Moya Lázaro, Fernando
To understand this essay is essential to read this article: http://uvpress.blogs.uv.es/2011/09/02/04-speculating-with-lives/
I have just started studying this degree and I am realizing that I was living blindfolded. I am the older at class, I had been working since a year ago and I used to think that I was well informed. But reality is hitting me hard. I did not know anything about these “economic engineering”.
People are greedy. It is a human condition but we should try to earn money and try not to hurt anyone (or at least we should do our best). This is not part of the crisis because the movements to change the commodities market began years ago. It is a factor which gets worse the situation of the poorest. The first world would hardly go through a food crisis, but if this happened; what would happen with the third world? I do not want to think about it because there are millions of people starving right now, so it would multiple by hundreds.
The article shows us a view of the market, not only physically but also a moral view. When the reporter describes the place as a big rubbish bin with men who think only in what happens inside their “castle”. We also see their minds which are as dirty as the floor is.
In Africa and Asia they have been fighting against the greed of the “white people” since Europe and United States decided to look for new markets. It was in the 19th century but we still find ways to make them more miserable, to keep sucking all their resources. They also got improvements, but does it worth? I think it could have been done otherwise. In fact, it can be done otherwise.
The funniest thing is that they know how bad they are doing it. There is a paragraph crystal clear about it in the article. How they manage to leave the discussion about how they are promoting poverty and what measures they could take to change it.
We hear, from time to time, that the poverty is caused by droughts, civil wars, bad politics in poor countries… Is that all? Is not there anything more? Is it only caused by the weather, or their own problems or the decisions of some natives?
We can not blame the investors about everything. Investors are interested on how quick they can make money and specially a secure place to invest. Governments are guilty, of course, but sometimes corporations don’t give the chance to the governments. And some goverments are in reality corporations.
We know that there is enough food to feed everyone, but there are millions of people starving. Does everything boil down to the speculators? Is the law of the supply and demand obsolete? Were all of us wrong about how the market is suppose to go?
You could think that Adam Smith made a huge mistake, reading an article like this; there is not an invisible hand that regulates the market. There is no mercy, no regret in business; only profit and loss
URL’s:
http://uvpress.blogs.uv.es/2011/09/02/04-speculating-with-lives/