Capitalism Works — When It’s Not Corrupted
Market capitalism is getting the blame for things that have nothing to do with it. Several examples will make my point.
Several years ago, two judges in northeast Pennsylvania (Democrats, in case you’re curious; I’m telling you because the Associated Press won’t) put together a kickback arrangement with the owner of two area juvenile detention centers to refer youths brought up on even the most trivial of charges to those facilities instead of prescribing probation, community service, or other less stringent sentences. The now-former judges, Mark Ciavarella Jr. and Michael Conahan, collected $2.8 million over the course of the “enterprise.” The former owner of the detention centers has already pleaded guilty and the two recalcitrant judges were recently indicted after their plea-bargaining sincerity failed to impress the case’s judge.
Thousands of kids who made minor mistakes (one teenage girl’s crime supposedly warranting detention was “making fun of her school’s vice principal on a Myspace page”) are scarred for life, and it’s likely that more than a few have become career criminals, something that would never have happened if the judges had not hatched their outrageous scheme.
According to filmmaker/provocateur Michael Moore, the sordid episode just described represents a failure of capitalism. The saga is supposedly such an obvious failing that it is part of Moore’s just-released Capitalism: A Love Story. Moore openly describes capitalism as evil.
Here’s a bigger one. In the 1990s, Enron, a former consulting client of New York Times columnist and economist Paul Krugman and a recipient of his praise in a 1999 Fortune column, built up a unique enterprise engaged in energy trading. While it was in essence a transactions broker, it did fine, in fact revolutionizing what had been a pretty staid business. But over time, it built a pressure-packed, corner-cutting corporate culture that was deliberately created by the suits in the executive suite. Out of this environment came top management’s deliberate choice to abuse the employment of “special purpose entities” to the point where they were barely disguised empty shells designed for the sole purpose of fooling the credit rating agencies. This decision, combined with the 2001 fall in energy prices, led to the company’s shocking multibillion-dollar collapse in late 2001.
Enron’s fall, along with that of Worldcom and several other companies, led to the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). The law imposes onerous new accounting, control, and reporting requirements on public companies, but especially on those considering going public. By 2006, Hong Kong was doing a higher volume of initial public offerings than New York. In 2008, both Hong Kong and Australia did more deals. It’s a virtual certainty that many growing companies that would once have gone public at the opportune time have instead chosen to be acquired. YouTube’s decision to sell out to Google in 2006 is likely one such example.
SOX’s wave of new rules, regulations, and constraints came about, according to popular mythology, because capitalism had failed.
That business with the judges is unbelievable. Here in oz, we just chucked a hugely respected beak into the clink for lying about a traffic ticket – I don’t know WE we’d start punishing a judge for that sort of corruption, but I’d hope the penalty is steep. As harsh as it sounds, I’d back life imprisonment for so seriously undermining the public’s confidence in the legal system. The punishment really has to be harsh. It’s just too important that judges stay clean.
What a mess. All those cases thrown into doubt.
I’m with you up until private prisons. MacDonald’s or Walmart or whomever does not have any right to take away my liberty and the government has no right to allow it. Private prisons and the war on drugs have been an unmitigated disaster. I’m not blaming capitalism. This is the fault of a bad idea gone viral.
I would love to see a follow-up article by Mr. Blumer on the “throw the baby out with the bath water” mentality of the Left which goes something like this:
…because of failures, mistakes, etcetera within the Free Market system, the system as a whole must be eliminated (i.e. because something is not “perfect” it must be destroyed…no reference to that old Star Trek show intended…).
Capitalism suffers far more from senseless political meddling than any systemic fault, as the author points out. Our current financial problems are a direct result of well-meaning but clueless politicians who wanted folks to own homes, yet had no idea how to do it within the economic laws that govern our markets. Instead of harming banks by forcing them to lend to people who didn’t earn enough money, they should have created an environment where the people could make enough money to easily afford a home.
We’re seeing a similar economic ignorance at work today: our economy is contracting by reason of intrusive rules, regulations and laws created by lawyers who have no experience in the business world nor any clue how wealth is created.
