Louden
SWRP Writer
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2011
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A fellow politically interested person I know from other forums posted a rhetorical inquiry about socialism and capitalism recently. I responded with the following.
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I was one of many who were angry when the banks were given all that money. I believe to this day it was a sham.
Ultimately, socialism and capitalism are just economic models. Socialism itself is a lie, in my finding. There is only state capitalism; whereas, the people never assume control of the distribution of goods and production like the definition says, but the government does on the people's behalf. The government can never run industry on its own. It does not have the expertise. This leads to more of what we have already seen from big government: contracting the needs of the people to select few, elite corporations. In exchange for doing the government's bidding, the government makes sure the competition is killed. The best example I can think of, from the top of my head, is when the government foreclosed on Washington Mutual and sold its assets to Chase, Washington Mutual's primary competitor. Something similar may have happened between Wells Fargo and Wachovia, but I can't remember at the moment.
A lot of people misconstrue socialism as "social involvement". There is a difference between a socialistic economic model and taxations to fund civil necessities. I guarantee ninety-nine percent of all conservatives have no problem with taxes to fund law enforcement, the fire department and other examples of civic necessities. But when you talk about taking even more money in order to fund welfare and social programs for illegal immigrants and people who have no right to be here, you may find that most moderates, independents and even some liberals have a problem with it.
Capitalism is often misrepresented in the contexts of dishonesty, monopoly and elitism. In hindsight, the free market is propagated by socialists to be synonymous with capitalism. The truth is that the free market is what keeps capitalism in check. Do you think Safeway, the largest supermarket corporation in the country, appreciates ninety-nine cent stores selling the same product at ninety-nine cents? It is the free market that enables those ninety-nine cent stores to compete (free market) with Safeway. It is Safeway that wants to crush them (monopoly).
What people really have a problem with is monopoly. The routes of extreme socialism and extreme capitalism both lead to that same path, monopoly. This is why I believe in socio-capitalism, under which America thrived for the better course of the twentieth century as one of two superpowers.
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I was one of many who were angry when the banks were given all that money. I believe to this day it was a sham.
Ultimately, socialism and capitalism are just economic models. Socialism itself is a lie, in my finding. There is only state capitalism; whereas, the people never assume control of the distribution of goods and production like the definition says, but the government does on the people's behalf. The government can never run industry on its own. It does not have the expertise. This leads to more of what we have already seen from big government: contracting the needs of the people to select few, elite corporations. In exchange for doing the government's bidding, the government makes sure the competition is killed. The best example I can think of, from the top of my head, is when the government foreclosed on Washington Mutual and sold its assets to Chase, Washington Mutual's primary competitor. Something similar may have happened between Wells Fargo and Wachovia, but I can't remember at the moment.
A lot of people misconstrue socialism as "social involvement". There is a difference between a socialistic economic model and taxations to fund civil necessities. I guarantee ninety-nine percent of all conservatives have no problem with taxes to fund law enforcement, the fire department and other examples of civic necessities. But when you talk about taking even more money in order to fund welfare and social programs for illegal immigrants and people who have no right to be here, you may find that most moderates, independents and even some liberals have a problem with it.
Capitalism is often misrepresented in the contexts of dishonesty, monopoly and elitism. In hindsight, the free market is propagated by socialists to be synonymous with capitalism. The truth is that the free market is what keeps capitalism in check. Do you think Safeway, the largest supermarket corporation in the country, appreciates ninety-nine cent stores selling the same product at ninety-nine cents? It is the free market that enables those ninety-nine cent stores to compete (free market) with Safeway. It is Safeway that wants to crush them (monopoly).
What people really have a problem with is monopoly. The routes of extreme socialism and extreme capitalism both lead to that same path, monopoly. This is why I believe in socio-capitalism, under which America thrived for the better course of the twentieth century as one of two superpowers.
