Capitalism And The Notion Of Greed Is There Any Validity?

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Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro. 9 years ago

OFFICE OF THE ODIKRO
a companion of the black star!

Obviously the writer of this silly, incoherent and disjointed article has no brains to depend on. If he did, he would have known that such arrant nonsense is not worthy ...
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OFFICE OF THE ODIKRO
a companion of the black star!

Obviously the writer of this silly, incoherent and disjointed article has no brains to depend on. If he did, he would have known that such arrant nonsense is not worthy of publication.

We live in a world where the rich keeps getting richer and the poor keeps getting poorer. Only two days ago, Oxfam produced a report that shows that 1% of people own more wealth than the other 99% combined.

Of course, the mechanism by which this is possible is not simply due to demand and supply, but a huge lobby industry, quantitative easing, fiscal paradises and tax evasion.

Slavery, Colonialism and neo-colonialism are all based on greed. You cannot equally accuse a slave running away from bondage as being greedy!

It is nonsense of the highest order to accuse Nkrumah of being greedy because he had the legitimate and demonstrable mission to help lay the foundations of a genuinely independent African independent country!

This foolishness is too much! Even the CIA acknowledged the great works of Nkrumah when Robert W. Komer, acting special assistant for national security affairs, wrote the following assessment to President Lyndon B. Johnson on March 12, 1966:

"The coup in Ghana," he crowed, "is another example of a fortuitous windfall. Nkrumah was doing more to undermine our interests than any other black African. In reaction to his strongly pro-Communist leanings, the new military regime is almost pathetically pro-Western." (See: Documents Expose U.S. Role in Nkrumah Overthrow: seeingblack.com/x060702/nkrumah.shtml

Nkrumah remains the best leader that ever walked on the African continent!
Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr is certainly not the bright type, but when a stupid fool decides to call socialists and intellectuals as lunatics, what he is doing is being greedy for more stupidity!

Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!!

Pur'gu Saarpe!!! Esq.,
Secretary to The Odikro.

NB: Please, cross-check on Twitter to verify authenticity of our posts!
All genuine comments tweeted!
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Kojo T 9 years ago

What is your beef? Just go ahead and use it to develop.Stop wasting time Build the schools and the factories.. CREATE THE JOBS PRONTO .No one is stopping you. Why the essays when no one is topping you

What is your beef? Just go ahead and use it to develop.Stop wasting time Build the schools and the factories.. CREATE THE JOBS PRONTO .No one is stopping you. Why the essays when no one is topping you
Nana Ansah 9 years ago

The world has enough for everyone's need but not everyone's greed. A just world on planet earth; that is the relief everyone is yearning for.

If capitalism is on most peoples lips then it is because 99% of the world popula ...
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The world has enough for everyone's need but not everyone's greed. A just world on planet earth; that is the relief everyone is yearning for.

If capitalism is on most peoples lips then it is because 99% of the world population have an accumulated wealth which is equal to 1% super rich. And if the recent OXFAM facts and figures released at Davos 2016 that 62 billionaires have an equivalent of wealth to that of 3.6 billion poor people in the world is not alarming then Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr can keep his subjective opinion to himself. I guess that you are suffering from intellectual poverty.

Kwame Nkrumah is your favourite adversary but boy you are not fit to hold candle to Nkrumah. The ideas and ideals of Nkrumah have been frequently been copied but never equalled. Nkrumah lives!
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro. 9 years ago

OFFICE OF THE ODIKRO
a companion of the black star!

Hello Nana Ansah,

Thanks a mighty lot! Let's hope that Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr is suffering from a sickness that can be cured with the right information. In any case ...
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OFFICE OF THE ODIKRO
a companion of the black star!

Hello Nana Ansah,

Thanks a mighty lot! Let's hope that Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr is suffering from a sickness that can be cured with the right information. In any case, it helps to stop the propagation of such stupidity in a clear and direct confrontation with facts!

Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!!

Pur'gu Saarpe!!! Esq.,
Secretary to The Odikro.

NB: Please, cross-check on Twitter to verify authenticity of our posts!
All genuine comments tweeted!
Give me a follow on Twitter:
/twitter.com/TheOdikro
Nana Ansah 9 years ago

Hi there Odikro, good to know that you are well and alive and as always with fresh ideas to keep the conversation lively. Wish you a healthy and a fun-tastic 2016. Cheers mate!

