Kyocera founder Kazuo Inamori criticizes capitalism and greed for profit
In this time when companies are shutting their doors, when CEOs are drowning in huge amounts of questionably gained money, and when increasingly more people are spending time at home playing computer games because they don’t have a job, let’s take a look at some alternative views on our current social system.
In USA Today I found an interview by Kazuo Inamori, 77 year old founder of Kyocera, who says that the lack of ethics and moral values in capitalism is the reason for the global economic crisis. He also criticizes excessive U.S. CEO compensations.
“Capitalism was able to bring previously unknown levels of prosperity to humankind. We have now fallen into an unprecedented recession brought about by capitalism. With humankind’s unlimited desire to earn more profits and live more affluent lifestyles, financial institutions launched new instruments, such as derivatives, using advanced mathematics and statistics. They created enormous profits by leveraging funds that were 10 times larger than their assets. This human desire caused the economic collapse. While the past prosperity resulted directly from the achievements of capitalism, the present difficulties have resulted from capitalism’s excesses.”
The interview is quite interesting, you can read the full article here.
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Kazuo Inamori was born in Kagoshima, Japan. At 27 he founded Kyocera which today employs 66,000 people around the world and makes cell phones, components for office equipment, solar energy products, and ceramic components. Inamori is also a Zen buddhist monk under the name Dai-wa (“Great Harmony”), and a honorary citizen of San Diego.
I agree with him.
The problem with our society is that it completely lost touch with reality while daydreaming about constant economic growth. We are slaves and victims of our own creation and greed. We work for work’s sake, no matter the consequences for the society and the environment. We have exceeded the limits of our ability to understand the problems, to adopt reasonable decisions and to work for the benefit of all. We are overburdened as individuals and as people.
More than ever, we need a new start with new ideas that must answer the key question of this century: How do we leave behind the current damaging social order and establish a new one without falling into a deep crisis shaken by social unrest that is as always followed by chaos and wars? This is a realistic viewpoint on the current global situation.