What does CAPITALISM mean to you? Do you like it or not?

Shuimo   Sun Dec 27, 2009 7:13 am GMT
As Shuimo notes, CAPITALISM is one of the few most catching-all----or overused?----terms we use to construe social matters, isn't it!:-(

So, What does CAPITALISM mean to you? How do you understand it either as a way of life or a mode of social system?

Can we think of our society beyong capitalism?
K. T.   Sun Dec 27, 2009 7:22 am GMT
Shuimo, are you trying to promote communism here? Did you know that this site was founded by Poles? I thought Poles were freedom-loving at least since the 1980s or so.
.   Sun Dec 27, 2009 9:15 am GMT
You ain't getting our brain washed.
Guest   Sun Dec 27, 2009 11:43 am GMT
Communism is the ultimate freedom. You should educate yourself about Marxism and communism, K. T..
Damian in Edinburgh   Sun Dec 27, 2009 1:05 pm GMT
I'm happy to live in a country where you can stand on a podium in a public place specifically allocated for the purpose and say just what you like about anything under the sun, so long as it is not deliberately slanderous to any named individuals.

Without fear and favour you can denounce the Government of the day, describe the Prime Minister as the Devil Personified, and refer to The Queen and the Monarchy in the most irreverent way and call for their banishment to some remote Scottish island where they can feed on seaweed and cockles.

It would be your perfect right to do so. Free speech is very precious in a true democracy, and this has been the case in this country for over a thousand years, with only a few blips here and there over the centuries.
Rothbardian   Sun Dec 27, 2009 1:49 pm GMT
Communism is the ultimate freedom to be expropriated, humiliated, tortured, pushed about and eventually killed. Even the so-called "voluntary communism" has been all but abandoned by its erstwhile supporters - see the privatization of the majority of kibbutzim in Israel. Free market anarchism will hopefully displace the lukewarm intrusive statism of most of today's world.
Henry   Sun Dec 27, 2009 5:03 pm GMT
<Without fear and favour you can denounce the Government of the day, describe the Prime Minister as the Devil Personified, and refer to The Queen and the Monarchy in the most irreverent way and call for their banishment to some remote Scottish island where they can feed on seaweed and cockles. >

Yes, the sheep are allowed to baa what they want while they're sheared. It makes you feel better.
guest   Sun Dec 27, 2009 5:32 pm GMT
Communism was never meant to exist locally. It is the next thing, the new age economy and society.
Jasper   Sun Dec 27, 2009 9:59 pm GMT
"Communism is the ultimate freedom to be expropriated, humiliated, tortured, pushed about and eventually killed. Even the so-called "voluntary communism" has been all but abandoned by its erstwhile supporters - see the privatization of the majority of kibbutzim in Israel. Free market anarchism will hopefully displace the lukewarm intrusive statism of most of today's world. "

The Venezuelans would beg to disagree, as would myriad Italian cities, where Communist officials are freely elected.

Correspondents from former Soviet-blic countries have told me that, in spite of all their other worries, they never had to worry about becoming homeless, having no job, being the victim of street crime, or not having the money to pay for a life-saving surgery.

I myself, while not a Communist, have become disillusioned with American-style capitalism. Here in my own town, we have 13% unemployment, and on any residential street, you can pass any number of foreclosed homes. .

There has to be a better way.
pragmatic   Sun Dec 27, 2009 10:11 pm GMT
I am a supporter of capitalism, for the time being at least, since I am rich and I don't want to pay a lot of taxes or relinquish my wealth. If however something should happen, if my investments fail catastrophically, feel free to sign me up for communism. Then, once I get back up on my feet, time for some more capitalism.
K. T.   Sun Dec 27, 2009 11:31 pm GMT
Jasper,

Could it be that many people bought homes that they could not afford?
If we wanted to live in a "fancy" neighbourhood, we could, but we'd be in debt. Instead we live in a house that we can afford.
Jasper   Mon Dec 28, 2009 12:06 am GMT
Oh, KT....Oh, me amigo...I don't even know where to start. Your comment reflects extreme tunnel vision.