Hi there Odikro, good to know that you are well and alive and as always with fresh ideas to keep the conversation lively. Wish you a healthy and a fun-tastic 2016. Cheers mate!
TARANTULA 9 years ago

".... a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing" (Macbeth).

The writer, in his desperate attempt to defend the principles of simple greed, throws around and decorates his article with heavy words like dialectics, economi ...
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".... a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing" (Macbeth).

The writer, in his desperate attempt to defend the principles of simple greed, throws around and decorates his article with heavy words like dialectics, economics, socialism, capitalism which by the end of his convoluted gibberish, clearly shows that whatever level of education he may have wasted his life on, it has all come to nought, zilch! How can any civilized human being sympathize with the untoward emotions of greed or anything that has to do with it – including the crass attitude of racial superiority, bigotry and exclusivity?

Let us keep in mind that where all these vulgar and deplorable sentiments of man, such as mentioned above are rife, there, capitalism reigns supreme in its full colors of spite and spittle. No doubt, the establishment in Capitalist societies do their very best to discreetly encourage, defend, protect and enhance the corresponding capitalist character traits of thievery, intolerance, official graft, dishonesty and the sheer evil tendencies of man against man.

In a world where there is more than enough for all, why would anyone wish promote a system where 1% of a given population of over 200 million, own more than 80% of the physical wealth of a particular country? Why should 2 billion – 2 billion poverty-stricken fellow human beings around the world continuously live on the periphery of death through no fault of theirs, whilst a few capitalist countries regularly dump hundreds of thousands of tons of food into the ocean for the simple reason that they need to create artificial shortages to keep, maintain or increase prices of those goods high on the world market? They do this only so that they can protect and further boost the income and the wealth that is derived from those foods. Surely, one would have thought that humanity and the world had long ago outlived and evolved beyond those stone-age instincts that always tended to dominate one another.

What manner of intellectual, if he so be, would dare stick his neck out in defence of the most base instincts of man – the primitive sentiments of inordinate greed and capitalism and all that goes with it, including slavery, colonialism, Nazism, imperialism and I dare say neo-colonialism as well as the various wars of conquest, domination and annihilation of whole sections of the human race in the quest to dominate and covet their resources?

Is it not interesting to note that those greedy creatures who wish to covet the whole world and by so-doing, lose their soul as the Good Book says, have themselves come to the glaring and belated realization that the history and the endless invidious sins of their creed is so shameful that, they have sought to conceal or garnish it with another deceptive nomenclature that goes by the name, ‘neo-liberalism’ so as to emotionally acquit themselves of its horrendous evils.

As discerning readers may have already noted in their casual observation of life, every thief is a capitalist and every capitalist is likewise, a thief.
MARCUS AMPADU 9 years ago

Please brother Baidoo don't start this "can of worms" bogus battle again. Lambasting Nkrumahism is not the answer, when you and the other apologists of the concept of capitalism don't understand the philosophy & how it has ev ...
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Please brother Baidoo don't start this "can of worms" bogus battle again. Lambasting Nkrumahism is not the answer, when you and the other apologists of the concept of capitalism don't understand the philosophy & how it has evolved over the years. Neither do you really understand and appreciate the concept of socialism. Are you aware of some of the socialistic measures incorporated by capitalist USA - for example, FDR New Deal.

The Scandinavian Social Democratic governments provide much needed services to their citizens.

Unfortunately, we in Ghana, under Nkrumahist ideology & Danquahist ideology have not yet succeeded in using our collective, indigenous capacity to create ways of truly living together.

We in Ghana, irrespective of party affiliation, tribal origin, and religious persuasion need to work together to create a Sustainable Ghana.

Don't tell me we can't do it, because some of us are greedy, some are corrupt to the bone, some are lazy, while others are bigots & others are woefully incompetent. We can do it, working together.
Yaw Yeboah 9 years ago

Yes, very good and sensible points you have made.

Yes, very good and sensible points you have made.
Kwame 9 years ago

Something even when deodorized is still something. Sometime ago the capitalists of the west told us that it was greed and undemocratic for the Chinese emperor and his subjects to refuse to buy and use opium. Thus the capitali ...
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Something even when deodorized is still something. Sometime ago the capitalists of the west told us that it was greed and undemocratic for the Chinese emperor and his subjects to refuse to buy and use opium. Thus the capitalist and their quislings have been insulting our intelligence for refusing to pass something through our mouth. They said that we should subvert the biological process of digestion. It is a fact that Stalin, Mao, Hugo Chavez and others dead whiles still been the president of their various countries. Fidel Castro resign and gave power to his younger brother.
Baiden the fact remains that no socialist country ever took up arms to usurp power without responsibility and confiscate the natural resources of a country, enslave her citizen and push socioeconomic policies on them. It is only a greedy friend who force you to seed to him your birth right. Friendship is a relation that uphold the dignity of the parties in that relation. When one of the friends took the dignity of the other from him it is a fact that he is greedy.
Osei Kwadwo 9 years ago

Look at where China is now. Did they follow capitalism or socialism, or their own model?

