“To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one’s own in the midst of abundance.”. According to ancient texts, this is the principle behind the so called peaceful simple life that Buddhist communities across the globe are following. Well, at least by definition of being a Buddhist, that’s what they should follow, which is not the case. Yes, it is their fault for giving into material gains. No one care to elaborate on the fact that materialism that is being popularized through capitalistic globalization has created more problems than found solutions. After all, good things are hard to accomplished! I am an atheist, but I do adhere the ethical side of Buddhism. It has been proven over and over the ethics of Buddhist values do work for the benefit of the follower.

Capitalism is great

As opposed to imperialism, socialism or totalitarianism, the American-lead modern capitalism is a well crafted model. It does encourage economic growth, social welfare and pushed the innovations forward. If you look at the history of capitalism, there is a reason why most technological advancements are rooted in the United Sates and Japan. Law makers in both countries have opted for an open economy based capitalistic governance model. However, we failed to realized the material and social gains of any system at it’s extreme does come at a cost. We have learned from the history even the traditionalism such as Judo-Christian values or Buddhist values at extremes have created problems. So why should we expect the extreme capitalism to work perfectly?

In Japan, the research and productivity have precedence over social welfare. While the country is currently leading in the global innovation race, they also have been plagued with the world’s highest suicide rate. The suicide forest, Aokigahara is not a myth, but a fact. A fact that Japanese law makers would like to ignore. Without any debut I can directly connect the huger suicide rate in Japan to their open capitalistic economic policies. People of Japan have very little choice in choosing a combination of capitalism and socialism. They are being forced to go with the materialism based capitalistic globalization. South Korea is an another example of this tread.

Well done Western media for creating one of the best deception of all times. I would say the deception of prosperity in Canada, USA and EU is only second to A. Hitler’s anti-Jewish war propaganda. If you asked a North American about the differences between capitalism and socialism, probably well over half of the population would say positive things about capitalism. In the United States, socialism has been equated to Nazism. But the irony is Nazism is deeply rooted in Christianity while Socialism is against religious affiliations. Contrariety to popular belief, about 99% of all Nazism flowers in the US are church going fundamental Christians.

In the United States, the poverty that has been driven by the social gap between the rich and the poor have created a lot of problems. Individuals and families under the poverty line is most likely to be convicted of crimes and be under educated. The cycle of poverty actually has been promoted by the Capitalism, which even the Obama administration have said, will close the gap between the rich and the poor. Add to this, both in Canada and United States domestic abuse, divorce and mental health issues have sky rocketed. Behind the smoked screens created by the Capitalism favored media, the divorce rate is significantly higher in the richest demographic areas in North America over the others. On the other extreme end, the poorest areas seems to have the highest domestic violence cases. The icing of the cake is, in Canada, the middle class have the lowest divorce, crime and domestic abuse cases while the fifthly rich and the poor are mostly in trouble. Scientifically speaking, the mounting evidence supports the ideology; to live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one’s own in the midst of abundance. I find it appalling the so called “truth” and “facts” loving Canadians do their best to ignore this evidence. Capitalism is not only great for socio-economic growth, it also great for our own downfall.

It doesn’t end there

How about environmental impact of rapid growth over gradual growth? How about social saturation problems leading to isolation and segregation? How about the decline of philosophy which fueled the economy and social developments over millions of years in the past? The list will go on and on. The Capitalism will eventually be synonym with the downfall of civilization.

Religion for the Rich and the Poor

Finally, the most sensitive part of the problem. The global religions and their relevance to social status. I have found that middle class is the only category of people, who would have the strong back bone to stand up against any form of propaganda. All religions are based on propaganda. In Canada, mostly the rich and the poor go to church or temple. In Saudi Arabia the religion is hijacked by the rich and the powerful. Everyone who is deeply religious try their best to ignore these facts, but withe the growth of middle class, mostly educated, the tradition religion has become a opium of the people. Poor goes for religious institutions for the monitory gain. So why the rich go for religion?

The upper class in Canada and United States have used religion as a tool to gain control over masses. For example, if you are educated and rich and you need so called “connections” in the community, the best way to do this is through religious based networking. No matter how you spin this or try to hide the facts, as a Geology student who would become a professional in few years, I found most Canadian companies hire Geologists based on their connections within companies over the skills. This is where even the poor have used religion as a tool to gain the upper hand over the atheist middle class. If you are in a religious group for example, you will most likely meet people with your own religious ideology in the economic market. This will result in hiring for job positions in companies resulting saturation of one particular religion and/or culture in a company.

The downfall of nepotism and so called professional connections may not be immediately evident. However, with the increased completion from other countries such as India and China, Canadian professionals are in a disadvantage position. For example, hiring a under performed Geology or Engineering student for petroleum company will also undermine the credibility of Canadian companies in the global market. The same can be said for hiring a well performed A+ students to upper management positions just because their connections to religious and professional communities. In an age where Canada openly critical of how third world countries like India have a growing problem with political meddling, we should stick our own head in the sand for nepotism and religious favoritism.