Shop Til You Drop
Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 2:46 pm
spot;1103238 wrote: No, I think you're quite wrong in that you're failing to distinguish Capitalism from Consumerism. Capitalism as practiced in the US has fed itself on the bottomless pit of military expenditure generating massive well-paid employment for a large fraction of the workforce, allowing them to conspicuously consume. Without that bottomless pit there's no way of operating a consumer economy.
Obviously there is a basic working fundamental, market forces within a regulated economy, which can underly any political system as the most efficient means of manufacture. That's not Capitalism, it's just one small aspect and it applies equally well to a Socialist model of society. I have no problem with market forces within a regulated economy. I have a complete antipathy to unregulated greed, consumerism and the lack of social safety nets.
The largest employer in the US is small business and that is the segment that generates the most new jobs as well. Military expenditure spending relative to employment base is not as high as you perceive and certainly not a portion of the American income to cause or sustain our past spending rates.
In fact, as the evidence now shows, we couldn't afford those spending rates in any case and it was all a house of cards. The pain inflicted now will be a sharp drop in the living standard for many people and a much slower growth toward raising it.
There are really two problems that coincided, overspending and living off of rising home values and the mortgage debacle caused by a lot of things, including politicians pushing for people to have homes when they could not afford them and who now say we need new rules to prevent it from happening again.
What we need are politicians who can think beyond telling people what they want to hear.
Obviously there is a basic working fundamental, market forces within a regulated economy, which can underly any political system as the most efficient means of manufacture. That's not Capitalism, it's just one small aspect and it applies equally well to a Socialist model of society. I have no problem with market forces within a regulated economy. I have a complete antipathy to unregulated greed, consumerism and the lack of social safety nets.
The largest employer in the US is small business and that is the segment that generates the most new jobs as well. Military expenditure spending relative to employment base is not as high as you perceive and certainly not a portion of the American income to cause or sustain our past spending rates.
In fact, as the evidence now shows, we couldn't afford those spending rates in any case and it was all a house of cards. The pain inflicted now will be a sharp drop in the living standard for many people and a much slower growth toward raising it.
There are really two problems that coincided, overspending and living off of rising home values and the mortgage debacle caused by a lot of things, including politicians pushing for people to have homes when they could not afford them and who now say we need new rules to prevent it from happening again.
What we need are politicians who can think beyond telling people what they want to hear.
