Chap 1. Why Humanism?

"The individual has become more conscious than ever of his dependence on society. But he does not experience this dependence as a positive asset,  as an organic tie, a protective force, but rather as a threat to his natural rights, or even to his economic existence... Unknowingly prisoner of their own egotism, they feel insecure, lonely, and deprived of the naive, simple, and unsophisticated enjoyment of life. Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, through devoting himself to society." p.5 P 2

""The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of evil." p.5-6

• value of workers not based on what they produce but on minimum overhead to fulfill producers needs

"The result of these developments* is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be checked even by a democratically organized political society." p.6 P 3

• technology leads to less need for human workers & more money in fewer hands*

"The profit motive, in conjunction with competition among capitalists, is responsible for an instability in the accumulation & utilization of capital which leads to increasingly severe depressions...to a huge waste of labor...crippling of the social conscious of individuals..." p. 7 P 3

• education indoctrinates competition, "worship acquisitive success" 
• solution is a socialist economy and educational system based on social goals
• "Planned economy" is not the same as "socialism"
• pure socialism, like pure capitalism, is not a complete solution