Capitalism works best when left alone, something our current political class seems inable to do. Their egos and zeal for power requires them to cause problems where none previously existed so they can appear to solve the problems that they don’t want you to know they created. That’s why they always say the system is corrupt, to deflect blame away from their mistakes.
The ‘Failure of Capitalism’ is never the failure of capitalism. It’s the failure of government to preserve a free market system.
Capitialism is never the problem it is those who think big govt can solve all our problems.
Sign up at http://www.handsoffamerica.net to join other capitialism-loving Americans!
Too often I hear, even among self-styled “reasonable conservatives” that free-markets need government regulation to function. Irresponsible, reckless, and predatory acts of firms are invoked as examples. Sadly, what these individuals were never taught is that such markets are not free-markets, which are defined as possessing the rule of law and clearly defined property rights. Thus, their examples do not meet the definition of a free market, but instead resemble lawless anarchy endorsed by corrupt magistrates and special interests. In a free-market, reckless, irresponible behavior is eventually punished in like degree. Thus, it is self-regulating.
“Capitalism Works — When It’s Not Corrupted”
Just about ANYTHING works when it’s not corrupted. That’s always been the problem with ivory-tower thinking, left and right.
Yes, if you take away greed and money, capitalism is fantastic. However, the last two years have taught many in the world some very real cruel truths about raw, unregulated capitalism and poor leadership. We almost lost it all. At least Bush did some math though and started the bailout/government takeover in order to avoid total collaps. And with the current administration strong leadership we should (very slowly) recover. Hopefully, we will have also learned some very stark lessons and put into place strong regulations to avoid another meltdown next time. Will we do that?…..in my opinion, No.
it is a problem with honesty.
presently absent in the MSM, all democrat politicians, several republican congressmen and senators. YES I SAIL ALL DEMOCRATS.
do they realise there will be no wealth to spread around after killing capitalism ?
actually many do realise that and they don’t care …they want control. EVEN IF IT MEANS 90% of the population will suffer.
Acorn is not free market ..it is purely a political and criminal enterprise of the democrat party.
freddy mac and fanny mae …purely political arm of the democrat paarty. (many of the top executives from freddy and fanny are presently advising obama )
capitalism work …socialism doesn’t.
here is a link for the people who think they can engage a troll with a positive result.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIFcnctnHsE&feature=related
basically that means the trolls are ideological retards.
they just don’t care.
A simple working example of how this game is played is that the capitalists are the players and the government is the referees.
There is the field, here are the rules and boundaries. The players will take the win to the limits and the referees will keep everyone in bounds.
That works until the referees want to be the players and government goes into business for itself with taxpayer money. The government and worse, politicians, who must generate enormous amounts of money to stay in office, selectively or dismissively enforce the rules (the SEC) and corruption of the system is at hand. The politicians then have opportunity to campaign more rules to cover up the inadequacy of the rules which they did not enforce. That also rewards the “free press” for the controversy and penalizes the crowd with guilt and taxes.
I have to agree with biblio44: Any system will work if the people are honest and honorable. However, I don’t think that’s occurred very often in the history of mankind. Of all the systems we, as societies, have come up with, I believe capitalism has the best chance of working (providing people with a livable income and prosperity for hard work) and the least chance of taking away our freedoms than any other system. One thing that needs to stay in check for capitalizm to work well, imo, is to keep companies and government from getting too big. When power gets centralized in too few hands, that’s when real problems occur. And we need to focus on supporting families who provide the foundation of society and teach morality so we have fewer dishonest people in the system.
Oh Poor Citizen! We didn’t see unregulated capitalism. There were plenty of regulations. Bad ones that allowed the CRA and encouraged subprime mortgages and the rest.
The only problem with this argument is that it gives a little credence to the counter argument that communism would work … when it’s not corrupted. The more accurate statement may be that capitalism or if you prefer like
I do, free enterprise works better … even when corrupted.
