Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Premises, Premises
I was planning on responding to every silly thing Rick Steves wrote in his El Salvador trip report. Instead let's look at its flawed premises:
1) There are poor people in the Third World.
2) There are rich people elsewhere.
3) If people are rich, or even just comfortable, it must be at the expense of poor people.
4) Therefore, rich capitalist countries like America are the cause of other people's poverty.
Steves' attempts to blame capitalist America for the world's ills leads to some obvious contradictions.
Contradictions, Contradictions
Steves' denunciation of the emphasis on economic growth is contradicted by his later complaint about the lack of economic growth. Steves doesn't appreciate that its economic development that leads to a cleaner environment. Countries are poor in part because of the lack of property rights. Countries with well-established property rights are generally cleaner; people have more motivation to take care of what they own. Poor countries have to worry about basic subsistence. Developed countries can afford the costs of environmental protection.
Steves complains about religious fundamentalists. Yet he uses the concepts of the Jubilee Year and Liberation Theology to support his views. He misrepresents the concept of the Jubilee Year as an income redistribution scheme. He skates around the fact that senior officials in the Catholic Church have repudiated Liberation Theology. Liberation Theology is Marxist. There's nothing religious about Marxism. In talking about El Salvador's Marxist party, Steves writes:
In the 2004 presidential elections, the FMLN candidate threatened to win. It must be frustrating for the White House (which has so much on its plate these days). I can imagine a scene similar to the one Poland caused the Kremlin during another people’s struggle. Khrushchev, exasperated by the spirit of the Polish people, famously complained, “Making Poland communist is like trying to saddle a cow.”
Steves doesn't realise it, but this disproves his whole point. Communism lost in El Salvador just like it lost in Poland. It's Communism that fits El Salvador like a saddle on a cow. Like FMLN's opponents, Bush won the election. Bush helped win the people's struggle in Iraq. In Iraq, Poland, El Salvador, and the U.S. the people always end up voting against Rick Steves.
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I was planning on responding to every silly thing Rick Steves wrote in his El Salvador trip report. Instead let's look at its flawed premises:
1) There are poor people in the Third World.
2) There are rich people elsewhere.
3) If people are rich, or even just comfortable, it must be at the expense of poor people.
4) Therefore, rich capitalist countries like America are the cause of other people's poverty.
Steves' attempts to blame capitalist America for the world's ills leads to some obvious contradictions.
Contradictions, Contradictions
Steves' denunciation of the emphasis on economic growth is contradicted by his later complaint about the lack of economic growth. Steves doesn't appreciate that its economic development that leads to a cleaner environment. Countries are poor in part because of the lack of property rights. Countries with well-established property rights are generally cleaner; people have more motivation to take care of what they own. Poor countries have to worry about basic subsistence. Developed countries can afford the costs of environmental protection.
Steves complains about religious fundamentalists. Yet he uses the concepts of the Jubilee Year and Liberation Theology to support his views. He misrepresents the concept of the Jubilee Year as an income redistribution scheme. He skates around the fact that senior officials in the Catholic Church have repudiated Liberation Theology. Liberation Theology is Marxist. There's nothing religious about Marxism. In talking about El Salvador's Marxist party, Steves writes:
In the 2004 presidential elections, the FMLN candidate threatened to win. It must be frustrating for the White House (which has so much on its plate these days). I can imagine a scene similar to the one Poland caused the Kremlin during another people’s struggle. Khrushchev, exasperated by the spirit of the Polish people, famously complained, “Making Poland communist is like trying to saddle a cow.”
Steves doesn't realise it, but this disproves his whole point. Communism lost in El Salvador just like it lost in Poland. It's Communism that fits El Salvador like a saddle on a cow. Like FMLN's opponents, Bush won the election. Bush helped win the people's struggle in Iraq. In Iraq, Poland, El Salvador, and the U.S. the people always end up voting against Rick Steves.
