∞∞∞ wrote: ↑Mon Jun 15, 2020 8:22 am
UNI88 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 15, 2020 8:02 am
You focus on the negatives and skip over the many positives that capitalism and our form of government have helped to make happen - the opportunities, free-thinking, technological advancements, etc. Where would we be today if the US wasn't a capitalist republic? Would Nazi Germany have been defeated? Would we have the internet? What about many of the advancements in medicine?
I don't believe the evils with our economy and society are mostly due to capitalism, I think the evils you decry are partly due to the cabal between crony capitalism and big statist government. Pardon me if I don't think more government is the answer especially when I look at the track record of nations with governments similar to the ones that you espouse.
The entire point of life is to leave the next generation a better country. The positives are the positives...I acknowledge them.
The negatives are what we MUST focus on. We have to get away from the idea of the infallibility of the free-market; society should have the ability to protect itself from the negatives of capitalism. It should be able to reward itself for being the most productive nation on Earth with better healthcare, better education, better...whatever. Otherwise the wealth gap will continue to rise and the voices of the rich will continue to matter more than any other. This is supposed to be a Democracy, not a Corporatocracy. The more we get away from the former and inch towards the latter, the tougher it will get to fix the issues. We've already seen the cracks for a while now.
The only vehicle common men have for protection is government, or revolution.
We do have "the ability to protect itself from the negatives of capitalism" we just haven't done it as well as we could have. I agree that we should strive to make healthcare more affordable and I've been stating for a long time that I think education should be considered part of our infrastructure and we need to strive to give everyone an
opportunity to receive a quality education.
As Baldy hints about a free-market is far from infallible. It's messy and mistake prone but it's significantly better than a centrally planned economy not just for the wealthy and innovative but also for the less fortunate. One of our biggest points of failure is mental healthcare and homelessness.
A socialist government leads to mediocrity where everyone but the government elite is equal, equally miserable. I'll take the inequalities of innovation and advancement over that any time.