First and foremost, it was not anybody's fault that they lost their jobs after 20 years of service...no money, no mortgage payment.

Even jobs that were supposed to be secure, like teachers or post office workers, were lost.

And that's just for starters.
Rothbardian   Mon Dec 28, 2009 12:29 am GMT
Jasper - the present American-style "capitalism" is actually corporatism, full of regulations and statist intrusions, starting from the income tax, compulsory social security, job licensing and anti-trust regulations, and ending with the feature that is perhaps most devastating for the smooth functioning of financial markets - namely, central planning of the money supply and interest rates by the FED, which has ushered in boom-bust cycles for the last 80 years or so (I recommend reading von Mises and von Hayek on business cycles). Get rid of fractional reserve banking and creating money out of thin air to redistribute wealth from the totality of private property owners to the political-banking cartel, get rid of all the statist intrusions into free exchange of property titles introduced in the 20th century by the big business united with big politics (to get rid of competition from the middle-class entrepreneurs), and you will have a real and healthy form of capitalism again. Nothing else works and nothing else is needed.
Damian in Edinburgh   Mon Dec 28, 2009 12:54 am GMT
We just can't imagine that anybody would really wish to have their lives run for them by Big Bro State! Toeing any Party Line would be a total nightmare.

When I went to Romania with a school party in August 1999 to see a total eclipse of the sun there the evidence of the former Communist state was still very clear to see.......empty shelves in unlit stores, crumbling infra-structure, abject poverty, almost mediaeval farming practices, huge potholes in the roads and pavements, water supplies cut off between 23:00 hrs and 07:00hrs each day, openly corrupt officials and especially police officers - our coach was stopped twice by police patrols who demanded on the spot fines for alleged "speeding offences" when our British drivers (there were two on our coach) knew only too well they were keeping well within the limits applicable at the time - they also knew very well that the money paid to these corrupt poiuce officers would go directly into their own pockets and not to any official coffers.

We saw begging on a huige scale - in Bucharest young children eked out some kind of existence in the sewers beneath the city. Orphanages were everywhere, as people were too poor to maintain their newly born kids, and many of these kids in the orphanages were in a very poor physical and mental state....some even suffered from AIDS.

The family my schoolmate and I stayed with in this remote village in the middle of Romania had to be paid by us from the word go for our three day stay with them, so that the mother could go out and buy horrible greyish looking bread, cucumbers, tomatoes and water melons, which constituted most of our food during our stay. Packs of dogs roamed the streets day and night, we were pestered by thousands of mosquitoes during the night (the weather was very hot there) and we ere also pestered by hordes of kids in the streets demanding money and sweets - candies.

I had taken with me my camera, my audio recording equipment, a combined alarm clock cum weather recording instrument and several other odds and ends and the young lad of the family - who was 20 at the time - three years older than my mate and I were - pleaded and pleaded and pleaded with me to give all these to him, so much so that in the end I gave up every thing to him except my camera and my watch...no way was he having those. I so regret giiving him my recording equipment, but I knew he would have sold the lot on what was caled the "black market" - very much a Communist style practice.

Now, ten years later, Communism in Europe is dead, and Romania is now part of the EU and doing quite well thanks to the financial benevolence of the EU. What a scenically beautiful country it really is - the Transylvanian Alps and the Carpathians are magnificent - and it's Dracula country too....but we never caught sight of him...until the moon blotted out the sun totally during the eclipse, and what a fantastic sight that was in itself.
K. T.   Mon Dec 28, 2009 1:25 am GMT
Jasper,

The only postal workers I have known (two) and two people in the teaching profession all lived beyond their means. Yes, that's anecdoctal, but I could give you several examples. Why don't people save money? It's because they spend it-often on luxuries. When there's a crisis, they go to people who live thrifty lives and ask for loans...

I understand that there can be extenuating circumstances, but if we looked at each situation, case by case, what would we find. Maybe people need to listen to people like Dave Ramsey.