baudl capitalism kritik

Cap K JV Expansion Pack BAUDL Spring 2013

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CAPITALISM KRITIK

BAUDL JV

EXPANSION PACK: CAPITALISM KRITIK

CAP K CHEAT SHEET & GLOSSARY ................................................................................................................................... 2

EVIDENCE FOR THE NEGATIVE ................................................................................................................................. 4 1NC ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 5 2NC: KRITIK OVERVIEW & FRAMEWORK ................................................................................................................................... 8 LINK: TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE ................................................................................................................................ 9 IMPACT: ROOT CAUSE OF RACISM ............................................................................................................................................ 10 ANSWERS TO PERMUTATION ................................................................................................................................................... 11 ANSWER TO CAPITALISM IS INEVITABLE .................................................................................................................................. 12 ANSWER TO CAPITALISM SOLVES WAR .................................................................................................................................... 13 EVIDENCE FOR THE AFFIRMATIVE ........................................................................................................................ 14 A2 CAP K: AFF FRAMEWORK ................................................................................................................................................... 15 A2 CAP K: PERM .................................................................................................................................................................... 16 A2 CAP K: CAPITALISM IS INEVITABLE ..................................................................................................................................... 17 A2 CAP K: CAPITALISM SOLVES WAR ....................................................................................................................................... 18


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CAP K CHEAT SHEET The CAPITALISM KRITIK is an argument for the negative team that challenges the basic assumptions of the affirmative case. CAPITALISM is an ECONOMIC SYSTEM in which people produce things and sell them to others for a PROFIT. This kritik argues that the capitalist need to make a profit is the root cause of all the problems that the affirmative plan claims to solve. What the NEG Says Link: The affirmative plan expands the capitalist system because the free exchange of products and money depends on transportation infrastructure. Also, investment in public transportation ignores the needs of the poor in favor of business elites looking to make a profit from wealthy residents and tourists. Impact: The affirmative team accepts and supports a capitalist system that is the root of all suffering. Starvation, racism, illness, poverty, inequality, and violence all result from this system that benefits a few wealthy individuals while exploiting the rest. Alternative: We must reject the affirmative plan because of its relationship with capitalism. Only full rejection of capitalism allows us to prevent its expansion and begin to imagine a better world based on communal living and social equity. What the AFF says Perm: We can do both the plan and the alternative. Our plan is a form of resistance to the poverty, inequality, and racism created by capitalism because we improve education, livelihoods, and job access for low-income communities and communities of color. Capitalism Inevitable: It is insane to think that we can completely overthrow the capitalist system so we must work within it to make it better. Those who focus on bringing down the whole system ignore making the social and political changes that can address some of capitalisms worst consequences. Capitalism Solves War: As more and more countries become capitalist democracies, they trade with each other and this builds strong relationships. As a result, these improved relations are historically proven to reduce the chance that countries go to war.


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GLOSSARY Capitalism- an economic system based on the pursuit of individual profit Ideology- a set of ideas that make up a persons goals, expectations, and actions Elites- a group of people who exercise power or influence due to their social, political, or economic position Inequality- the gap between the rich and the poor within a society Equity- justice and fairness; freedom from bias or favoritism Permutation (Perm)- the act of doing both the affirmative plan and the negatives alternative Perpetuate- to make something continue Exploitation- using someone in an unjust, unfair, or cruel way; economic exploitation means an unjust use of someones labor Framework - how the judge should determine who wins a debate round

Neoliberalism- a political philosophy that supports free trade and open markets, deregulation, and increasing the role of the private sector Co-opted- to take over and control an idea, movement, or organization Imperialism- the policy, practice, or advocacy of extending the power of one nation over another Means of Production- physical, non-human inputs used in economic productionthe factories, machines, and tools used to produce wealth Communal- characterized by collective ownership and use of property Marxism- the political, economic, and social principles and policies advocated by Marx Globalization- the development of an increasingly united international economy


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EVIDENCE FOR THE NEGATIVE


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1NC

Overview of the Kritik in your own words:

