Why Capitalism Is Failing

[piezoe]

Quote from Random.Capital:

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There is a buried assumption that democracy can, over the long run, actually hold things in check. I do not accept that assumption - on the contrary, all the evidence tells us democracy is in fact incapable of doing so - primarily because individual people are quite willing to sell their souls, and sell their neighbors down the river, as long as they feel like they're getting a decent price.

Since Capitalism (as we're talking about it here) is dependent on democracy for long term survival, then it is Capitalism itself that is fundamentally flawed.

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The funny thing is, Adam Smith had it more or less figured out nearly a century and a half ago. "Wealth of Nations" is riddled with comments about"gov't" needing to restrain capitalists or things will inevitably go to shit. The guy was even pro-union...

You may, indeed, be right! I'm not sure at this point. I'd like to think, at least, that somewhere in the great beyond there is the perfect manifestation of capitalism, where government plays its proper role. and the good features of capitalism are realized without having to put up with the bad, and everyone is happy and prosperous. (I know, it's not going to happen. )

 

[EMRGLOBAL]

The funny thing is, Adam Smith had it more or less figured out nearly a century and a half ago. "Wealth of Nations" is riddled with comments about"gov't" needing to restrain capitalists or things will inevitably go to shit. The guy was even pro-union...
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You are correct about some of what you post however, Adam Smith was not Pro-Union in the sense of how Unions work today.

Adam Smith was PRO FREE MARKETS.
Adam Smith was LESS GOV INTERVENTION AND REGULATION.
Adam Smith did touch a bit on Restraint of Capitalist but not in the way the current GOV and Liberals try and push by force and laws. HE WAS TALKING ABOUT RESTRAINT FROM A MORAL STANDPOINT AND A INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY STANDPOINT.

So, while you are correct to a degree, your on a slippery slop.

 

[piezoe]

Quote from maxpi:

Mandatory balanced budget coupled with all taxes being on consumption would restore some sanity.. If voters could see that they have to pay for government excesses they would not vote for them, would not tolerate them, and would not allow them.

Someone on one of these forums suggested recently that we break out "defense" spending as a separate item on W-2 forms. I think this is not at all impractical and its possible that a popular movement could get started that would literally demand that we do that. Who wants to volunteer to head this campaign?

 

[EMRGLOBAL]

Someone on one of these forums suggested recently that we break out "defense" spending as a separate item on W-2 forms. I think this is not at all impractical and its possible that a popular movement could get started that would literally demand that we do that. Who wants to volunteer to head this campaign?
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Congress has the limited powers given to them by the Constitution. One is to tax for Defense. PERIOD! There are limiting taxing powers for the FED.

What we need is to flush all the idiot liberals and socialist out of this fucking country, then go after DC and force them to review the Constitution and their taxing powers. Then we need to give each and every state their taxing powers back.

Of course, by reading the post on ET and this post in general...I see little hope for this country as the majority of ETers who pretend to be in the Financial World in some sort of fashion, are beyond comprehension in their yearning to push "Liberalism"/Socialism or some Hybrid of Capitalism and socialism to create more of a Freed loading society whereby both people and Companies suck the tit of the Banking industry/GOV.

 

[Scataphagos]

Quote from EMRGLOBAL:

"... Congress has the limited powers given to them by the Constitution. One is to tax for Defense.

That was the original intention of the Founders.

Over time, however, the Feds have pushed for more and more power... and as the hoi polloi electorate is naive and stupid, let the Feds get away with their power grab.

Now we have the 2 things the Founders were most afraid of and most adamantly against... (1) A Central Bank, and (2) a large and powerful Federal government.

 

[bone]

Please observe that all of the hardcore socialists and wealth re-distribution types make all kinds of money espousing their beliefs.

Chomsky has copyrights on everything, is said to be very aggressive in terms of pursuing royalty payments, and is a multi-millionaire.

Michael Moore has and continues to sue parties who he believes owe him money. Moore is worth alot of money - he is an industrialist in every sense of the word; his product is simply anti-establishment hyperbole.

And do we need to mention how much money Al Gore has made, and his perverse personal carbon footprint and energy consumption ?

Hypocrites, all.

 

[mfoste1]

Why is capitalism failing? simple.....because it was ran by keynesians who live by debt=growth. Keynesian economics works well, until you start running out of other peoples money to spend and have to start printing. When your Debt/GDP ratio gets to 100% and you are printing to pay your bills, that signifies game over.

 

[StarDust9182]

Quote from piezoe:

Someone on one of these forums suggested recently that we break out "defense" spending as a separate item on W-2 forms. I think this is not at all impractical and its possible that a popular movement could get started that would literally demand that we do that. Who wants to volunteer to head this campaign?

How about this as another WAG potential solution. You receive at birth a fixed amount of government services that you can draw on (pension, healthcare, unemployment etc). That would have to be balanced out to be sustainable forever without borrowing based on citizen population.

For every dollar you contribute in taxes, user fees etc, your balance goes up and for every dollar you take in services your balance goes down. If you run out of govt credit, then you are not eligible for services since you didn't contribute enough to them. Remaining balances at death revert to the state (provided you die of natural causes LOL - don't want the government helping things along) or are donated to some other citizen.

The government could turn into accountants and legitimate service providers. Pressure would be placed on them to provide service at a cost equal to the private sector market rate. Services not in demand would fall away without market demand.

The issue is what to do if you need service and have run out of credit - army, jail, lose citizenship, forced political service or ???

 

[StarDust9182]

Quote from mfoste1:

Why is capitalism failing? simple.....because it was ran by keynesians who live by debt=growth. Keynesian economics works well, until you start running out of other peoples money to spend and have to start printing. When your Debt/GDP ratio gets to 100% and you are printing to pay your bills, that signifies game over.

Wasn't Keynes chosen and supported over a number of other options because his philosophy justified what they wanted to do? They could have chosen Mises for example.

After all, in the long run we are all dead!

 

[MKTrader]

Quote from StarDust9182:

Wasn't Keynes chosen and supported over a number of other options because his philosophy justified what they wanted to do? They could have chosen Mises for example.

Yep. Some of those close to him even admitted as much. His models "fit" what politicians wanted to do, and the rest is history, unfortunately.

There's even a lot of misinformation about the Great Depression. The govt's own statistics show that charitable contributions, real wages and meat consumption actually rose during the period. You'd never know that from the "gummint saved us back then and they need to do it again" rhetoric, though.