One of the most relaxing things I ever did was this: I decided to accept the existence of evil in the world, including my participation in it. It was relaxing because: (a) it involves an acceptance of life as it is and (b) it relieves me of the notion that I need to do my best to perfect the world. Anyone who has tried this has failed utterly. We have various religions to try to set people straight, but even here, people bend religion to suit their various nefarious purposes.
Regardless of the type of government we have, greed will always be there. The genius of the Founding Fathers is that they recognized the ample failings of human nature and took them into account when they set up a system of checks and balances to inhibit the inevitable abuses of power. Capitalism as well channels selfishness towards the better society as a whole.
We need fewer people who mean well but are bereft of introspection.
@9. Poor Citizen: – …if you take away greed and money, capitalism is fantastic.
That one wins the Clueless Statement of the Day® award. And it’s only 11am here on the East Coast.
Uhm, you didn’t even bother to read Tom’s article, PC. You’re obviously ignorant of the fact that we haven’t had “raw, unregulated capitalism” in America for decades – if ever. Wake up. Read a book.
Tom, one item you didn’t mention was one of the most obvious and most timely: health care.
Since 1965, the health care goods and services market has been corrupted by the federal government. By creating Medicare and Medicaid, the government distorted the health care market in ways that almost immediately caused an increase in the cost of health care from the CPI mean. Since then, Medicare survives only through extortion (retirees lose their SS benefits if they opt out) and theft (Medicare robs more from the general fund of the Treasury each year to remain afloat), while completely eliminating insurance competition in this area.
Further distortion was caused by the federal government with the HMO Act, which mandated a system guaranteed to fail – and which did fail, but not before completely corrupting the health care insurance paradigm in this country by mandating group “comprehensive” insurance. That new, broken paradigm encourages health care costs to rise with no limit, by disassociating the value of health care from the actual cost and disassociating the provider of health care from the consumer, economically.
Health care costs began to climb even faster soon after the HMO Act was passed. When the HMO experiment failed, and private industry began to take over what had been corrupted by the federal government (using that same broken “comprehensive” paradigm), health care costs skyrocketed in earnest, and have been doing so ever since.
Now – thanks solely to federal corruption of the health care market, which was once a free market – we have a(nother) “crisis“.
If you think the government is inherently dishonest and/or bad for capitalism, what makes you think the captains of industry are going to be honest? What makes you think the free market is somehow going to keep them honest?
We’re told all the benefits of deregulation and how it will increase competition and lower prices, yet in many cases the exact opposite occurs.
Middleman: The kind of dishonesty you are talking about – false public statements and faked accounting statements – has always been illegal. The ponderous regulations imposed on companies these days are just extra baggage.
A free-market reinforces these laws by allowing dishonest companies to fail. No bailouts, no lifelines thrown to corrupt companies by the Senators they bought with campaign contributions, no special treatment for companies with powerful unions, no government “loans” that will never be repaid. Real bankruptcy and liquidation. Assets bought by companies that want to succeed by competing, not by buying government favors.
Just as guns don’t kill people, capitalism doesn’t kill people.
It’s all about how you use it – and unfortunately, humans reliably demonstrate a capacity to kill with guns, as well as with capitalism. Capitalism is a great system in theory – but in practice, it is perhaps the single most destructive force the planet has ever seen. Capitalism may work, but what it accomplishes is not necessarily a good thing.
Peace.
DS
#18-David S.
That’s a doozy. To make a statement that confoundingly ignorant one would have to possess a deep-seated disdain of freedom and for humanity in general. There isn’t an economic model ever conceived that has done a better job of delivering the most properity or personal liberty to the greatest number of ordinary citizens. It’s also the only reason you’re able sit comfortably at your computer writing such juvenile nonsense.
And by the way, signing every post with “Peace” tagged on the end has about meaning and import and as the “God Bless” one invariably sees at the end of the hand scrawled cardboard signs being held up by disheveled pan-handlers on city street corners.
Oh David S. A wiser man than you once said something similar. Capitalism is the worst system going except for ALL the others.
