The opinions put forth by Mr. Ken McCarthy in his Jan. 30 letter makes him look foolish in the eyes of others. To quote him, "We are just another socialist country, right?" Wrong. It is true that our capitalist society is extremely socialized as far as living and working conditions go.

Capitalism has brought people together and has forced us to defend our rights. We do produce wealth socially. After all, no one man can build a car alone. Now that it is clear that we produce wealth and goods socially, what happens to the surplus wealth?

It is not being distributed socially, but rather, it is being put into the hands of the capitalists. That doesn't sound like socialism to me.

Another thing is that Mr. McCarthy seems to be under the assumption that socialism is evil. If this is true, then his beliefs are laughable to say the least. If it truly was a "survival of the fittest," then human beings would have not gotten as far as they have.

We did not make it to the top of the food chain because we are strong or fast, but rather because we cooperate. By increasing the freedom of individuals and keeping the government from intervening in social and political life, as social Darwinism suggests, we would most likely cease to be productive and become poor, which Mr. McCarthy so dearly scorns.