Letters to the Editor: February 5

RE: Life’s good and only getting better

In the last edition of the Cord, Spencer Gibara’s opinion piece made numerous generalizations and assumptions about the ‘natural’ and ‘necessary’ function of capitalism.

He suggests that “one country’s economic situation isn’t the responsibility of another country,” and in doing so, clearly ignores the mass outsourcing of jobs, the installment of global free trade agreements, and the various Western foreign policy that strong-arms any ‘irresponsible’ third world nation through economic sanctions (ex. Iran), and/or war (ex. Iraq). Gibara also suggests that the quality of life is growing ‘exponentially’ for citizens of the West, which he deduc
es from the high ownership of iPhones and laptops.

He forgets to mention, however, the large portion of Canadians who have trouble affording shelter and food at the same time, as well as the high number of Canadians in debt—all of which may have access to cheap electronics. It is certainly ‘morally corrosive’ to act indifferent towards social inequality, and

I would add that it is intellectually corrosive too.
-Matt Jantzi