George Soros' assertion in his Nov. 8 article, "No alternative to a new world architecture," is simple. I may never be as smart as Soros, but a poor Kyoto monk like me knows that the world is not a zero-sum game. China, India or Asia's rise need not spell the demise of the West or United States or Japan, or of any continent for that matter. One simply has to look back in history when China and India peacefully coexisted with the world — before the coming of the European colonial powers, which resulted in plundering and suffering.
Happy are those who find satisfaction from within, for they can truly live without. For all of Soros' erudition, I would be reluctant to trust his agenda on world reserve currency because of the havoc he wrought on people with his high-stakes game of currency speculation. In the end, he will be consumed by his own greed. A great sage from the West once said, "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world only to lose his soul?"
The world, as we know it, is not limited to choosing between mutually exclusive poles — international capitalism or state capitalism. Unfettered greed masquerading as international capitalism while exploiting the weak and the defenseless — as we have seen in America — is a dreadful option. Free market enterprise with a strong guiding hand of a government interested in promoting social stability above all else will benefit the majority rather than a few.
Unlike the vast majority of the world, Soros is rich beyond imagination. In the system that he advocates, there can only be a few like him, leaving the rest of us in penury. And how dare he add insult to penury.