Are we solely a capitalistic country in terms of economy or are we somewhere between socialism and capitalism?

[Zoe D]

I am trying to figure out if the US does indeed have a free market at work currently. If we have a free market does that make us completely capitalistic? Or can we still claim we still have a little socialism?And personally what do you think america should have a capitalistic economy or a socialistic? Thanks for you help!

[Gavin R]

The public utilities are a socialist element in that they are owned by the municipalities they serve. The Social Security system had socialist roots, but it also happens to be humane, and now every major country has such a system.
Capitalism has its good points and its bad points - no economic theory is perfect. A problem with unregulated capitalism is that mergers become larger and larger until there is a monopoly, and that's not a free market at all. Sweden has a mixed socialist and capitalist economy. Swedes enjoy a much higher standard of living than Americans do. France and the UK also have mixed economies, and yet the citizens there have all the liberties we do and many more benefits for workers.

[Robbie]

At this point, I'd say we were still a capitalist economy, but headed toward a socialist one.
The recent bailout has put millions of preferred stock(banking stock) in the hands of the government.
That makes me a bit nervous. From there, it's only a short leap to nationalizing the banking system.
Scary!

[alby]

When the Democrats get elected, we become a Socialist country.

[Jim]

The US is typically considered a capitalistic economy. However, in reality the US has a mixed economy. The vast majority of the economy runs under the free-market principle and would be considered capitalistic. There are some aspects of the economy that use the concepts of socialism, such as welfare, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

There is also a large amount of government spending on things such as roads and bridges that would not be done by the private sector (although it is the private sector doing the work). There are government regulations for certain jobs (not just anyone can be a surgeon or a lawyer, you don't see the free-market weeding out the joe schmoes that open up their own operating room).

Many services, typically public goods, connected to the economy are funded or run by some level of government (no private police or fire stations).

Personally I don't think a completely socialistic or a completely capitalistic economy is the best solution. Extremes rarely are. I think that we need some level of "socialism", primarily in the form of government regulation. I believe there is a time and a place for large amounts of government spending, but it cannot be the norm. I believe some level of transfer payments such as welfare, social security, etc. is beneficial to the society as a whole. However, these transfer payments need to have some stipulations attached and should not be "hand outs".

And again this is only my opinion. A nationalized banking system would be great because this would mean the banks would not chase after profits like they did with the subprime loans fiasco. Banks only job would be to keep peoples' money safe and to loan out to those that are in fact low risk to help the economy grow. There would NEVER be a time when a bank could fail because it would be one system. Our economy, for better or worse, is completely dependent on the flow of credit. Massive bank failures and the stop of that flow of credit cripples our economy.

[teenylight732]

Pretty soon we will be like medieval England. Ya know, when the only one who had money was the king.