Flawed Theories

As I read David Treadwell’s article (March 5) on the middle-class backlash against the poor, I kept wondering if the people who are hassled and inconvenienced by the panhandlers and the homeless ever ask themselves why this situation exists? Could it be that we are seeing the ugly underbelly of capitalism? A heretical thought I know.

The philosophical basis of capitalism is the individual’s acquisition of wealth. The individual is all; the group is irrelevant.

But just as communism’s fatal flaw was too much reliance on the individual’s ability to share completely with the group, capitalism’s fatal flaw is placing too much weight on the individual alone.

The communist world is grappling with the clear message that there has got to be some room for individual initiative. Isn’t it time we realized that our lives are only as good as those around us?

REBECCA DAVISON

Corona del Mar