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opinionAlso in this section: Pseudo-capitalism that Panama can't afford by Eric Jackson What are the differences among the old Soviet nomenklatura with their limos and special stores and privileges for high-ranking party members, Louis XVI's decadent court with their exaggerated fashions and lavish lifestyles, and those Panamanians with a compulsion to demonstrate their status with luxury cars and trips to Disney World? The first were nominally socialist, the second formally feudal, and the third allegedly capitalist, and of course they're all products of different times and cultures, but all those differences are trivial. They're all examples of vain, frivolous, wasteful elites bound and determined to leave their societies in ruins. Drive to Colon on the Transistmica, and as you go downhill toward the Caribbean Sea the Free Zone billboards get thicker and thicker in the frenzied competition to attract buyers who browse the region's principal wholesaling and warehousing district. And what are these eyesores plugging? Mostly luxury items like cigarettes, booze and designer clothing, and only occasionally the hardware with which a society that's improving itself builds and produces. How come Mireya Moscoso handed out pieces of paper that superficially resembled land titles to thousands of families, and it wasn't until some months after she left the Palacio de las Garzas that it was noticed that they weren't land titles at all, that it was all a meaningless show? Because virtually none of those who received the bogus titles ever tried to use them to make their homes and farms collateral so that they could raise the money to start or expand businesses. Yes, there's something fraudulent about a man like George W. Bush, who's where he is primarily because his great grandfather sucked up to robber baron John D. Rockefeller, talking about an "ownership society" and entrepreneurial spirit. People like that don't want capitalist competition. They want deals that are rigged so that they always win, and that's the way it usually works out. Still, in American society there exists a risk-taking, inventive, sweat equity spirit that you hardly find in Paitilla or La Cresta. Maybe those born to inbred wealth don't need sweat equity, but those Panamanians with more modest holdings don't tend to believe in it either. That's why so many families that had their own farms in the Interior a generation or two ago have joined the urban rat race or have grabbed public or indigenous lands for new farms elsewhere. The notion of building the soil through conservation measures and the regular and generous application of compost is rejected by our campesino culture, in favor of squeezing every possible bit of income from the land, then abandoning the desert that's left and grabbing a new piece of turf from somebody else. The forms by which we organize our economic and social life do matter, but socialist bureaucracies, capitalist oligarchies and feudal aristocracies are all capable of squandering themselves, the people whom they dominate and the resource bases of their nations on stupid displays of wealth, power and prestige. When the people at the top do that, the bad habit eventually trickles down to all levels of society and the result is stagnation and decay. The disdain for hard work, the compulsion to flaunt wealth and the endless pursuit of easy riches are symptoms of something far worse than a moral disorder, although they are that as well. Like crack addiction, they are harmful vices that a relatively poor country like ours can't afford, an insidious illness whose terminal stages are social breakdown, violence and misery. Don't tell me about your Spanish treasure maps. Don't detract from my favorite TV show with ads boasting about how your company has cornered some market. Don't put on snotty airs because your party won the elections and now you have a cushy government job for the next five years. Don't think that your Rolex or Lexus buys the slightest respect or admiration from the people who ride the bus. I don't want to see your toys or your schemes or your bank balance or the trappings of your office. I don't care about your ancestors. Your value as a member of this or any society has nothing to do with any of these things. Beyond the intrinsic value and fundamental rights you have as a living, thinking human being, your worth to society is a function of the quantity and quality of your work. No posturing or displays, no recourse to social Darwinism or free market slogans, no genealogy or political connections can alter this bottom line. And if too many people believe otherwise, the whole country is headed for a most unpleasant day of reckoning.
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