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If capitalism was such a great system, then why are we in a major financial crisis, unemployment crisis and rising poverty, etc?
Because our politicians have tried too hard to manage the natural economic cycles, to make down look like up. All they have to do is print money and then measure their success in nominal dollars instead of real dollars. That is an exogenous long term risk of capitalism, that a large group of powerful people will all cooperate, and push for higher and higher levels of risk and inflation within the financial system. It's a guaranteed moneymaker, and as far as the risk is concerned, their motto is "IBGYBG"
Communism, socialism, etc., just introduce new and different problems. I'd rather deal with errant bankers than the KGB or the Chinese Communist party.
LOL I think Thomas Sowell's credentials will survive your best shot! *grinning in thought: Artsyguy vs.Thomas Sowell"
Forgive me while I collapse with laughter here...
I'd like to take a (rhetorical) shot at Sowell, but he doesn't get out of his ivory tower often.
Specifically, I have some questions about an issue he raised in an early book (Markets and Minorities), which he appears to have quietly dropped, never (as far as I am aware) again to address.
I would love to reprint Markets and Minorities, but this is one of his only three books out of print, and he appears to have no interest in seeing it again be put into print.
Did it ever occur to you that the "working class" of today, will likely become the "upper crust" of tomorow? And because of the free-market capitalistic system?
Um, not exactly. Since government measures income annually - and not over, say, a decade or longer - and does not measure wealth at all, using annual income statistics makes it easy to spin the numbers in misleading ways.
Since virtually everyone starts out in the bottom quintile, it cannot be a surprise if most of those who get to the top quintile were onvce in the bottom quintile.
Okayb, that's not quite the specific issue here, but there is a huge amount of year-to-year jumps or plunges in quintile.
The middle class business owner (homeowner, stockholder) might jump to the top quintile in the year they sell...and the next year fall back to the middle where they were normally. Over the course of a lifetime, a lot of people will temporarily reach the top quintile or hit the bottom, without either of those points representing their usual position in life.
Since I've never made more than (slightly over) $17K in a year, I fit into the "scam" group - Sowell describes.
But since I'm a real middle-aged person (not under 25, not part-time) living on such an income, I don't consider it a "scam."
democratic socialism in government capitalistic markets... government keeps it's thumb on wallstreet and ensures the wealth of a nation stays in that nation and taxes benefit all of society.. you cannot own businesses while being an elected leader and all lobbying is considered treason.
Um, not exactly. Since government measures income annually - and not over, say, a decade or longer - and does not measure wealth at all, using annual income statistics makes it easy to spin the numbers in misleading ways.
Since virtually everyone starts out in the bottom quintile, it cannot be a surprise if most of those who get to the top quintile were onvce in the bottom quintile.
Okayb, that's not quite the specific issue here, but there is a huge amount of year-to-year jumps or plunges in quintile.
The middle class business owner (homeowner, stockholder) might jump to the top quintile in the year they sell...and the next year fall back to the middle where they were normally. Over the course of a lifetime, a lot of people will temporarily reach the top quintile or hit the bottom, without either of those points representing their usual position in life.
Since I've never made more than (slightly over) $17K in a year, I fit into the "scam" group - Sowell describes.
But since I'm a real middle-aged person (not under 25, not part-time) living on such an income, I don't consider it a "scam."
In a way, you are backing up Sowell's point. Which, in itself, was merely to note the truism oft ignored. To wit, that the poor/workingclass/middleclass/upperclass are NOT static classes. Thus, when one speaks of the "working class poor"? That the said class today are not going to contain the same people in 20 years.
The left speaks of the working class poor/underclass as if it is static and unchanging. That is great propoganda (and appeals to the ignorant, deadbeats and hustlers), but not flesh and blood reality. The same man/woman who sacked your groceries today -- if they work hard and all -- will be the unit manager ten years from now.
And that chance to do just that is offered by the free market. Capitalism. Unfortunately, at that point --according to liberal thinking -- the person who worked hard and made something of themselves transforms into the evil rich fellow that needs to be taxed to death and pay "their fair share" (to those who dont pay any taxes at all). ....
Anyway, concerning Sowell, I don't know much about the book you mention...but here is a link that provides information to articles and books in print:
What the left despises about Sowell is that he is a black conservative. Too, he was a Marxist at one time and finally, honestly, realized what an evil system it was. He knows of what he speaks, and the left can't tolerate such honesty...
It will return with gusto as soon as this blockheaded President and his 30+ constitutionally-illegal 'czars' are sent to the unemployment line next year.
God does not like exploitation or oppression of the poor.
Well until god can make scarce resources appear miraculously out of thin air and distribute them equally, then the poor are going to either have to skill up or accept that there will be people more skilled and more ambitious who will accumulate more wealth than them.
God does not like exploitation or oppression of the poor.
its not god that poor people should worry about,but rather the ever expanding government of th U.S.A. It will, have the power to keep people poor, without the poor having any choice in the matter!!!
Capitalism is just one of the many unworkable ism's of our time. Whatever economic system is created by men of money will surely contain those tenets that prove themselves to be most profitable to the few.We all can attend classes wherein the various econ structures are discussed to no end, but in the practical carrying out of said systems the proof of their worthiness is always going to be measured by the breadth of their distribution of a concentrate of wealth.
In this way all known systems eventually fail that test. Greed is the one factor that econ profs can't really address in any meaningful way, why? Because the human factor is placed below the theoretical proposition of rules and regulations and we all know this isn't the way things really work on a day to day basis. It's the human subversion of an economic system that makes them all fail, on paper they all look to be do-able stuff, but, throw in the human greed factor and it's all over.
As it has been pointed out here many times, the US has really never had a true capitalism anyway, Russia never had a true communistic system either, the social democracies of the scandy nations come as close to the stated goals of their system as could be expected. Man has failed and his economic systems are no less an extension of him than anything else he endeavors in.
Capitalism works. You don't need to look any further than this country. This country turn to a world power in less than 150 years into existing and this is thanks to capitalism in the purest form. Then 1913 came, the Federal Reserves and Income tax put into the system, and this country turns to crap.
Since the creation of Federal Reverses, and in less than 100 years, we have the following major events:
WWI
Great Depression
WW2
Wars against Communism (Vietnam War, Korean War, etc)
Hyper-inflation the 1970s
Biggest real estate crash in the 1980s
The bailout bubble 1990s (and still on going)
Wars have not been stop since the creation of the Federal Reverses. Government love wars. Every times there is a wars, they increase their powers.
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