It's really a shame that kids today aren't being properly educated about Capitalism (Congress, attorney)

[PedroMartinez]

Originally Posted by pknopp

We aren't capitalists then?

Pure capitalists, no.

We are much more capitalist than anything else, but big government has continued to chip away.

[pknopp]

Originally Posted by PedroMartinez

Pure capitalists, no.

We are much more capitalist than anything else, but big government has continued to chip away.

When do you expect us to dismantle the Federal Reserve?

[PedroMartinez]

Originally Posted by pknopp

When do you expect us to dismantle the Federal Reserve?

Never. There are too many powerful people making huge sums off of it, and the vast majority of the public is extremely ignorant on the matter.

Since you're not going to eliminate corruption in the government, i suppose you think it's acceptable.

[pknopp]

Originally Posted by PedroMartinez

Never. There are too many powerful people making huge sums off of it, and the vast majority of the public is extremely ignorant on the matter.

Since you're not going to eliminate corruption in the government, i suppose you think it's acceptable.

Right, we are never going to turn to capitalism so why all the defense of something we have no intention to pursue?

I've argued many times that those who see a positive role of the government are their own worse enemy by not demanding those who lie and are corrupt get removed immediately.

Now you can reasonably throw my argument back at me and tell me that is never going to happen. You may be right.

[PedroMartinez]

Originally Posted by pknopp

Right, we are never going to turn to capitalism so why all the defense of something we have no intention to pursue?

I've argued many times that those who see a positive role of the government are their own worse enemy by not demanding those who lie and are corrupt get removed immediately.

Now you can reasonably throw my argument back at me and tell me that is never going to happen. You may be right.

When do you expect to get rid of government corruption?

[pknopp]

Originally Posted by PedroMartinez

When do you expect to get rid of government corruption?

I try my best. It's also why I support the idea of people breaking things though. I have a fall back position.

[MetroWord]

Originally Posted by wallbuilder

It's really sad young people are buying into the propaganda sold by characters like AOC and Bernie Sanders. I blame the education system. That Communism doesn't work is basic logic. We need a modern Milton Friedman, who can explain the basic fact that prosperity is maximized when each individual pursues his own self-interest. Americans in the 1980s understood that, hence Reagan 49-state landslide.

I'm a liberal who's also a capitalist. My husband and I own our own business. Here's my perspective on this. There is a point to what I'm about to say, I promise. Just bear with me.

I had a path that I was suppose to follow planned out by my parents. Go to college. Get good grades. Get a job after college. Start a family. Etc. For a while, I really followed this path. I got all the way to getting a job after college. But nothing ever felt right to me. I wanted to start my own business instead of keep working for someone else.

My parents and siblings were adamantly against me straying from this "golden path". They were vocal about it, too.

So, the first business I started actually did pretty good. It brought in enough income for me to be able to quit my full time job. I nurtured the business. I worked really hard at it. Life was great, at least for a while. During this time, my parents and siblings kept asking me when was I going to stop being a kid and go back to getting a real job?

*Sigh* Then it happened. I took some unnecessary risks and eventually I had to close down my business. Got another full time job. I got plenty of "I told you so".

See, it took me years to understand the differences between how I view life and how people like my family view life. I want to work for myself. I want to be able to write my own ticket. I want create a legacy where I could leave this legacy to the next generation.

People like my parents and siblings, however, have a completely different view. Life is all about becoming a good employee to someone else. You don't become rich. You inherit your fortune... or you win the lottery.

Don't get me wrong, by any standard out there my family members are hugely successful people. I have 4 siblings, all are very successful professionals. They married successful professionals and they produced very beautiful children who are doing extremely well. My oldest niece/nephew is going to med school right now. She's been talking about wanting to become a doctor since she was a toddler.

But despite all their successes in life, they remain trapped in the mindset that you can't make it on your own. You need a paycheck. You need to become a good employee. You need to save. They have zero concept in using money to earn money. To them, you earn money by your labor and money is strictly to be spent. They have zero understanding of what are assets and what are liabilities.

My husband and I now own our own business. We do our own thing. I keep my full time job as a safety net for my husband and I while he quit his PR job last year to work full time on our business. The income from it actually exceeds his old job, so that's a plus. Once it reaches a certain threshold, I will be quitting my job to dedicate my full attention to it.

My parents, like before, have been pestering us. They keep asking when will my husband stop being a bump and get a real job again?

The point is not everyone is created to be a capitalist. If successful upper middle class folks like my family can't wrap their heads around us not needing a paycheck from an employer to thrive, what hope do the folks at the bottom of our socio-economic system have to understand capitalism? In other words, capitalism is great, but not everyone is wired to be able to take full advantage of it.

Hence, we need a system that works for everyone. I am convinced that in order for the system to work for everyone it needs to be a combination of capitalism and socialism. The system needs to be where folks can thrive regardless of how their brains are wired.

If you have what it takes to thrive in a capitalist environment, good for you. If you don't, there ought to be alternatives for you to still be able to thrive. Some of the rental properties we have are in lower class neighborhoods. I really can't see how these people can survive in a cutthroat capitalist system. At the same time, they have families, hopes, dreams, asperations, etc. just like the rest of us. They're just different. And they shouldn't be penalized for it!

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by Freak80

The capture of the political system by the capitalist elite is the beginning of the end of capitalism. Once that happens, capitalism will work only in the favor of the elites and not for the masses. Soon the masses will have nothing left to give and the whole system will come crashing down. This happened throughout the developed world in the 1930s. What happened next wasn’t pretty.

Let’s just hope we Americans get another Franklin Delano Roosevelt and not another Hitler, Stalin, or Mussolini.

I think it was earlier than the 1930s, but you are spot on. If we teach children about capitalism, then we should also teach them that the end point of a lightly regulated capitalist society is revolution. A handful of oligarchs end up with the vast majority of society's wealth and the masses are left penniless and angry. Trump's election and the popularity of the "socialists" in the Democratic primaries is evidence of that frustration with wealth distribution happening in modern day America. We had better get on with the application of the antidote to capitalism's fundamental failure - wealth redistribution - before it is too late. That is what FDR did in the 1930s and it saved our nation from civil unrest and laid the groundwork for the birth of our now almost lost middle class.

[Quick Enough]

Originally Posted by wallbuilder

It's really sad young people are buying into the propaganda sold by characters like AOC and Bernie Sanders. I blame the education system. That Communism doesn't work is basic logic. We need a modern Milton Friedman, who can explain the basic fact that prosperity is maximized when each individual pursues his own self-interest. Americans in the 1980s understood that, hence Reagan 49-state landslide.

Their teachers don't know about it, so how do you expect them to teach a subject they know nothing about.

[Quick Enough]

Originally Posted by lifeexplorer

You conservatives must stop arguing about the utility of capitalism. Nobody wants to hear it but yourself.

You must argue the morality. When people feel it’s a moral thing to do, they will do it even it doesn’t work.

Capitalism is freedom while communism/socialism is just an euphemism for slavery. Everybody understands why slavery is immoral and disgusting. There’s nothing moral, just or fair about communism/socialism!

That’s the angle you need to attack.

"You conservatives must stop arguing about the utility of capitalism"

But, the left is FREE to say whatever they want! The left is CONSTANTLY trying to silence ANYTHING the disagree with.

"The TRUTH? you can't HANDLE the truth!?

"Nobody wants to hear it but yourself."

"Nobody"? Another lefty thinking he KNOWS EVERYBODY and what they think.