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+--- Thread: How could anyone hate free-market capitalism? (/thread-43471.html)
Pages: 1 2
- CD - 11-19-2012 02:27 AM
It's propaganda by the Lib's who are trying to make everyone think that that we are so stupid that we have to have government do everything for us. Especially manage our money. Communist crap. The social programs reward those to lazy to do things for themselves and makes people dependent on the government.
- Tim D - 11-19-2012 02:27 AM
Believe me, some people do hate free market capitalism. It is renowned for the wealth it generates, as it gives many people an incentive and opportunity to work hard and produce, but there's still a downside. All too often, when the idea is to produce for the market, i.e. produce what is popular, other important things get sacrificed, among them truth. TV producers once came out with "the mysterious origins of man." It was loaded with fallacies and inaccuracies just because thhey were popular i.e. supported a religious view of origins. The producers didn't care about what was really true; they were willing to pander to people's ignorance to make a buck. The educational system also suffers a lot under capitalism, and society with it. All too often, some half retard with rich parents gets into college and gets a great job afterwards because his parents pull strings for him, while a smart but poor kid who could've cured cancer can't pay for college, turns to crime and dies on the streets.
- gnab gib - 11-19-2012 02:27 AM
No one has a problem with it, in theory. But left unchecked, capitalism is predatory and exploitative. And that's why we have safety nets and social programs in place. It is not a perfect system of government, but no system is. Winston Churchill once said that capitalism is the worst economic system, except for all the others. Or, as he supposedly put it on another occasion, "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of misery."
In any event, I don't think anyone is recommending "complete government control of the economy." It just seems that way right now because there's so much talk about government intervention to "rescue" the economy. The pendulum is currently swinging in one direction, but it always inevitably swings back.
Part of the problem is that people also conflate "free markets" with "capitalism," when they are not necessarily the same thing. Adam Smith defended free markets. He envisioned a society of mostly small shopkeepers engaging in free trade with each other, in an economic system that was largely self-regulated by enlightened self-interest. He actually decried the abuses inherent in massive, unaccountable corporate structures, which have become a hallmark of modern capitalism. Nations and their governments used to have the right to revoke corporate charters if the corporation was thought to no longer be acting in the best interests of the community. That changed in the United States after the Civil War, when the courts ruled that corporations had the same rights as human beings. We've forgotten that in our day and age, where we think that corporations are sacrosanct, the cornerstone of capitalism -- when in many cases, they are symbols of the excesses and abuses of capitalism.
These things are not always as cut and dried as people would like to have them.
- totc56 - 11-19-2012 02:27 AM
The only ones who hate capitalism are the extreme left politicians in the government. Obama, Pelosi, Reid and the like. These libs that voted for Obama, gave the liberal democrat party what they have been wanting for decades. ONE PARTY RULE. Most of the Libs that went to the polls and pulled that D lever like our capitalism system, but they didn't realize that they would be giving up capitalism when they voted for "change you can count on." They still don't. But these drones will be getting a good dose of what America will be like without it.And I don't believe they'll like it much.
- TK - 11-19-2012 02:27 AM
I'm unaware of anyone, least of all President Obama, who believes that the government should completely control the American economy. President Obama believes that America's financial economy in particular must be appropriately regulated and overseen by agencies for compliance with those regulations in order to avert the kind of financial catastrophe we have just witnessed.
Most social programs are intended to complement the free market economy for those Americans who cannot work for a living or who are retired from the workforce. These programs give these Americans a minimal standard of living, one in which they almost immediately inject their economic benefits right back into the American economy. So virtually all of the expensive social programs that are offered have a very important and frequently unacknowledged economic benefit to the economy. It's not as though these social programs represent a bottom line loss. You have to calculate how much money these recipients return to the economy, which is almost 100%.
In other words, there are plenty of American workers and American businesses making money and paying taxes and purchasing goods and services and investing and/or saving money all as a result of the social programs administered by state, local and federal governments.
We are making money. So the answer to your question is that we can have broad social programs that meet basic needs and still make money.
Take care.
- Tahuti Reincarnate - 11-19-2012 02:27 AM
I like American capitalism much better than "free market" capitalism. Free Market is a mythology. There hasn't been a free market since the middle ages. Since then, there's been restrictions and laws that have allowed actual capitalism to flourish. Without laws, you just have chaos.
- bucktoui - 11-19-2012 02:27 AM
Communism, capitalist ideas are good, but when put into practice there are a lot of greedy people(rich and powerful) have their hands on the ideas and take advantages of. That is why the idea don't work. So what we need to have an idea to work is control greedy people. Barack have a good idea and intention, but he has no control of greedy people that put us in this mass; I don't think the greedy people will let barack control them voluntarely either.