Is Capitalism in the US broken?

[Anonymous]

If it is - is is fixable, and if so, how? If it is not - what should replace it?

Updates

12 mo

Any attempts to regulate Capitalism in the US are nor fought vigorously by the RIght who label them as "Communism" or "Marxism" and insist they are anti-American. What is really Anti-american is the slow erorion of any fairness or democracy or equity.

[MisterWack]

Okay so, we cannot replace system we have since it is founded on hundreds of years of foundation & history.

Though, we can regulate it since we have regulated it.

The American people have a right to say reform policy and uplift their fellow American workers without it being “communism” trigger labeled every time someone wants to be treated better than what their ancestors got. We have a five day work week, fire extinguishers & fire escapes thanks to employee outrage and corporate accountability, Theodore Roosevelt cracked down on monopolies and pushed for change for crying out loud. I want the American public to be aware of the history and how it doesn’t just have to be left in the past, we need to uplift one another & stand up for one another or else we’ll lose the gains we got.

[Anonymous]

We have low poverty, high quality of life, extensive welfare programs, a ridiculously strong military and the most spoiled people in human history. So our economic system seems to be working. Except we have extremely high obesity and drug abuse rates, which is a result of our financial success. So that's an L.

But I wouldn't exactly call it capitalism. All business is run through the government and the government places countless regulations on businesses while collecting as much of the proceeds as they choose to. That's socialism. And then those regulations and taxes lead to anti-competitive environments. That's monopoly, which prohibits free trade.

[Asker]

We have high levels of poverty high prices. High numbers of homeless low standards for education and healthcare. High numbers of homeless people.

[Syntosi]

Arguably, Capitalism in USA is working as intended. It is just that Capitalism is a flawed economic policy. It has some great parts, but it just can't deal with certain things. Most notably, it can't deal with stuff such as income inequality and monopolies.

A capitalist system without oversight will always destroy itself because the primary motivation of a capitalist corporation is to destroy competition permanently and acquire all the money in the world.

You basically need someone such as the government to keep the thumb on the scale to make sure that no corporation ever actually wins "capitalism". Get too big? Split them up. Gets too much market cap? Level the playing field. Killing competition? Provide funding for start ups and protect small business etc.. However you want to deal with it the fundamental principle is the same, prevent corporations from growing too big or too powerful.

If you can do that then capitalism works pretty good.

[Asker]

Good comments! When corporations become too big and powerful, we get massive corruption and monopolies, and corporations essentially control and *become* the government. That is all happening in the US now.

[NaultD]

Like the saying when your only tool is a hammer all your problems is nails. Not everything is appropriate for one tool.

Health care is one of those things. It's shouldn't be profitable. The richest of the rich still get cancer and can't create a cure. We need to throw population at this problem not directly cash.

So we need everyone Healthly going to school hopefully college if we get 100x more Health care providers we can push the limits of humanity.

[Astarlessnightsky]

No its working as intended, exploitation of the working class to benefit the few handfull of rich people.

[Asker]

That is precisely how it was intended.

[TerribleTurk]

America itself is in decline. Social corruption, LGBT, the general hatred of America that prevails around the world, and billions of dollars in aid to Israel are rapidly bringing America closer to the inevitable end.

[lightbulb27]

yes, for a long time now.

long ago, it wasn't this corrupt... maybe corrupt in other ways.

nothing perfect.

[goaded]

The first thing you'll be choosing at the grocery store

[Dargil]

Nope corrupted by oligarchs. It can be reduced if the corrupt government will let it They proved their corruption by putting up the current CR.

[genericname85]

capitalism is inherently broken. cause inherently the wealth will accumulate in the few. we already do have employed some slightly socialist measures to reduce that effect but it's a fucked up system... however it's still currently the best system we have. cause socialism is even more fucked.

[Asker]

You cannot know that socialism is "even more fucked" because as you note - we've never tried it. What bits of it we have tried work well and do not make a few people rich and many people poor as capitalism does.

[genericname85]

germany tried, mao tried. stalin tried, north korea is currently trying unsuccessfully as all the others before. we don't need more evidence. we have conclusive evidence that it's fucked.

the reason it doesn't work is cause we humans as a species are fucked. that's why socialism doesn't work. cause it is ignorant of the human nature.

sure if in a perfect world where everyone cooperated so that everyone was happy, in that world socialism could work to create a utopia. but under that circumstance the same is true for capitalism too.
the thing is that capitalism is more egalitarian in it's inherent financial nature and less succeptible to human malevolence. that's why socialism sucks more.

[genericname85]

"we've never tried it" is the most common and the most wrong argument for socialism/communism.

[Asker]

Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have socialist economies that work. Cuba, Laos and Vietnam have socialist societies and economies that work.

[genericname85]

no they don't. you have your facts wrong. most countries in Europe have some level of socialist checks and balances in their capitalist economies. but the fact is: there's currently no communist or socialist economy in Europe. south korea isn't socialist. that's why that country runns ok. north corea is socialist. that's why it's population is starving and dying while a nazi leader is oppressing everyone.

[Asker]

What makes it a "wrong" argument?

[Asker]

The countries I named do have socialism to one degree or another. The fact that you dislike Socialism does not change that,

[genericname85]

these countries you named have capitalism. if you twist whatever you want into meaning "socialism", then our conversation just lost it's purpose. i'm out. i've already said everything there is to say. for your question about "what makes it wrong", please refer back to my second statement.

[DrPepper12]

Yes

Public campaign finance

A capitalism that eradicates or truly diminishes the negative externalities of the market.

[OddBeMe]

If broken, you mean plagued by human frailty... yes. I'd say with a few exceptions it's still the best form of govt.

[Asker]

It really is not a form of government. It's a form of economics and a particularly pernicious one. It's like gambling in the sense that it makes a very few people very rich and a very large number of people relatively poor.

[OddBeMe]

Economy isn't governing? Complex at best.

[Asker]

I would like to consider the government and the economy separately. You could, for instance, have a Democratic government and a socialistic economy.

[noohair]

As flawed as capitalism is, it creates wealth for people that are willing to take risks. The problem is that government tips the scales and distorts the markets that it meddles in. The electric car mandate is just one example of government mismanagement.

[Asker]

It creates wealth for a few gamblers just like a casino does. It creates far more losers than winners, and in the case of the US the system is corrupt as hell and totally rigged and grossly unregulated. Guess what that will ultimately lead to?

[noohair]

What do you suggest as a replacement?

[Asker]

Democratic Socialism

[noohair]

Define Democratic Socialism. I waant to see if you know what you are talkingh about.

[Asker]

You are not a professor, and I am not your student. Look it up yourself. I want to see if you know how to do that.

[noohair]

Democratic socialism is an economic model where the economy is socially owned and managed. That is some form of government management of an economy. As governments do not do anything well except collect taxes and spend other people’s money, it will eventually lead to a failure. There is no country that I can find with a functioning democratic socialist economy. There are socialists running economies and every time that happens one thing happens. They run out of other people’s money to spend.

[Asker]

The US government runs on other people's money and is still running.

[noohair]

We have the reserve currency. If we lose reserve currency status, we are done... But our economy is not government controlled. Our government does meddle.

[Anonymous]

The orange fool won't fix it it will be made worse

[exitseven]

/it is bent,, not broken.

[Twalli]

we don't have true capitalism.

[Asker]

Right - what we have is very corrupt unregulated Capitalism.