When I posted The E.D. Epidemic in January, 2009, I expressed my conviction that drug companies were flooding the airwaves to cash in on the plight of aging males with young mistresses or second wives. Little did I know that, more than four years later, the frequency of those advertisements would be undiminished (as if we have not memorized their content by now); one can only begin to imagine the cost of that campaign and, in my opinion, it is outrageous that remedies for erectile dysfunction have garnered so much funding by companies purportedly devoted to human health.
Meanwhile, children across this country and throughout the world are going hungry for lack of adequate resources. While politics, war and corruption significantly exacerbate that problem, the maldistribution of wealth within and between human societies is shameful, to say the least.
There must be some way to balance the positive aspects of capitalism and socialism without stifling entrepreneurship and competition; we should be able to reward creativity and productivity without ignoring the needs of society as a whole. Addressing the massive income disparity is an important first step, a goal that could be accomplished without reducing profits. Whether we will ever value companies by measures more substantial than the bottom line (i.e. by their contributions to human society) seems unlikely at present but we must develop policies which encourage that transition.
