Capitalism Doesn't Work... So What Would?

matthew809

matthew809

Registered Senior Member
Inflation, corruption, the number of poor and homeless, excessive wealth, corporate infiltration into government and vise-versa, the current economic meltdown, etc...

How much more obvious proof do we need that capitalism does not work before we change the system. Instead of amending and patching up this fundamentally flawed system, making it ever more confusing and complicated, isn't it a better idea to take the best parts of capitalism(ie. incentive for competition and growth) and design a whole new system which takes advantage of what we learned from the past hundred or so years?

I do believe that capitalism may have been a necessary transitional system. But now we are ready for something better for everyone. We need dramatic change. I'm no expert, but it seems to me that a mix between the best parts of capitalism and communism would be something to consider. If you had a chance to design a society from the ground up, how would it work?
 
If I had to design a society from the ground up, economy would be the least of my concerns. Purity first.


However, I disagree; capitalism is a superb economic system. Primarily, laissez faire, it would work. That being said, I don't support it, but it is a good system.
 
matthew809 said:
Inflation, corruption, the number of poor and homeless, excessive wealth, corporate infiltration into government and vise-versa, the current economic meltdown, etc...

How much more obvious proof do we need that capitalism does not work before we change the system. Instead of amending and patching up this fundamentally flawed system, making it ever more confusing and complicated, isn't it a better idea to take the best parts of capitalism(ie. incentive for competition and growth) and design a whole new system which takes advantage of what we learned from the past hundred or so years?

I do believe that capitalism may have been a necessary transitional system. But now we are ready for something better for everyone. We need dramatic change. I'm no expert, but it seems to me that a mix between the best parts of capitalism and communism would be something to consider. If you had a chance to design a society from the ground up, how would it work?
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Sorry to have to burst your bubble, but everything you've listed as problems with capitalism are present in every form of system you could devise. History makes that fact glaringly clear!

So, despite hand-wringing and wishful thinking, there's never been any system that serves the population better than capitalism - even when considering all it's problems.
 
What is the problem with socialism? In concept, it sounds very fair and very reasonable, so why is it that it usually doesn't work? "From each according to his ability to each according to his needs" sounds like a good idea.
 
Read-Only said:
Sorry to have to burst your bubble, but everything you've listed as problems with capitalism are present in every form of system you could devise. History makes that fact glaringly clear!
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Bingo.

A lot of what you, OP, mentioned is thanks to the amount of power we've given to the government. A government backed line of credit to organizations competing against the private sector, lobbyists ready to divide up our cash because Washington has such easy and wonderful access to it along with a belief that it can spend it on anything, a Fed that maintains a policy of easy credit and artificially low interest rates, etc. So with your proposal of giving government even more power vis a vis some mix between capitalism and communism, why would you expect things to get any better?
 
As with everything, a mix of things is necessary. Welfare, taxes, health care, education and the redistribution of wealth are all things that increase the usefulness of capitalism. Although, I am completely for a Laissez Fair policy, and am a Libertarian.
 
Yeah, it is about us, each of us as an individual, unless we dont change nothing changes.
Check out nation called Bhutan, they are living like in ancient times and they are happy, they are ruled by a king by a choice, they prefer their own measure of GPD based on very different qualities than rest of the world. Recently they went through discussion should they adopt electricity, local solar panels won over constructed grid because of some species of birds yearly flying route would be dangered. Now they are having issue should they come to democracy, well, that would be end of all that I guess.
 
Regulated or socialistic capitalism does work. Pure hands off laissez-faire capitalism doesn't.
 
The people would insist on the government doing something about it. "That's how it is" won't get you elected.
 
spidergoat said:
The people would insist on the government doing something about it. "That's how it is" won't get you elected.
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The people can leave, if they want socialism.


Fact of the matter is, the free market is an efficient force. If millions become homeless, well, that's a great opportunity for many to capitalize on and prosper from.
 
The biggest problem facing the USA system is a chance of hyperinflation followed by an all out run from the dollar.
The fed is afraid to let the market correct itself with a deflationary period. Yeah, it means tough times but it will happen anyway. The sooner the better.

The longer we wait, the further the fall
 
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