Look at where China is now. Did they follow capitalism or socialism, or their own model?

Yaa Anane 9 years ago

We Ghanaians can't work together becos of greed and being too known.

We Ghanaians can't work together becos of greed and being too known.
Philip Kobina Baidoo 9 years ago

Hello Mr Ampadu,
I believe you are trying to appeal to my sensibilities; yet, you use the word bogus to assess my effort. Though I know you restrained yourself to use this mild word, I don’t think you are serious with wha ...
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Hello Mr Ampadu,
I believe you are trying to appeal to my sensibilities; yet, you use the word bogus to assess my effort. Though I know you restrained yourself to use this mild word, I don’t think you are serious with whatever you want to achieve. If you want to be a referee, learn the rules of your trade. Thank you.
MARCUS AMPADU 9 years ago

Back to your usual knack of deflecting what is being said. Please go back and reread what I said and try and respond to it. The gist of what I said was let's work together to create a Sustainable Ghana.

Back to your usual knack of deflecting what is being said. Please go back and reread what I said and try and respond to it. The gist of what I said was let's work together to create a Sustainable Ghana.
Nii Teiko 9 years ago

Will Those hate-filled incompetent dummies in government, the Konongo-kayas - who are busily dragging and busing all the nation's wealth up to the lazy North and Trokosiland( in the name of SADA, GYEEDA, free education and th ...
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Will Those hate-filled incompetent dummies in government, the Konongo-kayas - who are busily dragging and busing all the nation's wealth up to the lazy North and Trokosiland( in the name of SADA, GYEEDA, free education and things) - agree to work with the more competent 'liberals' in Ghana at all? The last time I checked, it was the late Trokosi Awonoo who actually theorized that some group of people, other than the Atinga-Trokosi alliance, should be prevented from coming close to the central core of power. BTW, if you, Macus, and your change resisting Nkrumahist, cannot see the benefits of captalism, some of us do. Do you need to become a rocket scientist before you see the damage being suffered by government owned enterprises at the hands of the citizenry, here at home and elsewhere around the globe? NHIS is a typical example. The modern trend of global economy, with its concomitant competitiveness, does not support Communism in any conceivable way. China rose it's current glory,as a powerful Economic Giant, when it open its doors to foreign private investments. And her achievements is conspicuously printed on the walls for all to see. I am not an economic savvy but , atleast, by weighing the two economic ideologies, I see which one is thriving in freedom. Capitalism of course.

Communism is oppressive in nature. Rewarding laziness is all communism is about. You don't seize what is due the hard working Cocoa farmers in Ghana and give it to some people because such people are perceived to be poor. Nonsense! Isreal is situated on a complete draught prone lands; but by applying common sense, and by employing and deploring their mental faculties to work, Israel is self sufficient in food security. Irrigation and mechanized farming is the solution to the self inflicted poverty that is afflicting the Northern part of Ghana. Planting trees in the drying season, in Communist style, is the dumbest thing that any sensible person can indulge in. That is the Socialist Democracy leaning NDC for you. Yet these apostles of the afford mentioned economic ideology - the Rebranding of Communism - cannot hide their shame but are, instead, shameless bold to unleash their continuous vile attacks on a more Superior Captalism World.

Trust me Nkrumah, as smart as he was, though a Dictactor, would have changed direction if he was to be here with us today.
MARCUS AMPADU 9 years ago

Nii Teiko, I said let's work together to create a sustainable Ghana, Your "Atinga-Trokosi alliance" defeats my model of working together, Also Nii, socialism is not the same as communism. And please learn to spell my name co ...
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Nii Teiko, I said let's work together to create a sustainable Ghana, Your "Atinga-Trokosi alliance" defeats my model of working together, Also Nii, socialism is not the same as communism. And please learn to spell my name correctly.
Philip Kobina Baidoo 9 years ago

Hello again Mr Ampadu, you are accusing me of missing your point; that is fair enough. If you follow my commentaries you would have known that I don’t respond to any windbag. I only respond to people whose contributions are ...
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Hello again Mr Ampadu, you are accusing me of missing your point; that is fair enough. If you follow my commentaries you would have known that I don’t respond to any windbag. I only respond to people whose contributions are worth my time. And I respond to your post, because I know there is something there. However, you don’t go insulting people when you want to be friends with them. Thank you.
MARCUS AMPADU 9 years ago

Mr. Baidoo, I don't insult people I disagree with. I respect you, but I disagree with your take on capitalism & socialism.

