More power to the underprivileged

The majority of “haves” are capitalists who embrace freedom; the silenced minority of “have nots” don’t fairly share that privilege. Whereas the never-satisfied wealthy demand more and more, the discontented poor have been conditioned to be satisfied with less and less. Those who have grown up hungry and thirsty cannot be expected to get upset because fast-food junkies can barely afford pizza and beer, whereas epicurean gourmands crave caviar and champagne.
Lack of trade, investment and liberty keep those nations receiving underwhelming support in a state of perpetual indigence and environmental degradation. Where the neediest must work hard to eke out a living, the alternative to low-paid salaries isn’t minimum wages, without benefits. It’s unemployment – no jobs at all. There is something shameful, even obscene, that the percentage of world citizens living in abject poverty can drop from 88 per cent to around 20 per cent in less than two centuries, while self-serving political contrarians remain bent on destroying the very foundations that made it all possible.
The goal of concerned and compassionate humanists is development of initiatives, putting doers in a position where the best shot at prosperity and upward mobility is to find a way to make those less fortunate better off, and to empower social justice and human dignity. The free market is less about fairness than about access to options. Visionary perspectives are based on the noblest moral principle – protection of private rights versus public illusions to pursue a legitimate career, to freely trade and to enjoy profits earned without having to seek official permission, suffer government interference or pay bribes for the privilege of living productively and prosperously.
Charles Frederickson
Bangkok