Should capitalism be embrassed

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In animated shows for any age, weather a show for preschoolers, or a show like Family Guy, is it a good message to protray capitalism in a possitive light.

It is common for greed and lust for money to be a negative thing, but it is a way of life. Anime promopts the values of honor and respect in a possitve light, in the Far East honor and respect is very important, but here in the west, money is important.

Do we all have to be enlighted on the evils of greed?
 
Your premises are a bit too generalized here. There's a rather thick line between capitalism and greed, between valuing wealth and placing it above all else. Generally speaking I'd say that truly selfish, money-centered individuals get a bad & usually deserved rap in animation. More precisely, I can't think of any notable super greedy characters that are portrayed positively.

If anything, the opposite of your premise is true and animation is a bit biased against money. Evil corporations and/or businessmen that are secretly up to no good beneath a positive public image are practically a cliche.
 
Well big corporations are promoted as evil many times. I thought the South Park episode "Gnorm" was a breath of freash air, so that progress is good, and the mom and pop stores aren't always right.
 
Granted, but we should probably also consider:

1. the times in which he was created, as they were lighter and less critical and analytical of characters. A "cookie monster" was able to be created without people worrying their kids would OD on cookies as a result.

2. the fact that his greed is a character trait and not the focus of the positive aspects of the character. For example, Scrooge would think one way during an episode of Ducktakes, but then choose the emotional route and embrace his family, or allow an annoying cave duck to live with him.

I'm no fan of all the problems America has. I speak my mind as often as I get the chance, but what I also avoid is general statements such as capitalism = bad when, just like anything else, it depends on the person. Or perhaps to a more cynical POV, one might say it depends on just how long it takes for said person to be corrupted.

In all my cartoons I never noticed anything saying one thing or another.

That South Park episode is one of my favorites, but I don't think it's much of an example of anything, other than an opinion that is stated, and put forth in a unique and entertaining way. I think it merely explains how a company can become a major corporation in one instance, and in this case it's a good kind of "how," because they make good coffee.

In the end of the episode, we learn that you shouldn't apply one blind general rule to a system and culture that is made up of so many details and variables.

Harbucks must be really good coffee, though, because all the veteran coffee drinkers I know (baby boomers and older type people) say they hate how Starbucks coffee tastes.
 
The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of it's forms - greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge - has marked the upward surge of mankind, and greed - you mark my words - will not only save Teldar Paper but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you.
 
After reading through this thread, I don't know whether to laugh myself silly or weep for the future of my nation. Zoombie, you seemed to have a soured view of capitalism based on the one-sided way it is depicted in cartoons produced by an animation industry that is run by extremist left-wing entertainment barons who are notoriously hyper-critical (not to mention hypocritical) of the free market system that has made them all rich. Before you denounce capitalism as the root of all evil, try learning something about how it actually works. There is no free-market economy without capitalism; economic opportunity stagnates without free-market forces, and collapses completely as the population grows (for example, oh, pretty much any country in Africa). And if capitalism is too evil to teach to children, what would you suggest as a replacement? Socialism? Well, it ran rampant through Europe, causing nations that once had globe-spanning economic wealth (The United Kingdom, France) to implode into floundering, economically-crippled, tax-smothered nation-states that had to band together in a "European Union" to counteract the economic growth of a single nation (the United States), a strategy which is apparently failing. Or maybe you prefer communism, a system that require tight-fisted military control to put into effect, and the wholesale suppression of human rights to enforce, and keeping the vast majority of the populace uniformly poor to stabilize. For a better understanding of this system, Google the words "Red China", "Cuba", or "Hugo Chavez".
 
I wasn't trying to bring politics into this, we are talking about cartoons here. Don't take it so seriously. The reason I thought of this, was the way Anime embrass the East culture and values, and why don't cartoons do the same?
 
Nearly every innovation in medicine, entertainment, transportation and general comfort came about due to capitalism. Of all the various social systems it's the one most tapped into human nature. No creature on this earth does something for nothing. Maybe money can't buy happiness, but it can buy you the freedom to pursue it. I'm a happy capitalist myself - and the more capital I have, the happier I'll be. :)
 
I was taking about "The Weed Of Cri" rant, that seemed like a political rant to me and was off topic.

As for your question, can you name an example of a cartoon that values greed and money above all else? I don't think I have seen many do that. Almost all corporations in cartoons are evil, do you have any evidence to back up your suggestion?
 
The rule is no politics not no discussion of economic systems. Such discussion can veer toward the political, but until then...

--Romey
 
Uh, Zoombie, capitalism is not greed. Greed is a human vice. Capitalism is a system of financial interraction. It involves banks, rules of ownership, contract laws, accounting practices, companies, markets, etc. Capitalism often harnesses human greed, calling it 'enlightened self interest' but it is not greed itself.

Should animation portray capitalism in a positive light? If it is being honest, yes. Animated shows (and the just about everything else we take for granted) exist because of capitalism. More than a few animated shows are created in part or in whole in South Korea. If there is any animation coming out of North Korea, I am unaware of it. There is a lesson to be learned there, and I leave it to you to figure it out.
 
Politics is entwined with a great many things, perhaps too many things, but I'd probably have to start discussing politics to say much more. Politics and economics may be interrelated in practice, but economics can be discussed in theory without bringing up the sort of political issues we'd like to avoid.

--Romey
 
That's not politics, it's economics.

Okay, mea culpa. I apologize to anyone I have offended, and if I have skirted the rules, I will attempt a little more self-control in the future. It's just a sticking point with me that people get their ideas about the world from our heinously slanted pop culture instead of from real sources of information.
 
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