Transportation infrastructure makes the flow of money through the capitalist system possible Bryant, 2011 (Dec 1, Levi, Philosophy Professor at Collin, Onticology and Politics, http://larvalsubjects.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/onticology-and-politics/) Flows of capital and the ability of capital to exercise its power literally needs highways, satellites, trains, farms, land, fiber optic cables, ocean going ships, and so on. Without these channels of transportation and information transfer, coupled with sources of calories and energy to run these engines, capital is unable to continue itself for, as Harvey points out, capital only exists in the motion of capital. For me this Marxist thesis about motion and being is true of all objects. Consequently, if you wish to smash an object you have to find a way to halt its internal motion or the process by which it sustains, continues, and propagates itself. However, while I believe that ideology critique and cultural critique are absolutely indispensable, I also feel that they often lack any political efficacy because they simply tarry at the level of signs and discourses, ignoring the material infrastructure upon which this form of production relies to perpetuate, continue, and sustain itself. Thus what Im trying to do is both retain cultural critique while also drawing attention to this material infrastructure. If we ignore that dimension, I think, we leave the basic coordinates within which this system functions intact. We need better cartography so we develop better strategy. If we think of capitalist social systems as being akin to an organic body, then these social systems will have a circulatory system and a nervous system. The nervous system of a capitalist social system would be the various mediums through which information is transmitted (internet, phones, television, newspapers, etc) as well that the events that take place in those systems (images, songs, reports, narratives, articles, etc), while the circulatory system would be the various paths of distribution and production the system requires to produce this sort of social structure such as highways, trains, airports, portions of the internet used for monetary exchange, farms, shipping lanes, etc. The political goal of the critic of capitalism requires causing capitalism to have a stroke or a heart attack (continuing with the metaphor of circulatory systems). But if thats to be done, its necessary to occupy not a park in front of Wall Street or a governors office, but rather the arteries capitalism needs to survive.


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1NC Capitalism works to keep people in poverty- there is no way to fix this exploitation without overthrowing the system Magdoff, editor monthly review magazine, 03 [Harry, Approaching socialism] There is a logical connection between capitalisms achievements and its failures. The poverty and misery of a large mass of the worlds people is not an accident, some inadvertent byproduct of the system, one that can be eliminated with a little tinkering here or there. The fabulous accumulation of wealthas a direct consequence of the way capitalism works nationally and internationallyhas simultaneously produced persistent hunger, malnutrition, health problems, lack of water, lack of sanitation, and general misery for a large portion of the people of the world. ... The production and continual reproduction of a class structure, with an always present reserve army of labor means that there will always be significant inequality under capitalism. Hierarchy and classes mean that differences prevail at every level and with a large overwhelming number of people with little to no effective power. The distribution of wealth in the United States indicates the extent of inequality. The bottom 80 percent of the people own less than half the wealth that is owned by the top 1 percent, and the bottom 40 percent of households own 0.3 percent of the total wealth (table 1). Differences also persist between regions of countries and among different ethnic groups. For example, in 2002 the average family net worth of whites ($88,000) was eleven times greater than for Hispanics and fourteen times that of blacks (Wealth gap among races widens in recession, Associated Press, October 18, 2004). While only 13 percent of white families had zero or negative net worth, close to one-third of black and Hispanic families had no net wealth. Average family incomes of blacks and Hispanics in 2000 were approximately half that of whites. Your Words. What are the biggest impacts of poverty that you see around you? How could they relate to the basic structure of the economic and political system?


