"Capitalist" is just a kinder word for "Gangster"

[Postman]

The US is run by gangsters looking to expand their turf....

Its all about economic class.

The only reason they are successful is because they have the bigger guns, they certainly don't win with their ideas....could also be called "bullying"

[bryant69]

1. Let's make a list of the other successful economic systems.

Bryant
Check it out--> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Postman]

2. It's very successful

for those it is supposed to benefit.

[wuushew]

7. Do you really think enough relevant combinations have been played out

adjusting for the various differences in local geography and resource abundance? I mean ideally we would have a time machine or dimension shifting device to see the various outcomes for this country.

Instead we compare ourselves to vastly different cultures. Can case comparisons between the few dozen non-colonial countries since the start modern industrialization really stand in as a valid data set?

[mudesi]

9. Free market for perfectly competitive industry, regulation for oligopoly and monopoly....

...socialism for essential public services such as infrastructure, health care, and education.

There you go.

Also known as Canada, Europe, and every other civilized nation on the planet.

[bryant69]

23. Well this is capitalism though. And i'll agree - a carefully regulated capitalism

is the way to go.

Bryant

[Mabus]

3. True enough

If you want confirmation you should check http://thecapitolist.com/ it is a very humbling experience. It's a forum for those with capitol hill ISP addresses. I've read a lot of posts there complaining about people, like you and me, who are complaining about our democracy. They like to remind us that we live in a republic and that our elected officials vote their conscious, not ours.

[pinto]

4. What's a viable option?

I favor reintroducing regulation, enforcing anti-trust laws, reintroducing public safeguards in lending, and closing corporate tax loopholes. I don't think capitalism is inherently evil, nor are all corporations per se, but warrants some oversight - and that was once the role of the federal government. It's a legitimate role I'd like to see reinvigorated.

[Postman]

5. There is none.

I agree with your description of what SHOULD be done but isn't.

[pinto]

12. And yet reform *is* viable. And very likely, imo.

Between rising health care costs, bankruptcies, cost of living in relation to wages, resurgence of labor unions on the political scene and the housing/lending bust I fully expect a Democratic majority - and a Democratic president - to make some changes, domestically. It won't be an FDR New Deal or an LBJ Great Society, but some 21st century response to a squeeze that has reached across economic divisions buffered in the recent past by a strong economy.

[harun]

6. In my opinion it is a matter of power management,

clearly too much power (and influence) has swung to the corporations. Government needs to take some of that back.

[Trillo]

8. Legislating control of the money supply back to control of Congress

like the constitution suggests instead of giving it to a bunch of private bankers seems like something important, at least to me.

Sorry if this wasn't a viable option to 'capitalism' itself, but instead to one rather large negative aspect of 'predatory capitalism'.

[midlife_mo_Jo]

19. I agree with you

Capitalism isn't the problem. Unregulated Corporatism is. We're going to all be owned by a dozen corporations in the not too distant future.

[Cha]

10. As I said..we're a country of

Euphemisms.

[Az]

11. Pirates and Emperors

http://www.piratesandemperors.com/

[porphyrian]

13. That's not fair or true.

"Capitalist" is the larger group, which does contain "gangsters." It also contains fair traders. Your analogy is like saying "human" is just a kinder word for "serial killer."

[superkia]

14. Instead of fighting crime they take weapons away from the citizens?

Thats why they will always have a control no matter what happens, there is no defense? Even though it will eventually create complete anarchy.

[pinto]

16. I don't get your point.

:shrug:

[superkia]

18. The government will ban weapons instead of focusing on the criminals.

The point is, they don't want us to have weapons equal to theirs. The OP mentioned that the government has bigger guns than we do. They don't focus on the criminals because they are not really concerned about the typical criminal having a nasty weapon, just citizens that may have to defend themselves when the government takes all of their rights away!

[pinto]

20. The government is not taking your rights away at the point of a gun, they

are eroding your rights in dismantling long established safeguards through the Executive office's signing statements, shady legal undermining in the Department of Justice, etc.

(aside) I think the poster's 'bigger guns' comment was not literal, fwiw, yet a common metaphor.

[originalpckelly]

15. "they certainly don't win with their ideas"

What about inventors and people who start companies to profit from their own good ideas?

[killbotfactory]

17. But capitalists don't kill people!

:sarcasm:

[Kelly Rupert]

21. Unlike all those other completely successful economic systems,

which led to great prosperity for all involved.

[tom_paine]

22. I cannot agree with that

I believe that well-regulated capitalism as it was practiced in Old America 1945-1970 worked just fine.