Capitalism doesn't and IS NOT working, it's destructive and creatives poor social incentives

a reply to: onequestion

Capitalism is NOT owning a business. Capitalism is using capital (money) to make capital (money).Using a business to make money is entrepreneurship. The difference is entrepreneurs use their innovation and hard work to make money, where capitalists use money invested to generate a return which is profit. Entrepreneurs can create jobs, but capitalists dont really directly create anything but a profit for themselves. With regards to capitalism, on face value, from the look of the stock market, is working quite well. The problem is,and I think what you mean by it "not working" is that its working for a very small segment of the population, at the expense of everyone else. The problem is not capitalism, the problem is the system that is set up to funnel the most money into the fewest hands possible. The system is gamed to support a ruling class on all levels, finance, government, education, etc and it has been for a very long time, so long that most people dont even realize that there are limitations set on them from birth contingent on their social status. There is a class of people who have a large pool of capital from hereditary wealth and investment returns who can manipulate the economy with impunity to get even more money. We, the average people, have little or no upward mobility any more. If you are born poor, chances are you will die poor. The irony of this is we still have the propaganda that if you work really hard, you can be rich too. That may be true for a fortunate few. But for every person who makes it, there are thousands who worked just as hard and don't. A big problem is that most people don't have any way of getting access to resources (capital) to have a chance to come out of poverty. We rent our labor to survive and in most cases are paid a pittance for it. Companies now hire teams of accountants to shave expenses down to a minimum to maximize profits to increase shareholder value. Too often that means they take everything away from the workers, overtime, bonuses, good health insurance, and in a lot of cases, even their jobs, which are sent to Asia for 10 percent of the cost. Companies may be people, but as individuals they are complete sociopaths. The whole economy is being converted into a wealth creation machine for the one percent. They give us just enough to get from this paycheck to the next and not much over. I have heard that a job stands for "just over broke". At no time has this been more true. And I suspect this is a big reason that nothing is being done about illegal immigration, they want to import workers who will work for far less than the average american, in a form of scab labor, so they can bring wages down in this country to the levels they are at in Asia. Its just we have a system in place that sends money in one direction; to the upper classes. Its capitalism for those who have capital, and its slavery for those who dont. And its not going to be sustainable without institution of a complete police state.

a reply to: openminded2011

The term Capitalism was created by socialists in the early 1820's or 1830's or earlier. It was meant to represent the opposite of Socialism. Since socialism means state control, by ownership, of everything, Capitalism must mean private ownership of private property.

Private ownership of property is the only means of real practical freedom. All other forms of freedom are based on permission from an all powerful authority.

Evil will control an all powerful authority sometime, some day.

The only defense against evil is to keep the available means of control as small and weak as possible.