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1NC Thus, the alternative is to reject the affirmative in order to resist the violent logic of capitalism. Rejecting capitalism is the only way to open up the possibility of a new, better world. Only complete refusal, not piece-by-piece reform, can overcome the obstacles created by capitalist elites. Herod 04 (James, http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Strate/GetFre/4thEd/4-index.htm, Getting Free, 4th Edition) In this way our new democratic, non-hierarchical, non-commodified relations can eventually overwhelm the capitalist relations and force them out of existence. This is how it has to be done. This is a plausible, realistic strategy. To think that we could create a whole new world of decent social arrangements overnight, in the midst of a crisis, during a so-called revolution, or during the collapse of capitalism, is foolhardy. Our new social world must grow within the old, and in opposition to it, until it is strong enough to dismantle and abolish capitalist relations. Such a revolution will never happen automatically, blindly, determinably, because of the inexorable, materialist laws of history. It will happen, and only happen, because we want it to, and because we know what were doing and know how we want to live, and know what obstacles have to be overcome before we can live that way, and know how to distinguish between our social patterns and theirs. But we must not think that the capitalist world can simply be ignored, in a live and let live attitude, while we try to build new lives elsewhere. (There is no elsewhere.) There is at least one thing, wage-slavery, that we cant simply stop participating in (but even here there are ways we can chip away at it). Capitalism must be explicitly refused and replaced by something else. This constitutes War, but it is not a war in the traditional sense of armies and tanks, but a war fought on a daily basis, on the level of everyday life, by millions of people. It is a war nevertheless because the accumulators of capital will use coercion, brutality, and murder, as they have always done in the past, to try to block any rejection of the system... Its quite clear then how we can overthrow slavery. We must reverse this process. We must begin to reacquire the ability to live without working for a wage or buying the products made by wage-slaves (that is, we must get free from the labor market and the way of living based on it), and embed ourselves instead in cooperative labor and cooperatively produced goods. Another clarification is needed. This strategy does not call for reforming capitalism, for changing capitalism into something else. It calls for replacing capitalism, totally, with a new civilization. This is an important distinction, because capitalism has proved impervious to reforms, as a system. We can sometimes in some places win certain concessions from it (usually only temporary ones) and win some (usually short-lived) improvements in our lives as its victims, but we cannot reform it piecemeal, as a system. Your Words. What would an alternative to the current political and economic system really look like in terms of your daily experience? How would it change how people treat each other?


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2NC: KRITIK OVERVIEW & FRAMEWORK Overview of the Kritik in your own words: Traditional policymaking framework gives capitalism a free pass. This is an independent reason to vote for the negative we start necessary conversations that wouldnt happen without us. Wolff, an American economist, well known for his work on Marxian economics, economic methodology, and class analysis, 11 (Richard, 10/4, Occupy Wall Street ends capitalism's alibi, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/oct/04/occupy-wall-street-new-york) CW We all know that moving in this direction will elicit the screams of "socialism" from the usual predictable corners. The tired rhetoric lives on long after the cold war that orchestrated it fades out of memory. The audience for that rhetoric is fast fading, too. It is long overdue in the US for us to have a genuine conversation and struggle over our current economic system. Capitalism has gotten a free pass for far too long. We take pride in questioning, challenging, criticising and debating our health, education, military, transportation and other basic social institutions. We argue whether their current structures and functioning serve our needs. We work our way to changing them so they perform better. And so it should be. Yet, for decades now, we have failed to similarly question, challenge, criticise and debate our economic system: capitalism. Because a taboo protected capitalism, cheerleading and celebrating it became obligatory. Criticism and questions got banished as heresy, disloyalty or worse. Behind the protective taboo, capitalism degenerated into the ineffective, unequal, crisis-ridden social disaster we all now bear. Capitalism is the problem and the joblessness, homelessness, insecurity, and austerity it now imposes everywhere are the costs we bear. We have the people, the skills and the tools to produce the goods and services needed for a just society to prosper. We just need to reorganise our producing units differently, to go beyond a capitalist economic system that no longer serves our needs. Humanity learned to do without kings and emperors and slave masters. We found our way to a democratic alternative, however partial and unfinished the democratic project remains. We can now take the next step to realise that democratic project. We can bring democracy to our enterprises by transforming them into cooperatives owned, operated and governed by democratic assemblies composed of all who work in them and all the residents of the communities who are interdependent with them. Let me conclude by offering a slogan: " The US can do better than corporate capitalism ." Let that be an idea and a debate that this renewed movement can engage. Doing so would give an immense gift to the US and the world. It would break through the taboo, finally subjecting capitalism to the critiques and debates it has evaded for far too long and at far too great a cost to all of us.


