Platonic capitalism in historical context. You are here.

Flash summary:
Capitalism has been the prevailing market system for well over 200 years in the US. Where does the US presently stand in terms of the quality of it's capitalism?

Interested yet?
The first intellectual thrust is to establish in your mind some ideal rule set for --and metric of capitalism. The next thrust is to score where we are today vs. the past. Mises, your personal take..whatever.

Just for example, in 1921 we were the best, scoring 9/10. Today, we've lost much of the mojo and we've slipped to 6/10. If we did x,y & z we could get to 9 or 10.

As you might presume I have an opinion but it's not relevant. I'm interested in learning the opinions of others.

reply to post by InverseLookingGlass


We have a way to go in cultivating free markets. I can identify 3 problems we have right now. Crony capitalism, Cluster capitalism, and Dependency capitalism.

The first comes from Washington insiders gettting contracts and policies to favor their companies over competition, like the no bid contracts for KBR during the Iraq war.

The second is where purchasing one thing locks you in purchasing other things in an unforeseen way. Like the old cell phones that cost $100 with $50 proprietary replacement chargers, or being forced to get insurance through your job, so you can't pick your own company.


The last is where product demand is being created artificially in a negative way, like companies who pollute groundwater while selling clean water. They create situations where you HAVE to buy their product.

In order to figure out the quality of our capitalism you need a baseline to compare it against.

What is the base you are using?

What is currently taking place is the result of a free market. That is, as some became stronger, they took over: first, manufacturing industries and food production, and later, finance. The government works for them.

reply to post by tridentblue


Thanks for your reply.

Are the problems you point out recent developments? How do the period 1900-1920 and 1880-1900 compare?

reply to post by monkeyluv


Is there some time in the past when there was less "encroachment" into government? the 1950's or the 1960's, 1890's?

reply to post by Tinkerpeach


Thanks for the reply. My baseline is whatever you consider ideal capitalism. That would be 10 on the scale.

reply to post by InverseLookingGlass


The thought occurred to me that as bad as anyone might think capitalism has become, we might actually be experiencing the high-water mark.

When I look at the history of capitalism in the US, it's trivial to find examples of atrocious, anti-human behavior that rivals anything you can find today.

The USG was arguably "more fascist" during the period 1910-1935 or from 1800-1845. looking for more feedback.

InverseLookingGlass
reply to post by monkeyluv

 

Is there some time in the past when there was less "encroachment" into government? the 1950's or the 1960's, 1890's?

I think it was so from the start, with landowners controlling government and allowing only white males to vote.