Re "That 17 trillion national debt comes mainly from socialistic programs, not capitalism. American politicians have over-spent the wealth capitalism has produced in order to get re-elected.":
That's all true. (It's the same in UK.) But what's also true is that the old-school opponents who wanted either socialism or conservatism never anticipated today's world where multinational corporations rule the roost. In the past both those on the left and those on the right assumed governments held the whip hand. ---In fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com, <mdixon.6569@...> wrote: That 17 trillion national debt comes mainly from socialistic programs, not capitalism. Was it Margaret Thatcher that said "The problem with socialism is, sooner or later, you run out of other peoples money to spend". American politicians have over- spent the wealth capitalism has produced in order to get re-elected. On Sunday, December 1, 2013 7:33 PM, "s3raphita@..." <s3raphita@...> wrote: Re "American capitalism has created more wealth than any other economic system and with that wealth has lifted more people out of poverty than any other system.": That is undeniably true. The problem is that you (Yanks) now have debt equal to $17 trillion. There is no way you can pay that debt off; there is no way you can deliberately introduce controlled inflation to devalue the sum. You are at the mercy of the international financial system. Income inequality in both the US and UK is now at levels not seen since the early decades of the 20th century. The real villain is globalisation. Companies can run rings around national governments as they have branches in many countries and can avoid tax in all places except the one country that offers them the lowest rates. It's a nightmare and these multinationals are effectively outside any democratic control. ---In fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com, <noozguru@...> wrote: That is "revisionist history", Mike. The original founding fathers had a bad taste in their mouth from capitalism in the form of the British East India Company. The founding fathers believed in a "commons." You maintain the commons with government. That's what government is for. It's for the things we all share. And if we don't want homeless living in our commons then were need to do things to keep people from becoming homeless. A lot of today's homeless are not there because they don't want to work but because there is no work or means of income for them. I have a revision of that Luke 19 thang you referenced. The third guy didn't spend the money his boss gave him because the other two guys invested in derivatives and were about to lose all that profit. He would still have money. :-D On 12/01/2013 05:53 AM, Mike Dixon wrote: Yet *trickle down* capitalism has been the story of America since it's inception. American capitalism has created more wealth than any other economic system and with that wealth has lifted more people out of poverty than any other system and come to the aid of those in dire straights to lift them up as well. Would the middle -east, China or India be in the economic situation they are in today had it not been for Americans spending their wealth, investing in and buying their goods and services ? Capitalism creates wealth, socialism just divides it up. You can't be charitable if you have nothing to give. The Pope may be compassionate, but he's down right ignorant.