@19. MisterH:
To make a statement that confoundingly ignorant one would have to possess a deep-seated disdain of freedom and for humanity in general. There isn’t an economic model ever conceived that has done a better job of delivering the most properity or personal liberty to the greatest number of ordinary citizens. It’s also the only reason you’re able sit comfortably at your computer writing such juvenile nonsense.
There most certainly is an economic model that does a better job – it’s called democratic socialism. Pure capitalism is indistinguishable from pure evil – it only delivers prosperity and personal liberty to the extent necessarily to maintain profits and prevent social unrest. Pure capitalism is inherently exploitative and destructive of human and material goods. It is only because of our democratic institutions, and the restraints these place on the market, that prosperity has been shared with “ordinary citizens”. If it were up to the capitalists, the conditions for widespread material prosperity would not exist.
Minimum wage laws, unions, workers comp, social security, police and fire protection – I could go on for a very long time explaining the ways that capitalism must be constrained in order for it to function as a driver of prosperity. I don’t think it is necessary for me to do so, because these are not controversial claims I am making. The system that drives American prosperity is our Republic – respect for human rights and representative government is the common bond that unites the prosperous societies of the world, not unrestricted free enterprise.
Peace.
DS
What was it that Harry Browne said? Something like government will break your legs and then hand you a pair of crutches. They’re about half way through that process right now. And their crutches are made of paper mache.
18. David S: – Capitalism is a great system in theory – but in practice, it is perhaps the single most destructive force the planet has ever seen.
You can’t expect anyone to believe you’re actually THAT FRAKKING CLUELESSY STUPID, can you?
Oh, maybe you can, and once again we see an example of how you’ve lied. You got caught. You got pwned.
You’ve rendered your own commentary irrelevant, Zippy.
17. Old Soldier,
How does the free-market prevent a group of dishonest companies from colluding to manipulate the market to their benefit? Also how does the free-market keep corporation honest when it comes to obligations in terms of providing their employees a good work environment and preserving/restoring environment they may use in order to produce goods?
@23. goy:
You can’t expect anyone to believe you’re actually THAT FRAKKING CLUELESSY STUPID, can you?
Did you intend to address my argument, or just give voice to your personal attacks? Pointing out the harms caused by totalitarian systems does not refute my argument.
Oh, maybe you can, and once again we see an example of how you’ve lied. You got caught. You got pwned.
You’ve rendered your own commentary irrelevant, Zippy.
Ok. Personal attacks it is. Let me know when you are ready to act like an adult and actually address the argument at hand. Until then, keep up the good work. You’ve really got the ad hominem down to a fine art, buddy, but it’s not going to win any debates.
Peace.
DS
Tell it to the republicans. We never expected democrats to believe in capitalism.
The republicans were supposed to keep them in check by supporting capitalism. Now that the general populace understands that republicans are just “socialist lite” or “democrat lite” and not true supporters of capitalism, they are in trouble.
If republicans don’t start supporting freedom in all its forms, not just the economic freedom inherent in capitalism, then they are going to find themselves out on their asses.
Its time to get rid of the Orrin Hatchs and the Bob Bennetts of the republican party and get some people in there who are really going to defend freedom, liberty and the American way (which means capitalism).
Republicans: time to clean house or get your clock cleaned in the next election. Again.
#21 David S.
The first statement you made was juvenile nonsense but that is far too benign a desciption for your more detailed follow-up. You have now crossed into the realm of malevolent stupidty. Do you think your parents are starting to resent the fact that you’re over 30 and still dependent on them for survival?
Too many people have no clue about Capitalism, I guess we can thank public schools….Public schools are what I call the opposite of capitalism…Anyway, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand should be required reading for all. It spells out in a nice story just why capitalism is the only system that will work for mankind that does not end up with who has the biggest gun.
25. David S: – Did you intend to address my argument…
As usual, you didn’t present an argument, Zippy. Like so many unsuccessfully educated moral adolescents, all you did was make an asinine, objectively idiotic assertion, claiming that capitalism is the single most destructive force the planet has ever seen.
