Capitalist Mindset: Illustration No. 2

At a city council meeting, recently, I heard an astonishing illustration of the capitalist mindset:. The speaker asserted, “There is plenty of money in this town! Look at the 4 million donated to the school.” Someone added, “$4.8 million.”

I was elsewhere when the new Aquin was planned, but I spoke vigorously against it when I heard it involved demolishing old St. Martins. How short-sighted of me! I did not realize that almost $5 million of community resources were about to be wasted.

In the 18^th Century Irish Hedge Schools, proved that you didn't even need a building to provide kids an education! Classes can be held in a barn, a store or wherever! The teacher, student, parent, and texts are the crucial elements. Destroying a valuable historical resource and sucking so much out of the community is the quintessence of the capitalist mindset: ignoring the needs of the rest of the community.

For some time we have needed a new library, which could be part of cultural & community center with meeting, quilting and general purpose rooms in the old brewery (Dahlem Feed Store), serving two ends—saving the brewery and creating a new library. Currently, a group is pushing for a new pool, and it can hardly be denied that the old one is 50, a ripe age in both people and pools. City council has exacerbated the $ problem by primarily serving developers' needs with public money.

Casting a critical eye on the lack of concern for the resources of the entire society both building the new Aquin. and the last two renovations of the church, seem marked with the capitalist egotism of putting your own needs first without calculating the impact on the wider community.