Community Ties

I am amazed that George Will (“Brother, Can You Spare a Strike?” Column Right, Jan. 5) wants to tag “big government” as the source of the decline in the memberships of community-based organizations (not to mention other “character”-building institutions like the family).

Clearly, the volcanic eruptions of capitalism have contributed to breaking the bonds and customs that fostered the flourishing community ties of pre-modern societies. Despite what many conservatives want Americans to believe, capitalism is not part of some preordained natural order. Rather, capitalism is a man-made creation of what economists call “the factors of production” that divorced labor from social life and made “work” into a commodity. The changes that emerged as a result of capitalism have had as deep an effect on attitudes and social relationships as any in world history.

That Will omits this from his mindless rant about “big government” should come as no surprise when one considers that the author pays no mind to the need for collective action by workers and communities to halt the erosion of community values by capitalism itself (unless, of course, you are a baseball player without a new contract).

MIKE BAKER

Woodland Hills