As anyone can plainly see by clicking the link I provided, your assertion is not only patently absurd but, far worse, it trivializes the murders of the tens of millions who died at the hands of communist regimes.
Try all you like to distance yourself from those murders, Zippy, but the ideology which made all that brutality possible was international socialism a/k/a communism. If we add those murdered by national socialists, we can increase the number by quite a few more millions. Do the math. It’s an exercise you sorely need.
Socialism – in its various forms both national and international – is clearly the most destructive force the planet has ever seen. And contrary to the specious nonsense you think passes for “reason”, there is objective, verifiable proof to back that up.
@29. goy:
As usual, you didn’t present an argument, Zippy. Like so many unsuccessfully educated moral adolescents, all you did was make an asinine, objectively idiotic assertion, claiming that capitalism is the single most destructive force the planet has ever seen.
Apparently you are having some trouble with reading comprehension. Try again – I made no such claim. You are the one making an asinine, objectively idiotic assertion by trying to put words in my mouth.
As anyone can plainly see by clicking the link I provided, your assertion is not only patently absurd but, far worse, it trivializes the murders of the tens of millions who died at the hands of communist regimes.
In case you didn’t notice, I’m not a communist, and I don’t support totalitarianism. Pointing out that capitalism is massively destructive does not imply that other forces are not. I wish you could keep up.
Try all you like to distance yourself from those murders, Zippy, but the ideology which made all that brutality possible was international socialism a/k/a communism. If we add those murdered by national socialists, we can increase the number by quite a few more millions. Do the math. It’s an exercise you sorely need.
The fact that you can’t tell the difference between democratic socialism and totalitarian communism is your own problem, not mine. You can avoid addressing the inherent problems in capitalism – but I won’t.
Socialism – in its various forms both national and international – is clearly the most destructive force the planet has ever seen. And contrary to the specious nonsense you think passes for “reason”, there is objective, verifiable proof to back that up.
If you actually had any evidence to back it up, you haven’t shared it here. You assert that socialism is the most destructive force the planet has ever seen, but it is capitalism that threatens human health and welfare on a global scale. You accuse me of making an asinine, objectively idiotic assertion – but in reality, you are the one making the ungrounded assertions here. Go back and read what I wrote before you make a bigger fool of yourself.
Peace.
DS
The foreground of the recent economic bust is dominated by subprime lending, but there’s a deeper government failure involved. The Fed forced interest rates below the natural rate of interest, fueling an unsustainable credit expansion boom. For the details as to how the Fed lost its way, please see Roger W. Garrison’s paper: “Interest-Rate Targeting During the Great Moderation: A Reappraisal”, http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj29n1/cj29n1-14.pdf
It’s also the government’s fault that private lenders made bad loans in general, even the ones that were not subprime. In the absence of Fed interference, the interest rate is a price that is naturally determined by the supply of savings available for lending. Arbitrary credit expansion by government causes private lenders to underestimate the real risk in making loans because the artificially lowered interest rate communicates a false impression of prosperity, of savings that don’t really exist.
And the Fed is responsible for causing asset bubbles. Gerald P. O’Driscoll Jr. explains in this article: “Asset Bubbles and Their Consequences”, http://www.cato.org/pubs/bp/bp103.pdf One key quote: “In a vibrant market economy with technological innovation and ever new profit opportunities, the monetary policy that maintains price stability in consumer goods (or zero price inflation) requires substantial monetary stimulus. That stimulus will have a number of real consequences, including asset bubbles.”
So it’s a gross distortion to blame capitalism for what is at the root a failure of government monetary policy. The Fed did it.
@30. David S: – I made no such claim.
Zippy, are you seriously pretending you can’t even read YOUR OWN POSTS!!?!?!
Here – #18 – you wrote: “Capitalism is a great system in theory – but in practice, it is perhaps the single most destructive force the planet has ever seen“.
Unless there’s another David S here, Zippy, those are YOUR words. If one has any knowledge of 20th century history, which you obviously don’t, they will recognize your statement as a moronic, idiotic, asinine assertion that is not only objectively false, but also not an “argument”. MisterH is absolutely right – you’ve crossed over into the realm of malevolent, willful stupidity, another hallmark of the left.
