I had an assignment in my Voice & Diction class yesterday that got me thinking about the current financial crisis ... bear with me.

The assignment was simple: deliver a one minute speech on the professor's (Collard, to those who are interested) pledge she commonly has students recite.

Ms. Collard,

We promise to do our best, to be our best

to expect only the best from others

and to accept only the best for ourselves.

And, Ms. Collard, we promise to wear our seat belts.

Most people spoke on how they would incorporate the speech into their own lives, but I did something different. I disagree with the second line. I think we should expect only failure from others so that when they do anything above failure, we can be pleased. Pretty cynical I know, but in my experience (especially in reading story submissions at The Pacer) most people can barely handle the most minimal of requirements.

Anyway, I gave my one minute speech and sat down, thinking nothing of what I just said. The rest of the class disagreed with me sharply. One student even went as far as to say, "Jay Baker is full of crap!" Most of them gave some sort of bubbly/positive/anecdotal reasons for why people are generally good, etc.

In essence, I agree: people are generally good, we're genetically pre-disposed to be so. But, we're not always altruistic and I think this difference between us is why I am opposed to capitalism.

In the recent weeks, we've seen the effects of deregulation ... of letting the market work itself out ... of counting on people to be generally good.

Many Ayn Rand fans will take issue with this, but I think it is now more clear than ever that capitalism leads only to severe social stratification.

I see no evidence that without regulation, people will treat others fairly. Look at history. In times of less regulation, the wealth gap was greater, there were no benefits, no retirement, no environmental standards, no child labor restrictions, no discrimination laws ... basically, there was nothing requiring people to be civilized and they saw no reason to be civilized.