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LINK: TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE Extend Bryan 11 transportation literally allows the flow of capital, increasing the power of elites. The affirmative plan only benefits capitalism, making all social problems worse. And, the notion that transportation can be used for economic growth is a mask for keeping those in poor areas impoverished and oppressed for the good of capital and strategic investment Freemark 11 (Yonah, urbanist and journalist who has worked in architecture, planning, and transportation, June 14th, 2011, Local Neoliberalisms Role in Defining Transits Purpose, http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2011/06/14/local-neoliberalisms-role-in-defining-transits-purpose/) Writing recently in Environment and Planning A, Sociologist Stephanie Farmer argues that the rise of neoliberal ideology in local and national politics has encouraged a retreat from social redistribution and integrated social welfare policies in favor of bolstering business activity.* This, she writes in reference to Chicago, has specifically affected public transportation, which is increasingly deployed as a means to attract global capital as well as enhance affluent residents and tourists rights to the city. This trend, she states, stands in opposition to the mid-century Fordist strategy of territorial redistribution mobilizing public transportation to enhance economically disadvantaged groups access to the city.** Farmers approach provides something of an explanation for Detroits experience: Rather than concentrate on the needs of its most impoverished denizens through the assurance of basic bus service, the citys business and political elite has instead put its resources into the construction of a light rail line whose primary purpose is to stimulate economic development by creating place-based advantages for capital. Similarly, Farmer is very critical of Chicagos approach, arguing that that citys investments have repeatedly favored business elites over everyday users by excluding public transit investment in areas outside of Chicagos global city downtown showcase zone. Her evidence for this trend is primary in former Mayor Richard Daleys obsession in constructing a premium-fare, limited-stop express rail link to the airport (including his willingness to construct a station for said service without providing the funds to actually operate the trains) and the transit authoritys Circle Line plan, which she argued would effectively redraw [and expand] the downtown boundary, with little benefit for the citys most transit dependent. The repeated delays in extending the Red Line south of 95th Street into some of Chicagos least prosperous neighborhoods suggest that there is no political will to invest outside of the wealthiest areas.


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IMPACT: ROOT CAUSE OF RACISM

Capitalism is the root cause of your impact of racism Alex Taylor, November 22, 2002, The roots of racism, http://socialistworker.org/2002-2/431/431_08_Racism.shtml Both assumptions are wrong. Racism isn't just an ideology but is an institution. And its origins don't lie in bad ideas or in human nature. Rather, racism originated with capitalism and the slave trade. As the Marxist writer CLR James put it, "The conception of dividing people by race begins with the slave trade. This thing was so shocking, so opposed to all the conceptions of society which religion and philosophers hadthat the only justification by which humanity could face it was to divide people into races and decide that the Africans were an inferior race." History proves this point. Prior to the advent of capitalism, racism as a systematic form of oppression did not exist. For example, ancient Greek and Roman societies had no concept of race or racial oppression. These weren't liberated societies. They were built on the backs of slaves. And these societies created an ideology to justify slavery. As the Greek philosopher Aristotle put it in his book Politics, "Some men are by nature free, and others slaves, and that for these latter, slavery is both expedient and right." However, because slavery in ancient Greece and Rome was not racially based, these societies had no corresponding ideology of racial inferiority or oppression. In fact, Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Early Christian societies had a favorable image of Blacks and of African societies. Septemus Severenus, an emperor of Rome, was African and almost certainly Black.