- If you actually had any evidence to back it up…
So now you’re claiming that communism is NOT a form of socialism? Call your parents, Zippy. Tell them all the money they blew on your 6 years of college were a complete waste.
There is a very simple solution to the arguments put forth by David S, Middleman, Poor Citizen and their ilk. Simply allow a free market for governments. How about you just let those of us who want to live in a completely free market society have one state, free from federal taxes and federal regulations. Then you can take another state and run it like a socialist utopia. Let said states compete for citizens. People who want to live under socialism can go to the nanny state, people who don’t leave for the capitalist state. Well pretty soon business will just move to the free state, and people will follow. The socialist state will go completely bankrupt since it will consist of zero productivity and lots of welfare. I mean we’ve already done this pseudo-experiment with our half-socialist economy versus the completely socialist Soviet Union and that didn’t turn out so well for the Russians. But we can do it again.
See the thing is that liberals always want to impose their way upon you. You guys know better and the rest of us just have to accept that apparently. I’m not sure why you can’t just leave those of us who disagree with you alone and let us go on with our lives. You guys want to live in fantasy land, that’s swell. If you want to prove your fantasyland works, allow competition between governments (as opposed to this G20 global harmonization nonsense).
@32. goy:
Zippy, are you seriously pretending you can’t even read YOUR OWN POSTS!!?!?!
Nope. Just confirming that you can’t. It’s the details that you miss.
Here – #18 – you wrote: “Capitalism is a great system in theory – but in practice, it is perhaps the single most destructive force the planet has ever seen“.
I guess that qualifier “perhaps” didn’t mean a thing to you.
Unless there’s another David S here, Zippy, those are YOUR words. …you’ve crossed over into the realm of malevolent, willful stupidity, another hallmark of the left.
Just because I don’t buy your BS line about national socialists (oooh scary!) doesn’t mean I’m ignorant of history, malevolent or stupid. You took the bait I offered – I know it was irresistible. But I didn’t say Capitalism is certainly the most destructive force – just perhaps.
It’s your self-appointed duty to defend capitalism from any and all slings and arrows, regardless of how deserved they might be. Your inability to understand that socialism ≠ totalitarianism is a terrible handicap that I hope you will someday overcome. Most Americans are quite happy with the public options we currently have, and wouldn’t mind a few more, thanks.
But when it comes to the most destructive force in history, Capitalism has some pretty stiff competition. Hence the qualifier. Hence your embarrassment.
Again.
Peace.
DS
PS – Don’t try to tell me what I said when you haven’t yet understood it.
TQ writes:
That’s how the US was supposed to be — let the states experiment with solutions and compete with each other. Instead, republicans and democrats alike gave us a huge federal government forcing a one-size-fits-all solution that everyone hates.
Republicans talk about being for small government. When was the last time they actually delivered? They’ve been in charge of at least one branch of government for the past 20-30 years and all we’ve gotten is a huge federal government for our support.
Things have got to change.
The only reason moderates put up with all their social conservative bullshit is because they’re supposed to give us economic freedom in return.
They’ve welched on the deal and screwed us all.
We never expected economic freedom from democrats, but we haven’t gotten it from republicans either. If we’re not going to get economic freedom from republicans, what the hell are they good for?
Time to flush them down the drain of history and do something different.
“Prisons and other public services should not be privatized.”
That one I agree with.
Government is good at three things: killing people, stealing money (taxation) and locking folks up in cages…and, that’s about it.
Let ‘em stick to doing stuff they know how to do, and we’ll take care of the rest.
@34. David S: – I guess that qualifier “perhaps” didn’t mean a thing to you.
Sure it did. I was curious to see if you’re really intellectually dishonest enough to think it changes the meaning of what you wrote, and – surprise! – you really are that dishonest.
