It is not an easy proposition, but if we want a better world our so-called democracies must disassociates themselves from the power of money and the power of greed. Democracy is not an expression of going to the poll and elect our political representatives. Democracy is an expression of our social responsibilities for our common good, and democracy must not be an expression to advance our own selfish greed and the power of money.

The power of money and the power of greed have caused critical dislocation in our capitalistic democracies and such dislocations cannot be rectified following the same and ongoing mindset to chase money and wealth at the expense of others.

We have in other stories point out the detrimental effects of dogmatic economic policies of cutting taxes. We must all understand that while cutting taxes may be perceived as an economic bonus for everybody on the economic stream, in reality cutting taxes is another gimmick of the neoclassical economic apostles to redistribute wealth from the poor or less rich to the richest.

We have serious dislocations in our social and economic system, and such dislocations cannot be remedied by finding solutions to our narrow focused problems. We must be able to learn how to compare apples and oranges, and this kind of understanding is difficult to appreciate when in our daily life we are reminded to compare apples with apples, or oranges with oranges.

Cuba has a relative excellent social health care system while being a poor country, however some 43 million Americans have no health insurance while the United States experiences the highest health care costs in the world. And faced with a proposal to save the lives of eight million people per year, the Bush administration prefers to repeal the estate tax and leave no heir behind.

Canada is presently contemplating to donate some two hundred million dollars to developing countries, however it is spending a comparable amount to host the G8 meeting at Kananaskis in Alberta.

Yesterday we got to know that Martha Stewart could be charged of inside trading and to day we learn that World Com transferred $3.8 billion in expenses into their assets in what may be the highest fraud ever executed by our accounting gurus. We must stop to use our assets at the expense of ordinary people.

And we must forget about our inflated big heroes, we must forget about our inflated big corporations, we must forget about our inflated egos of our politicians, we must forget to compare apples with apples. Instead, we must learn to appreciate ordinary people, we must learn to appreciate our ordinary family businesses, we must learn to appreciate our servant politicians, we must learn to compare apples with oranges.

References

World Health Report 2000: Press Release. World Health Organization Assesses the World's Health Systems http://www.who.int/whr/2001/archives/2000/en/press_release.htm

Heart of Cheapness Paul Krugman, Originally published in The New York Times, 5.31.02 http://www.pkarchive.org/column/053102.html

The Insiders The stock scandal involving Martha Stewart has pulled back the curtain on a world where the rich pass around business gossip the way the help passes out canapes. By Marc Peyser, NEWSWEEK, July 1, 2002 http://www.msnbc.com/news/770510.asp?

WorldCom confirms $3.8 billion US accounting scandal CBC Canada, 26 Jun 2002 http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/06/25/worldcom020525