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I'm definitely a socialist, though I'm not quite a communist. I think you do need to allow some market forces to take work but I'm strongly in favor of progressive taxation and I also think it's healthy and essential to have a large state-owned sector for things like medicine and education, as well as a healthy cooperative sector. I'd say I'm a moderate socialist, somewhere in between a social democrat and a communist.
Count me as a red white and blue capitalist all the way. Capitalism made the US the greatest country in the world, and the pace of our decline as a nation only grows as we move further away from it, as does our mind boggling national debt.
I'm very much a capitalist. I would argue the issue with the US as of current is it's not capitalist, it's crony capitalist. This results in a distortion of the market forces favoring those companies which can best feed politicians money, and thus corrupts the natural balances of a free market. The main problem is due to more recent economic policies which have increased governmental influence in the economy, thus encouraging this kind of corruption to happen (which in the US we call pork-barrel spending and lobbying).
On what is the OP basing the analysis? Most people do not understand the "isms".
Ok, let me try. When the Pilgrims came here, they set up a system, which could be compared to socialism. Some would grow crops, some would raise animals, some would build homes, and some would make cloth, milk the cows, chop wood....yada, yada. Everyone would contribute, based upon their talents, and all would share equally. It sounds so reasonable, if all humans were honorable, but it didn't take long for the slackers to figure out that even if they didn't work they would still get a share of food, fire wood, etc. The Pilgrims soon abandoned this system.
We are now in a state of such chaos, as far as and overwhelming number of people attached to the government teat, that it is hard to comprehend how we will ever extricate ourselves. Generations of "the poor", who have wide screen TVs and cell phones, have been made dependent. I just don't see how others don't try harder to stop the madness.
Total capitalist here. The reason medicine and education are so expensive is because the government was too involved in them. 2/3rds of medical expenses were paid by the government even before Obamacare.
We are now in a state of such chaos, as far as and overwhelming number of people attached to the government teat, that it is hard to comprehend how we will ever extricate ourselves. Generations of "the poor", who have wide screen TVs and cell phones, have been made dependent. I just don't see how others don't try harder to stop the madness.
Cell phones are a luxury? What do you think this is, 1992? Even people in huts in Africa have cell phones now.
I'm a mix of both- I'd say probably about 75-80% capitalist and 20-25% socialist.
I don't think that either system alone works perfectly, so a mixing of some aspects of both helps to create a better overall system, imo.
I think that here in the US we need a real universal health care system- NOT Obamacare. I think single-payer is the most likely way to go in our country as time progresses; and I think that we will have such a system in the future. One, because it would be cheaper than the absolute (insanely expensive) mess that we have now, and two, it would cover everyone. Imo, health care is a right and not a privilege. It's an embarrassment that we're the only rich country in the world that doesn't have a UHC system.
Another big one for me is education. The cost of going to university in this country is absolutely OBSCENE. We have thousands upon thousands of people going into massive debt before they even start their adult lives/ careers. An educated workforce is good for the country, and the current higher education system does a disservice to the country and the overall economy imo. On a side note, for the lower educational system, I think the school vouchers that were discussed by the GOP could be something to look at. It's worked pretty well in Sweden so far.
Conversely, though, I am a strong believer that capitalism is the best economic system that we currently have available to us. The US has a LOT of stupid and unnecessary regulations in some areas that should be addressed.One big one is the corporate tax rates. Our c. tax rates are ridiculous. Way too high. It makes us very uncompetitive in relation to the rest of the developed world. Look at Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, the Nordic countries, etc. All of them have c. tax rates that are substantially lower than ours. It's better for businesses to come and invest and set up in our country- it's just common sense.
Also, while I am 100% for a strong social safety net, we have to create one that actually helps people instead of trapping them in poverty. We need to make a welfare system that is actually efficient and does its initial purpose of helping to propel people up who are caught on hard times. The Danish system of 'flexicurity' I find to be particularly intriguing.
I've lived in five foreign (developed) countries across three continents. For the life of me, I don't get why we can't look around at other successful examples of certain things from other countries around the world and try to replicate them in a way that works for us. Believe it or not, we don't do everything right, and a lot of countries do a lot of things better than we do. That's why I hate the whole mantra of 'best country in the world'. How can one possibly begin to measure something like that? Isn't it all pretty much subjective? Plus, even if one was going to try to measure it-like I said, there's a lot of countries with superb qualities of life- just as good if not better than our own.
I, am, however, for a progressive income tax system (just slightly more aggressive than what we have now). We also need to close tax loopholes on things like capital gains that allows the ultra-wealthy to get away barely paying any money.
Maybe we should stop wasting billions upon billions upon billions of dollars feeding an asinine military industrial complex and policeman of the world mindset. Let's be real anyways, China's economy is going to overtake us within 10-15 years, and India too most likely within 40-50 years. Increased economic strength translates into increased military strength. This isn't 1995 or 2000 anymore. We are not and will not in the future be the only big kid on the block. We should try to make our own country more perfect instead of running around the world inserting our noses into other people's business.
For heaven's sake, look at the Swiss! They're, hands down, some of the best capitalists in the entire world who have an absolutely superb standard of living. All while they still are able to provide a basic welfare net in their society. Why can't we try to look at some aspects of the Swiss model?
P.S. In conclusion, I'll say that I realize that this post isn't extremely cohesive and kind of all over the place. My apologies for that.
Capitalism provides the highest standard of living for the most people than any other system, if certain people don't like capitalism there are a lot of countries they can move to where they will have less of it, we have poor people in this country but utopia is not an option. Poor people in the US have more than a lot of working people in socialist countries who live in small apartments and don't own cars.
Die hard Libertarian Capitalist here. I'd like to see dual federalism restored and everything the federal government currently does that isn't one of the 23 things the constitution allows it to do returned to the states for them to run and if they don't want to run it scrap it. I'd also end all this going to into armed conflicts without congressional declarations of approval with at least 2/3rds of both houses of congress supporting it. If the reasons for war are legitimate than it should be easy to get overwhelming support for it.
Capitalist. Have seen far too many people get caught up in liberalism and socialism to know where that leads, and it's not a place I want to go.
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