Good People + Capitalist Society = Possible.

I am taking a stance to say that I am against the resolution and do believe that good people can survive in a capitalist system.

Treat others as you would like to be treated—sound familiar? Why must it be any different in a capitalistic society? The golden rule must still be golden, even in the capitalistic society. Yes, most people are only looking out for themselves—but, those who care for others around them will succeed in many more ways, not only monetary.

In Brecht’s “Good Person of Szechwan” there are many examples of ‘bad people’ leading the visiting gods to search high and low for any good people—Shen Te is the singular good person that they find; given the name ‘Angel of the Slum’ because of her care for those around her ie. She gives rice to her neighbors and lets everyone that she has ever met live with her. She is giving of her time, her money, her shelter, her food, her love—she gives to the point of exhaustion (therefore calling in an ultra-ego to help her maintain her business). While, it is apparent that Shen Te has hardships through the book, she chooses to maintain her goodness. Which as we see is something she saw as a young girl; she says to Yang Sun when she first meets him: Once, when I was a little girl, I fell, with a load of brushwood. An old man picked me up. He gave me a penny too. Isn’t it funny how people who don’t have very much like to give some of it away?
-- It was obviously impressed upon her memory that those who can not monetarily afford to—still give and care for others.

There are multiple individuals or ‘bad people’ who glom onto Shen Te’s new business and living area—and in the slums were housing is hard to find, they cram themselves there-- inviting everyone that they have ever known to come as well. They are using Shen Te and they use everyone around them, they give nothing of themselves and expect everything to be handed to them, even near the end of the book they are surprised to here that Shen Te’s cousin (herself with a mask on!) would expect them to work for their stay. Even her fiancee ends up being a bad person, only using her for her money--These examples of bad people, using those around them, stealing, lying---trying to pressure Shen Te into lying about her past—these are the ones who end up working for her in the end.

And though Shen Te feels she needs to play the part of her cousin to be able to survive—she is still true to herself and helps others and giving them the chance to work. While we don’t see a set ‘happily ever after’ in the book, it is open to the interpretation that Shen Te did the best she could with the money gifted her from the gods (we shan’t fail to mention because of her good deeds) and I believe she will continue to be rewarded it for it in life. They will see that Shen Te is alive and that her cousin did not kill or kidnap her and things will continue to grow—because, of the good karma and cycle that Shen Te has started moving with the giving of the little she had.

I believe that we must help each other out for things to be good at all---good people foster a healthy environment enabling success even in a capitalistic society.