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ANSWERS TO PERMUTATION Only turning away from government solutions can solve. Movements will otherwise be co-opted back within capitalist structures. John Holloway Ph.D in Political Science from the University of Edinburgh, Can we change the World without taking power, A debate between Holloway and Alex Callinicos, August 16th, 2005 http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/5616 If we focus our struggles on the state, or if we take the state as our principal point of reference, we have to understand that the state pulls us in a certain direction. Above all, it seeks to impose upon us a separation of our struggles from society, to convert our struggle into a struggle on behalf of, in the name of. It separates leaders from the masses, the representatives from the represented; it draws us into a different way of talking, a different way of thinking. It pulls us into a process of reconciliation with reality, and that reality is the reality of capitalism, a form of social organisation that is based on exploitation and injustice, on killing and destruction. It also draws us into a spatial definition of how we do things, a spatial definition which makes a clear distinction between the state's territory and the world outside, and a clear distinction between citizens and foreigners. It draws us into a spatial definition of struggle that has no hope of matching the global movement of capital. There is one key concept in the history of the state-centred left, and that concept is betrayal. Time and time again the leaders have betrayed the movement, and not necessarily because they are bad people, but just because the state as a form of organisation separates the leaders from the movement and draws them into a process of reconciliation with capital. Betrayal is already given in the state as an organisational form. Can we resist this? Yes, of course we can, and it is something that happens all the time. We can refuse to let the state identify leaders or permanent representatives of the movement, we can refuse to let delegates negotiate in secret with the representatives of the state. But this means understanding that our forms of organisation are very different from those of the state, that there is no symmetry between them.


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ANSWER TO CAPITALISM IS INEVITABLE

The argument that we cannot overcome capitalism saps the critical energy from revolution the system is only strong because we think it is Zizek in 1995 Slavoj, Ideology Between Fiction and Fantasy, Cardozo Law Review, page lexis The problematic of "multiculturalism" that imposes itself today is therefore the form of appearance of its opposite, of the massive presence of Capitalism as universal world system: it bears witness to the unprecedented homogenization of today's world. It is effectively as if, since the horizon of social imagination no longer allows us to entertain the idea of an eventual demise of Capitalism - since, as we might put it, everybody seems to accept that Capitalism is here to stay - the critical energy found a substitute outlet in fighting for cultural differences which leave the basic homogeneity of the capitalist world-system intact. So we are fighting our PC battles for the right of ethnic minorities, of gays and lesbians, of different "life-styles," etc., while Capitalism pursues its triumphant march - and today's critical theory, in the guise of "cultural studies," is doing the ultimate service to the unrestrained development of Capitalism by actively contributing in the ideological effort to render its massive presence invisible: in a typical postmodern "cultural critique," the very mention of Capitalism as world system tends to give rise to the accusation of "essentialism," "fundamentalism," etc.


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ANSWER TO CAPITALISM SOLVES WAR

Capitalism is the engine of war Millions have died at the hands of US imperialism for capitalist interests those who survive witness the atrocities of capitalism and its effect on its populations alienating their culture to the point of genocide. Packer, ongstanding member of the Trotskyist movement in Britain. Packer has held a number of leadership roles in the International Socialist Group and the Fourth International. Dave is a former editor of Socialist Outlook, 03 (David, Autumn, Capitalism means War, http://www.isg-fi.org.uk/spip.php?article10) CW This article looks at the specific nature of capitalisms way of war, its origins and briefly compares it with other social systems. The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq are just the beginning of a new aggressive, militarist phase of imperialism, which can only be halted by the mobilised resistance of the peoples of the world, in particular the working classes in the imperialist centres themselves. The twentieth century was the bloodiest century in human history, easily exceeding the previous record, held by the nineteenth century, which began most notably with the Napoleonic wars. During these two centuries, the capitalist world was marked by the rise of competing imperialisms, at first in Europe but soon joined by the USA and Japan. Between 1876 and 1914 European powers annexed approximately eleven million square miles of territory, mainly in Asia and Africa. By the twentieth century, inter-imperialist competition for colonies and markets was to drag nearly the entire world into two devastating world wars, with over one hundred and sixty additional wars since the end of World War Two. For the first time war was perceived as total war - war by any means necessary. It would range across the whole world and included saturation bombings and mass murder of civilians. The First World War resulted in huge casualties in the trenches, far exceeding the Napoleonic Wars, with ordinary working class soldiers cynically used as cannon fodder. Ten million were killed with millions more wounded and maimed. However, with the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War by the Nazis, a new chapter in the development of weapons of mass destruction was opened. To these crimes can be added the greatest crime of the century, the mass genocide of the Jews by the Nazis. In all, fifty million people died as a result of the Second World War, while in the numerous wars since 1945, it is estimated that another twenty-five million people have been killed. It has also been estimated that civilians account for approximately 75% of all war deaths in this century. Total war has exceeded the destruction levels and loss of life of all the previous wars in history taken together.


