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If anything these numbers underline the flaws of capitalism. No other developed country has a greater wealth inequality, and no other developed country has no universal health care.
Capitalism is a huge fail, it just doesn't know it yet. The debt crisis is coming.
ALL developed countries in the world today have capitalist economies. Capitalism and extensive social services can and do co-exist.
Capitalism has its issues, but a viable alternative has yet to be proposed. I'm open for tweaking capitalism. Breaking up monopolies/oligopolies to encourage competition is a compromise I'm okay with.
Capitalism has its issues, but a viable alternative has yet to be proposed.
There is no viable alternative, not in any version of the modern world. Check back on the situation after, say, we've adapted to global climate change without complete collapse of civilization. Call it a hundred years or so. Maybe the necessarily cooperative nature of that effort will prepare us to evolve economically.
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I'm open for tweaking capitalism. Breaking up monopolies/oligopolies to encourage competition is a compromise I'm okay with.
The fix is obvious, if not particularly simple. Despite the nonsense ideology of the last 30 years, capitalism is something that must be restrained to continue functioning over a long term. The idea that the unfettered free market, or unregulated economic influence, is some kind of boon for anybody but a few lucky lottery winners, is as nonsensical as most theologies wherein the holy scriptures are written by a benefitting priest-class.
The question is whether the United States should have the level of social services of, say, Denmark or Finland.
The problem with the Democratic Socialists in the USA right now is they start their argument with "<insert country here> has <insert program here> and we need to be more like them!" It's like they don't recognize that the US tends to:
be a center-right nation
will need a major miracle to pass any of these programs (even if the Democrats had a super majority, which is looking like a pipedream...and NOT because Republicans have their **** together, because they don't)
be MANY times larger than those countries and
GENERALLY favor the private sector over the public sector (Obamacare was a hip GOP target, but it actually did wonders for United Health's bottom line).
is generally more diverse than those countries in both population and geography (so what is good for Alabama might not be good for Hawaii).
And then they choke on their coffee when we ask "So how are we gonna pay for it?".
While I do agree that they work within a capitalist system (even though they're trying to undermine it), I do think if Trump can turn 2020 into a Capitalism vs Socialism debate, he can win re-election very handily.
There is no viable alternative, not in any version of the modern world. Check back on the situation after, say, we've adapted to global climate change without complete collapse of civilization. Call it a hundred years or so. Maybe the necessarily cooperative nature of that effort will prepare us to evolve economically.
The fix is obvious, if not particularly simple. Despite the nonsense ideology of the last 30 years, capitalism is something that must be restrained to continue functioning over a long term. The idea that the unfettered free market, or unregulated economic influence, is some kind of boon for anybody but a few lucky lottery winners, is as nonsensical as most theologies wherein the holy scriptures are written by a benefitting priest-class.
I do feel like I'm caught in a strange position. I want to see less government involvement overall and I generally support free market capitalism, but then I see Amazon and other big tech firms totally destroying entire brands, sectors and industries, as well as the corporate dependence on the likes of China and cheaper labor from outside the country and I'm like, "...hold it just one darn minute!".
I like where Trump is steering the US economically, although I wish he would stay on message a bit better. He could be stronger on overseas outsourcing. Still a million percent improvement over the last 3 presidents we've had.
I do feel like I'm caught in a strange position. I want to see less government involvement overall and I generally support free market capitalism, but then I see...
...the widespread effects of unchecked business growth and preferable tax treatment, to start with.
Let me toss some gas on the fire here: stop fearing government, as you've been programmed to do by 30+ years of the GOP relentlessly advancing its agenda by playing on the traditional American distrust of it. Distrust and wariness are somewhere between normal and appropriate. Believing it's all some parasitic mess that should be kept far from business and individuals is... an ideological cancer.
Few who roar about excessive government can do more than point to trivial departments and niches where mold has grown. By and large, we have the government a nation of 330M in 2019 needs.
It just needs to remember that business/industry/macroeconomics need as much oversight as us poor mass of individuals. Let's turn a little tracking, endless surveillance and big data loose on corporations.
I do feel like I'm caught in a strange position. I want to see less government involvement overall and I generally support free market capitalism, but then I see Amazon and other big tech firms totally destroying entire brands, sectors and industries, as well as the corporate dependence on the likes of China and cheaper labor from outside the country and I'm like, "...hold it just one darn minute!".
We are our own worst enemies. While we break up our great companies, or threaten to break them up and so turn them into meek, timid giants afraid to really compete, the Japanese and the Chinese know that large corporations that dominate an industry are the way to go.
What a bunch of wimps we have become! While we fine and prosecute our largest tech companies for being too successful, Huawei has grown into a global giant that we had to actually ban from doing business with. It's time that we stopped being afraid of success and go back to the era of great American companies that weren't afraid to compete hard and dominate their fields.
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I like where Trump is steering the US economically, although I wish he would stay on message a bit better. He could be stronger on overseas outsourcing. Still a million percent improvement over the last 3 presidents we've had.
If the Democrats would stop trying to impeach and investigate him over nothing, and instead try working with him, just imagine what we could get done over the next couple of years!
We are our own worst enemies.
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If the Democrats would stop trying to impeach and investigate him over nothing, and instead try working with him, just imagine what we could get done over the next couple of years!
We certainly are.
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