If it was your intention to merely equivocate and, thus, say nothing of substance whatsoever, then you should have kept your idiotic drivel to yourself, Zippy. Because backpedaling away from your asinine, idiotic, demonstrably false assertion, using a pathetically lame fallacy of equivocation, says pretty much the same thing.
On the rest of your silly-ass notions, when you get some actual real-life experience to shore (heh) up your 6-year-long, unsuccessful education, you’ll eventually come to realize that socialism in theory is very different from socialism in practice.
Ultimately, socialism in practice can’t exist without a totalitarian mechanism to enforce it because it’s not an inherently sustainable social structure, built as it is on morally adolescent ideology. Every version of the socialist experiment has demonstrated this or is in the process of doing so, as you’ve already been instructed… back where you lied. And you were caught. And you were pwned.
You’ve rendered your own commentary irrelevant, Zippy.
#33 TQ….Texas vs California to some extent is a good analogy of what you are suggesting. Texas has a $9 billion dollar surplus, and created 70% of all new jobs in 2008, whereas California is a basket case, and without Federal assistance would be bankrupt.
Texas is a right to work state, whereas California is heavily controlled by unions.
The environmental extremist rule California, and I fear they will bring the U.S. economy to a crashing halt with their radicalism.
The funny little thing is that capitalism is neither a theory nor a system. It is just what happens when people have property and freedom and enough intelligence to save something today for investing it in the future. This is the nightmare for people who need to have a theory and to know better. They are deadly insulted when something works without their meaningless intellectual gymnastics. So they have to regulate capitalism and claim the failures of their regulations as failures of capitalism. The other little funny thing is that only capitalism produces the wealth that makes it possible for such a big load of intellectual suckers to survive without the need to be productive their whole life. But because of not owning the social status they believe they deserve they bite the hand that feeds them and yearn for a system that will eliminate unproductive elements like them first.
No. The author’s notions about the current day corporate and financial systems, like all Randians (which I gathered he’s one) is almost entirely childlike and naive. Business worldwide has become much, much more reptilian in their practices than before, including being very, very systematic in exploiting *any* opportunity to gain greater profit, greater market share, or increase sock values, as long as they can either get away with it or if the penalties and fines do not offset the benefits. The skyrocketing derivative market is symptomatic of this attitude.
The mortgage market is a very good example of this greed-is-always-OK philosophy, but the author only recycled the widespread myth that the CRA was central to the mortgage meltdown: no, it wasn’t. The mortgage market became derivative driven and bad loans became the norm for all demographic groups. While this is just a review of a book by a well-versed Financial Times writer, Gillian Tett, it does provide a nice little insight into what was going on in the mind of the modern day capitalist, and it’s not pretty.
I’m from Chicago, born and raised, and I can tell you there are few systems more corrupt on U.S. Soil. Now we’ve sent those ideas and policies to Washington, DC. The press (LOL) and the American people need to be vigilant in looking for and exposing such corruption. Of course if you do (such as the 2 young journalists recently exposed ACORN) there will likely be retaliation by this administration. I would not be surprised if, and I believe it is entirely possible, that significant portions of the Stimulus package funds are not intended to get back to the Democratic party re-election coffers.
Other forms of quid-pro-quo type expectations by this administration are likely as well: e.g. the NEA/Government service organization corruption of the Arts in order to have them act as soldiers to support the Obama Agenda. Maybe the intention is to change the performing artists into the type of “performing artists” that ACORN provides funding to.
I would happily contribute to an ad campaign demanding all the ‘Che’ wannabe smug leftist in Hollywood (along with Michael Moore) to give up their entire wealth to the poor, and move from their mansions into a soviet style apartment.
I have spent my entire life listening to these fraudsters blast capitalism while they live in mansions, and ride around in limo’s. It is time we embarrass the hell out of these poorly educated so called elitist, and perhaps they will eventually shut their traps and make a movie worth watching.
8. biblio44.
“Just about ANYTHING works when it’s not corrupted.”
12. DC.
“I have to agree with biblio44: Any system will work if the people are honest and honorable.”
I have a system of government that is honest and honorable, and is not corrupt.