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EVIDENCE FOR THE

AFFIRMATIVE


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A2 CAP K: AFF FRAMEWORK Our interpretation of debate is that the affirmative team must defend either the status quo or a different policy option - they cannot run critical arguments that are based on individual action. This is a voting issue and reason to reject their argument because it destroys the structure of debate. First: predictability and fairness Allowing them to debate any individual form of activism is unpredictable because there are an infinite number of forms of social change they can advocate for the only way it would be a fair is if we stick to debating what the government should or should not do so that we can predict their arguments and be ready to debate them. Second: politics - our interpretation provides the best education because we ensure education about enacting policies. This teaches us to be politically engaged citizens who are interested in changing government policy and working within our democracy. Their interpretation means we never learn about what we should or shouldnt change in the real world. Third: education - debate about policy encourages critical thinking skills based on delving into a single topic. If they can change the topic and method of debate every time, there is no way we can ever learn how to analyze the costs and benefits of policies.


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A2 CAP K: PERM

Perm: Do both. We should do the plan as a way to resist capitalism. Improving transportation infrastructure is critical to expanding public ownership of social goods and addressing negative consequences of capitalism. Pucher, 1990 (John, associate professor in the Department of Urban Planning at Rutgers University, Capitalism, Socialism, and Urban Transportation Policies and Travel Behavior in the East and West, Journal of the American Planning Association, 56:3) A more basic difference among the countries compared here is the degree of public ownership of the means of production, which is-by the very nature of their socialist economies-extremely high in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, and much lower in the capitalist economies of Western Europe and North America. It is not simply a large public sector that has engendered such a strong commitment to public transportation in socialist countries. Rather, this commitment is based on the fundamental ideological opposition to most private ownership, especially in the past, prior to the current attempts to increase economic efficiency by selectively introducing market incentives. Automobile-based transportation systems require high levels of private ownership, while public transport systems-both in socialist and capitalist countries-are almost always publicly owned. Thus, public policies toward transportation have not evolved exogenously, but rather have reflected the. very different social and economic contexts found in each country. In this respect, urban transportation systems and travel behavior mirror many aspects of society as a whole, indeed, perhaps more visibly than almost any other public service or institution. The automobile, for example, by enabling almost unlimited freedom of movement and location, embodies the principles of individualism, privatism, consumerism, and high mobility (Warner 1972, 113-49). By contrast, public transport depends on and fosters communalism, planned transportation and land use systems, restricted mobility, and less individual freedom of choice both in travel and location. Some socialist governments may even view public transport as an expression of social cohesiveness, solidarity, and-in some sense-perhaps of Communism itself (Bater 1980, 10-3 1 ; Blair 1985). This very notion is, of course, anathema to capitalist, market-oriented societies; where each individual is expected to maximize only his or her own well-being, without considering impacts on society as a whole (Samuelson and Nordhaus 1985, 41-58).


