Psychologist Robert D. Hare, Ph.D. in his book "Without Conscience" poses the

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17. Capitalism began in Europe. It was an improvement over Feudalism, when the nobility

owned their land and all the people living on their land. The nobility had everything,
the people had only what their liege lords allowed them to have.

Capitalism was better than feudalism in the sense that more people were able to have
something. But human weakness is human weakness. More people fall to temptation
than not, and they, too, began to behave like the nobility who used to rule over them. But, there are some capitalists who are not greedy.

Sociopaths are exceptionally greedy for money and the power over people that can be
exercised with money. Where can money and power be most easily found? In
politics and business corporations. And that's exactly where sociopaths are attracted
and drawn to -- like flies are drawn to feces. There is a high percentage of them in
these two, as well as other, fields. Prisons are full of them, although the brighter ones
manage to stay out of prisons, at least stay out for a longer period, and some manage
never to get caught at all.

Yes, there are sociopaths among Democrats, too. But I'd say these are fewer in number and less vicious in degree. The basic philosophy of the Democrats -- making life better for
everybody -- is not that attractive to the basic instincts of the sociopath, which is to
grab as much as possible for oneself. This is one reason for the lower numbers of them. I
agree that there are also those who are Democrats in name only. Some of them might
even be moles for the GOP -- just one of their many dirty tricks.

For your information, between 2% and 4% of the general population have sociopathic personalities. You can be sure that this percentage is much higher among people in professions like politics and corporate executives, because these professions offer the best chances for acquiring exactly what sociopaths are most interested in: money and power over people.

Regarding "individual bad apples": This terminology makes it sound like there are only
a few of them. They may have started off that way, but today, I think the majority of the
Righ-Wing leadership is made up of sociopaths. Not too many succeed in getting into a leadership position among the so-called Republicans of today without being a sociopath.
And some who are not sociopaths are finding life being made so unpleasant for them that
they can no long stand it, and decide to leave - Sen. Snowe of Maine, for instance.

You seem to feel that Capitalism is intrinsically bad. I feel that Capitalism, in and of
itself, is neither good nor bad. It depends on the people using it, just as a gun can be
used for a good as well as an evil purpose. Briefly stated: Greed largely influenced
capitalism from the beginning in the US. Change came mainly with FDR (although others
also have played a role).

Capitalism must be closely watched by the government (a good government, of course)
with the necessary rules and regulations, to see that capitalists do no harm, neither at home nor abroad. Under these circumstances, America did make huge advances in upgrading the lives of all Americans. Capitalism did make America prosper under a system of government that is for ALL the people.

The Republicans have always fought against having rules and regulations for business to follow. And today's "Republicans" are far more adamant in this respect than those of yesteryear. There are far more sociopaths among the Republican leadership of
today. Yes, Capitalism becomes a definite evil under sociopathic leaders.

A sociopath is, by definition, a person who has a defective conscience, disregards the
rights of other human beings, does not hesitate to lie, cheat, steal and harm others for
his personal gain. Putting such a person into a leadership position only allows him to
do all this on a larger scale. Yes, I repeat what I've said above, a large percentage of
the Republican Party leadership of today is made up of sociopaths. Their leadership has brought, and can only bring chaos and disaster to our country.

This ought to make my position clear: I think we are in the mess we're in today because
there are too many sociopaths holding positions of power. The Republican Party of
today is being ruled by sociopaths -- and there are some of them in the Democratic
Party, too, but not in significant numbers.