The reader should note that this isn’t just about breast-feeding; the Trump administration has come to the defense of junk food, soda and vital medicines priced too high for much of the world’s population.
And this also isn’t just about one American president; as I pointed out in “A Greater Power,” this disregard for human life and health is inherent in capitalism, due to the socialization of both managers and workers. The people inside the system are socialized to either deny, rationalize or simply not see the human damage done by their enterprises. These people are not acting freely and they cannot see clearly; they are constrained by their socialization.
The only way to limit the destructive effect of capitalism is through countervailing forces and institutions: laws, political parties, religions (at least back when the likes of Gladstone and Martin Luther King walked the earth), unions, environmental groups, scientific associations, universities and schools of medicine and public health, good teachers and good parents.
Ultimately, we rely on the intellectual and spiritual vitality of our people, reflected in their political will. When Christ said, “You are the salt of the earth,” I believe he was speaking of this vitality—or of similar virtues. The complete quote is:
“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.”
To trade off the lives of 800,000 infants a year for higher profits for Abbot and Nestle is a considerable loss of saltiness. And to threaten others who are reluctant to go along is even worse.
This was such a shameful deed, even the Russians opposed it.
The Socialist Investor 