Mr. Baidoo, I don't insult people I disagree with. I respect you, but I disagree with your take on capitalism & socialism.
Philip Kobina Baidoo 9 years ago

In that case, what is the meaning of the word bogus you used in your first post? I am not worried if you characterise my work as bogus. But you don't apply such words and in the same breath solicit my cooperation. It doesn’ ...
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In that case, what is the meaning of the word bogus you used in your first post? I am not worried if you characterise my work as bogus. But you don't apply such words and in the same breath solicit my cooperation. It doesn’t work like that. Thank you
TARANTULA 9 years ago

The problem with some badly 'educated' and therefore compromised Africans is that, they take after the cunning ways of our oppressors.

They trick you into a false sense of comfort and friendship and then from out of the b ...
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The problem with some badly 'educated' and therefore compromised Africans is that, they take after the cunning ways of our oppressors.

They trick you into a false sense of comfort and friendship and then from out of the blues, wham bang! Before you realize, you are in chains and being whipped blue and black to work 20 hours a day on the capitalist sugarcane, melon, corn, wheat plantations till you drop dead. Again, before you realize, they are using you as a colonial subject to work and toil to extract and then take away all of your own resources for several hundreds of years with little or no benefit nor gratitude for you.

Marcus Ampadu as is clearly obvious, is a nicey-nicey kind of African gentleman who because he has not sufficiently researched into the ills of capitalism/imperialism, is not sickened and pained enough by its practices and would therefore be inclined to offer an olive branch to socialize with insignificant scum like this Kobina Baidoo chap. Many people of African-descent still mistakenly think that they can politely work together and cooperate with our oppressors and their Baidoo-like vassals, to correct their atrocious genetic shortcomings which even the Almighty God has not been capable of remedying over the past 1000 years.

500 years ago when the Whiteman landed on our shores, our Chiefs and people graciously welcomed them in the manner that Africans are naturally wont to do and they tried to live together with them as brothers but guess what, they failed. Martin Luther king tried and he failed. Kwame Nkrumah tried and he failed. Marcus Garvey tried and he failed. Malcolm X tried and he failed. Lumumba tried and he failed. Many uncountable African nationalists around the world at various and varied episodes of history, have tried in their time to appeal to the conscience - if any, of capitalists/imperialists for us all to live happily together and they all failed.

Now not only did all these heroes of the African struggle fail to tame the capitalist/imperialist demon, but they were all vilified and demonized by the demon as anarchists, communists and uncivilized savages for refusing to be subservient to their oppressors rule. Baidoo, however, sees eye-to-eye with them and gleefully honors, projects and enjoys his trivial status as a house-nigger. Not surprisingly, many of the African nationalist activists who stood their ground for greater freedom and justice for Black people, spontaneously died tragic deaths before their time. Yet this defender of the capitalist/imperialist holocaust against Africa – a monumental clown of no known par, who aint funny in the least, takes offence that he is rightly described as being bogus.

The fact that Kobina Baidoo may describe my type of people or style of expression as ‘windbags’ – never mind being described as bogus, is an exhilarating thing to know. Coming from this despicable arrogant piece of turd, not only does it actually feel good but it serves as a compass that tells me that I am on the right track. It is a good thing that he wouldn’t dare respond to presumable ‘windbags’ like me. On my part, I would readily respond or react to any such childish, pedestrian and unscientific analogy of the two ideologies – socialism and capitalism, not only because ignorance irritates me no end – particularly when it is being purveyed by people who should know better. Then again I may also step in to avert the possibility that vulnerable brothers and sisters might fall prey to this kind of garbage that people like Kobina Baidoo litters this platform with.
Kwabena Yeboah 9 years ago

I seriously doubt the intellectual adroitness of this writer, but in all fairness to him I do not think he is an economist, neither does he understands the subject nor studied it. He must be a very poor student if he studied ...
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I seriously doubt the intellectual adroitness of this writer, but in all fairness to him I do not think he is an economist, neither does he understands the subject nor studied it. He must be a very poor student if he studied it, because it is only in the movies (Hollywood movies) that actors equate economics to greed. The system economics is not greed by any stretch of the imagination, neither is it a propensity to amass wealth nor an insatiable appetite for self-aggrandizement.