You will work at a task that I designate for you to do. The results of your labor will be given over to me in full. I will then allocate enough resources to you, that I deem will allow you to live. The purpose of your life will be that you can live so long as to continue to contribute to the common good. Your excess production, that I determine, will be used by me to maintain the common good, the common good being what I decide the common good is.
Any dishonesty, dishonorable or corrupt actions, as determined by me, will result in your elimination.
These are the rules, which I will adhere to in a non-corrupt, honest and honorable way. In return, get working and perform your task in a non-corrupt, honest and honorable fashion. Or die.
To a Leftist, Enron is proof that capitalism is hopelessly corrupt that we need more government oversight because we can’t count on honest people running corporations. The power and wealth are just too corrupting.
But, corruption and scandal at Fannie Mae (which dwarfs Enron on a dollar scale and on a financial impact scale) is just an abberation. Al it says is that we need better, more honest people, running government and then we’ll be fine.
Leftists simply cannot concieve of government as being inherently corrupting – to them it’s the height of humanitarianism and the font of goodness. But in reality government is at least as succeptible to corruption as private business, and likely even more so since private companies aren’t allowed to use force to get their way.
In fact, we’re verging on the worst of all worlds here – crony capitalism where big business collaborates with big government to enforce control. NO free market involved at all. You Lefty lovers need to wake up and realize that Franklin Raines is a far bigger villian than Ken Lay, has done far more damage to ordinary people is far, far more corrupt than the entire Enron executive suite together, and it just the tip of the iceberg in Government America.
The only group of americans that would prefer socialism over capitalism are the under 30 age group. Three words explains this phenomenon; left-wing indoctrination.
mmm mmm mmm Barack Hussein Obama is our dear leader.
Global capitalism is, in essence, a cancer. The accumulation of obscene wealth, and the global empowerment of corporations, have rendered democracy and the market quaint. This is not sustainable, and it is much better to move forward deliberately and intelligently than to ignore the peril.
Markets are a useful tool in some instances, but the current state of global capitalism is a travesty.
Peace.
DS
David S…Move to Cuba and buy a 55 Chevy. What a dope.
“Markets are a useful tool in some instances…”
Anyone who can say this has no place in a discussion of economics. Period.
Markets are the foundational underpinning of an efficient economy. All other systems of determining supply and demand are woefully result in massive waste in comparison, and usually exist because certain people have enough hubris think they know enough to centrally plan an economy. These people are always wrong, because the information needed to do it with the efficiency of a market is unknowable. This is empirical fact.
That is not to say that a market functions in isolation. A prerequisite for a functioning market is a regulatory mechanism to keep people honest. Government is that mechanism, but only one where there are simple, comprehensible laws that apply equally to all parties in a market. The current monstrosity in Washington is decidedly *not* that kind of government, and each and every attempt it makes at un-leveling the playing field in favor of particular parties result in economic damage.
An honest, ethical government is the foundation of an honest, ethical economy. If one looks at the economic crises we’re facing today, many of them trace back to imbalances introduced by government to produce a particular result. Health care is a prime example of this. Though, when it comes time to play the blame game, the faceless and voiceless “free market” becomes the sole problem, and the arrogant and incompetent stooges of government go unchallenged.
Brewing tobacoo drink will be like when malta is been smoked.
For the next olympics we should have all the participant run individually, not keep time, and give everyone that shows up the same prize…. I wonder how many people would compete? That is the results of a command economy… Capitalism is based upon there being winners and losers, that is life, whoever said it was going to be fair? Anyone that is pissed off because someone else won and so wants to change the game so there are no winners and losers is a nut…. that is the reason why people so up.
There are tons of rags to riches stories in the US. But guess what, it’s not going to be everyone.
As I recall, evil Walmart was able to hand out bottled water following Katrina about a week before the federal government.
That’s right comrades! Marxism isn’t the problem, it’s the corruption and the way it was implemented! The system is pure, it’s the corrupted people who ruined it! Let’s give it a try! Oh wait, I meant “capitalism.” Sorry.