September 11, Why?

The answer is pretty clear. It came to me the other day when one of our senior passengers, a former Wall Streeter, was extolling the virtues of capitalism in America.
American capitalism is highly offensive to a vast majority of people in the rest of the world. We quickly make enemies in their presence especially when we sermonize its virtues. Our ostentatious winning behavior is also a turnoff. Surely you know a Yankee hater.
Especially American capitalism, as contrasted to the watered down version in other developed countries, does not work and will not work in many other parts of the world. Americans by and large assume it will work and stubbornly look upon many other economic systems as barbaric and even stupid. Russia is the recent major example where capitalism failed.
American capitalism does not have a prayer of succeeding unless there has been an extensive investment in social capital first. Political freedom, private property, education, a fair legal system and an honest government are essential. The reality is that this will not occur in most of the world during our lifetime. Corruption, i.e. payoffs, is an accepted way of life in the rest of the world. Massive economic aid and huge multimillion-dollar projects are counterproductive and frequently highly destructive, as the World Bank has found out. Economic strong-arming more than likely results in fattening the bank accounts of a few officials or mafia and frequently destroying the culture and environment of the local population and generally pissing off a lot of people. To expect full-fledged Jeffersonian democracy to suddenly sprout up after cleaning out the terriorists and throwing money into a troubled third world country is a pipe dream.
Islam is the fastest growing religion and is projected to be the largest by 2025. Muslims are turned off by our economic hammerlock on the world and offended by its abuses. We can save ourselves a lot of unnecessary grief by simply cooling it and letting others live their lives and possibly avoid another September 11. If we really want to try to change the world (I don't think we have the right to play god) we must be patient and soft sell capitalism through example rather than high-pressure salesmenship.
Voyagers ask yourself this question, "Without our $ would our reception in the visited countries been different?"