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A2 CAP K: CAPITALISM IS INEVITABLE Capitalism cannot be avoidedpeople who attempt to replace it only look crazy by focusing on Marxism instead of practical reforms. Any chance at solving any of capitalisms problems must focus on policy changes. Wilson, 2000 Author of many books including The Myth of Political Correctness 2000 (John K. Wilson, How the Left can Win Arguments and Influence People p. 7- 10) Socialism is dead. Kaput. Stick a fork in Lenin's corpse. Take the Fidel posters off the wall. Welcome to the twenty-first century. Wake up and smell the capitalism. I have no particular hostility to socialism. But nothing can kill a good idea in America so quickly as sticking the "socialist" label on it. The reality in America is that socialism is about as successful as Marxist footwear (and have you ever seen a sickle and hammer on anybody's shoes?). Allow your position to be defined as socialist even if it isn't (remember Clinton's capitalist health care plan?), and the idea is doomed. Instead of fighting to repair the tattered remnants of socialism as a marketing slogan, the left needs to address the core issues of social justice. You can form the word socialist from the letters in social justice, but it sounds better if you don't. At least 90 percent of America opposes socialism, and 90 percent of America thinks "social justice" might be a good idea. Why alienate so many people with a word? The best reason for the left to abandon socialism is not PR but honesty. Most of the self-described "socialists" remaining in America don't qualify as real socialists in any technical sense. If you look at the DSA (whose prominent members include Harvard professor Cornel West and former Time columnist Barbara Ehrenreich), most of the policies they urge-a living wage, universal health care, environmental protection, reduced spending on the Pentagon, and an end to corporate welfare-have nothing to do with socialism in the specific sense of government ownership of the means of production. Rather, the DSA program is really nothing more than what a liberal political party ought to push for, if we had one in America. Europeans, to whom the hysteria over socialism must seem rather strange, would never consider abandoning socialism as a legitimate political ideology. But in America, socialism simply isn't taken seriously by the mainstream. Therefore, if socialists want to be taken seriously, they need to pursue socialist goals using nonsocialist rhetoric. Whenever someone tries to attack an idea as "socialist" (or, better yet, "communist"), there's an easy answer: Some people think everything done by a government, from Social Security to Medicare to public schools to public libraries, is socialism. The rest of us just think it's a good idea. (Whenever possible, throw public libraries into an argument, whether it's about good government programs or NEA funding. Nobody with any sense is opposed to public libraries. They are by far the most popular government institutions.) If an argument turns into a debate over socialism, simply define socialism as the total government ownership of all factories and natural resources--which, since we don't have it and no one is really arguing for this to happen, makes socialism a rather pointless debate. Of course, socialists will always argue among themselves about socialism and continue their internal debates. But when it comes to influencing public policy, abstract discussions about socialism are worse than useless, for they alienate the progressive potential of the American people. It's only by pursuing specific progressive policies on nonsocialist terms that socialists have any hope in the long term of convincing the public that socialism isn't (or shouldn't be) a long-dead ideology.


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A2 CAP K: CAPITALISM SOLVES WAR Studies prove that globalization and capitalism lessen the frequency and intensity of war. Griswold, 05 (Daniel, director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at Cato, Peace on earth? Try free trade among men, http://www.freetrade.org/node/282) As one little-noticed headline on an Associated Press story recently reported, "War declining worldwide, studies say." According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the

number of armed conflicts around the world has been in decline for the past half century. In just the past 15 years, ongoing conflicts have dropped from 33 to 18, with all of them now civil conflicts within countries. As 2005 draws to an end, no two nations in the world are at war with each other. The death toll from war has also been falling. According to the AP story, "The number killed in battle has fallen to its lowest point in the post-World War II period, dipping below 20,000 a year by one measure. Peacemaking missions, meanwhile, are growing in number." Those estimates are down sharply from annual tolls ranging from 40,000 to 100,000 in the 1990s, and from a peak of 700,000 in 1951 during the Korean War. Many causes lie behind the good news -- the end of the Cold War and the spread of democracy, among them -- but expanding trade and globalization appear to be playing a major role. Far from stoking a "World on Fire," as one misguided American author has argued, growing commercial ties between nations have had a dampening effect on armed conflict and war, for three main reasons. First, trade and globalization have reinforced the trend toward democracy, and democracies don't pick fights with each other. Freedom to trade nurtures democracy by expanding the middle class in globalizing countries and equipping people with tools of communication such as cell phones, satellite TV, and the Internet. With trade comes more travel, more contact with people in other countries, and more exposure to new ideas. Thanks in part to globalization, almost two thirds of the world's countries today are democracies -- a record high. Second, as national economies become more integrated with each other, those nations have more to lose should war break out. War in a globalized world not only means human casualties and bigger government, but also ruptured trade and investment ties that impose lasting damage on the economy. In short, globalization has dramatically raised the economic cost of war. Third, globalization allows nations to acquire wealth through production and trade rather than conquest of territory and resources. Increasingly, wealth is measured in terms of intellectual property, financial assets, and human capital.

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