty writing about capitalism at all? Capitalism, with all its flaws and misgivings is still the best way of running an economy, but as it stands in North America, can be entirely deplorable. I would like to see our North American economic system learn from the Japanese. Honor the worker and the worker will honor you. A strong worker base means a strong corporation, a strong, responsible corporation which is accountable to its body of employees and the market.

...So naive, that its a waste of time to explain to you how retarded your argument is.

One minor point on Japan, its a homogenous society and you need to do some more research on how racial minorities like the Chinese and Koreans are treated in the workforce there before you start misrepresenting it as some capitalist ideal.

Emancipate yourself from the marc cooper/david corn/the nation school of pseudo-leftism.

We never said capitalism is evil, just that it operates on the principal of fucking people over. But you wouldn't understand that because even an establishment pseudo-leftist like yourself benefits from exploitation. Get a clue and get a real perspective..

On the contrary, Sean, capitalism is inherently "evil," at least if you define evil as greed, theft, destruction of both the environment and the human spirt, the stimulation of artificial wants for manufactured junk which must be bought by most people in credit, and the war of one against all, with the "losers" consigned to poverty, minimum wage jobs and constant abuse and degradation while the biggest "winners" wind up in idleness with more wealth than they know what to do with and no useful function in society. Remember, you cannot have capitalism without an unemployed reserve of labor, bill collectors, real estate speculators, sales quotas, authoritarian bosses and "administrators," bankruptcy and militarism.

As for Japan, if that nation's brand of capitalism is so much better than the kind that exists in the USA, than why does Japan have a leftist movement that dwarfs the size of its US counterpart?

there's enough empirical evidence that socialism fails everywhere it's tried.

The rational self-interest that builds capitalist wealth is responsible for daily miracles in America and the highest standard of living in the world, for the worker as well as his boss.

The irrational fear socialists have of 'profit' is something best left to mental health professionals.

That mindless capitalism worship was more annoying than communist propaganda. But, the original article was funniest of all. It was just like reading some capitalist japanophile from the 1980s enthusing about japan's economic miracle.

"Capitalism" screwed up in japan and threw them into a long recession.

Japan had a "command economy" guided by industrial policy. They have more socialism there than we have here.

Stop getting your facts from anime and propaganda.