No one should have to ask what the first four names have in common. They are all high-profiled media personalities that are charged with crimes from drug abuse to securities fraud to rape and child molestation. But because they all have mega-bucks, probably neither of these infamous people will ever have to suffer to the full extent of their crimes if either is found guilty and convicted. So what does that have to do with capitalism?

The last name, or concept, Capitalism, is the reason why these people will probably get away with whatever it is they did or are accused of doing. Since these people and others like them are rich beyond the average person's most exotic fantasy, and because it is not a social crime but a socially reinforced right for any one person to make and horde as much money as they could ever possibly need, in reality, this actually places anyone with this kind of bank account beyond the expectations and standards of a normal life, and unfortunately, above and beyond the law.

As long as a person has enough money, regardless of whether they actually committed a crime or not, they can buy their way out of the deserving punishment. Or if infamous, they can gain public empathy by using the media to act on their behalf as a "jury of peers" to soften - or harden, the blow.

However, capitalism is not kind to everyone and the law does not work like that for the average person. Capitalism works for people who have money not for people who do not. People who earn a regular wage by working can never be considered individual capitalist in American society or benefiting from capitalism at all, but are in reality only workers in a capitalist society. They are the ones who actually make capitalism work.

The rich benefit from the fruits of capitalism and from the labors of the working poor. The division between the two makes America a class society based on rich and poor and also divides the justice system accordingly. This reality diminishes the concept of democracy, which supposedly guarantees all citizens equal rights in deciding social policy. But we all know that as long as money is the deciding factor, those with money will always control the social standards and laws of the country.

So how do we, a people deprived of the social and economic equality, continue to live in such a contradictory society? Based on the result of capitalism and the way it benefits only a select few, we weigh the consequences. Do we continue to finically support people who give rise to inequality in America, such as Limbaugh, Stewart, Bryant, and Jackson, who do nothing more than entertain our own personal pleasures, or do we put forth a radical effort to stop the injustice by refraining from making them rich through our purchases and hard-earned hours of labor?

History accounts thousands of up rises from laborers against elitist societies based on these same problems. Many countries and governments have been overthrown because workers were tired of being blatantly discriminated against by the rich and unfairly treated by the judicial system. Many countries have experienced rebel and gorilla armies fed-up with one-sided governments, these groups more of which are rising in the United States than ever. Militias, hate and anti-government groups and other anti-crowds organize for the purposes of changing or even dismantling the operations of the American system. Some are political in nature, some are racial, and some based on social policy.

Many of these groups act out in negative ways and are portrayed as psychotic and criminal, but some undeservingly because there are just as many who are organized professionally and have legitimate reasons for what they believe. However, the media, acting from orders of the government, often discredit even the legitimate groups to deter any anti-government activity or images.

At some point in America's future, someone will get tired of such biasness and organize to make a serious change. As long as the rich and famous continue to get away with whatever it is their money can redeem them from, there will be class partitioning in every aspect of American life, including the legal system, economic opportunity, educational privileges, and choice of lifestyle. Money is the engine that powers America capitalism and America capitalism is the machine that controls our destiny.

© 2003 by AfroStaff