I can't really comment on whether or not capitalism is or isn't working for any given person or group of people, because as another friend pointed out, "I might agree if we actually had a capitalist system in place instead of a corrupt corporatist one." Not to mention, I daily become more convinced that there can be no pure, uncorrupted economic or political systems outside the realm of theory. But I do feel that there are some logical problems with this poster that do stuff it neatly into the "propaganda" box (where it can hang out with other anti-capitalist propaganda, pro-capitalist propaganda, and all sorts of other propaganda).
1) Emotional appeals aren't very well-respected in the realm of persuasion. They work by playing on the audience's fears, hopes, and sympathies rather than building a rational, logically-sound argument based on facts. Emotional appeal is ALL this poster offers us. "There are starving children somewhere. There are obese children somewhere. Therefore, capitalism isn't working," is not a valid argument. Of course, we are to infer that the starving folks are in a non-capitalist country, which appears to be somewhere in Africa. And we are supposed to infer that the obese children are in a capitalist country, which I suppose is the U.S., where childhood obesity is becoming a serious problem. Unfortunately, "There are starving children in Africa. There are obese children in the United States. Therefore, capitalism isn't working," is also a logically invalid argument.
2) A country's economic systems do not exist to support people in other countries. A country's economic systems develop in order to meet the commercial needs of the culture in which they exist. Though we are more and more heading toward becoming a truly global economy, it simply isn't true that a free market in one country is the cause of starvation in another country.
3) Obese children are not the product of capitalism. They are the product of parents who don't say, "Turn off the video games and go outside," or, "No, we're not going to eat fast food 15 times a week." Or parents who do say, "You're never allowed to leave the table unless you eat everything on your plate, regardless of whether you're actually hungry."
4) If you really want to pick on the thing, the images in this poster say, "People in non-capitalist societies are starving, and people in capitalist societies are not starving," which actually would imply that capitalism IS working (though I would have to pick nits with a poster to that effect as well, because it's also logically invalid).
Doesn't matter what side of the argument you're on, but at least have an argument, and not just a bunch of propaganda posters. Which brings me to my other beef:
Social networking sort of lends itself to spreading propaganda. For hours and hours every day, we can sit around seeing pics like the one above, making snap emotional judgments, and before any further thought enters our minds, we've shared it with our hundreds of friends, many of whom will then share it with theirs, thus perpetuating the process. The folks who create this tripe must be tickled that it's easier than ever to get people mindlessly fired up. When you can share everything with the merest click of a button, thus laying open to hundreds of people the brilliant cleverness of your social viewpoints (which you have copied from other people), there is no incentive to think through the over-simplified junk you're staring at before re-posting. No one is forced to ask themselves, "Who made this? What do they want? Is it true? Does it make any sense? IS IT WORTH KEEPING IN THE UNIVERSE BY RE-POSTING?"
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