Capitalism is an economic system, however, there is not one country on the face of the earth that practices pure Capitalism. The same can be said of Socialism because both systems are not perfect - there is always a hybrid use of both systems to produce the desired results for many countries. The Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, etc.) that have perfected the use of both systems but with socialist leanings, lead in every World Bank index of human development and per capita income. Distribution of food stamps in the US is a socialist milieu, coupled with the recent Obamacare. In a pure Capitalist economic system, there is no government intervention whatsoever, and was that true in the US soon after the 2008 sub-prime mortgage debacle and financial meltdown?

In Britain where Mr. Baidoo resides, what economic system pertains there? Is it not the hybrid system? Canada has the best banking system in the world. Why? It is because of the rigid control of the banks by OSFI, a government agency. Canada for all intent and purposes is a socialist country, interspersed with Capitalist flavour. The Canadian practice of ensuring that the have and and have-not 10 provinces and territories in the country meet a certain threshold of living standard is purely a socialist formula. The Canadians call it Equalization payments - the government transfers tax revenue from the wealthy Provinces to 'have-not' Provinces to enable them to provide government programs and services. This is a complete socialist principle being practiced by a Capitalist country.

I repeat, there is not one full Capitalist country on the face of the earth, inasmuch as the Capitalist platform is so appealing to pseudo-intellectuals in Ghana.

YAW 9 years ago

The fact is if you are greedy you are
for life.
Such a crass statement can only come from a wastrel like Philip K Baidoo. What sort of life is Baidoo talking about? Was Cecil Rhodes Pro African lives when he set out annihil ...
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The fact is if you are greedy you are
for life.
Such a crass statement can only come from a wastrel like Philip K Baidoo. What sort of life is Baidoo talking about? Was Cecil Rhodes Pro African lives when he set out annihilating the indigenous people of matebeleland?
Do you think the oil traders of Trafigura were Pro-life when they dumped their toxic waste on the poor people in Ivory Coast and killed thousands? The American colonists were Pro-Indian natives lives when they set out killing them in droves.Just as Henan Cortez was pro-life to the Aztecs in his quest for their gold.
Martin Shkreli is so pro-life, he increased the price of Daraprim medication, used by HIV and cancer patients from $13.50 to $700 a pill when he acquired the rights of the pharma company in 2015.
Perhaps Mr Baidoo, should label the Saudi finance minister a communist/socialist for increasing oil prices in the Kingdom by up to 60% last week.
Mr Baidoo, is as good as his word on capitalism-and his word is no good.
Tutubra 9 years ago

The writer is GREEDY because of his penchant for long and flowery words, and in the process of proving his point woefully defeated his own argument and perhaps ended up showing even he himself does not properly understand th ...
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The writer is GREEDY because of his penchant for long and flowery words, and in the process of proving his point woefully defeated his own argument and perhaps ended up showing even he himself does not properly understand the word greed.

Knocking Nkrumahist is one thing but to say that Usain Bolt is greedy is really stretching it! Usain Bolt has an insatiable drive to leave his mark in history...end of case! What in the world is wrong with that?

Another case in point: Philip Kobina
Baidoo threads into the oil and the pharmaceutical industries, yet again proving his ignorance about those industries. Does he know how many of billions of dollars go into drug discovery and development? Does he know how many drug applications that go to the FDA for approval each year that end up as wasted effort and money? Does he know that Oil companies spend billions of dollars in oil exploration and development and how many exploration fields do not turn into oil fields? Does he know that oil and gas companies don't pocket all the money they make and that besides paying employees they have to pay royalties to land owners whoever they may be? Does he know that oil companies have to set some profits aside to run their business during periods of low commodity prices like the oil cycle we are currently in? And it doesn't stop there...they have to pay dividends to their stake holders and shareholders because at the end of the day...share holders are the real owners of the company?

Look brother Baidoo, Ghanaweb is an open forum for all of us to share our views and educate each other but that ease of access places a huge burden on all writers to research their topic of choice thoroughly before posting something that will only end up confusing readers.

Happy research next time.

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Capitalism And The Notion Of Greed Is There Any Validity?

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