Is capitalism the answer?

You are correct that it has failed badly and each time the laws of economics get rewritten. Now the world of finance belongs in the "arts" instead of the "sciences". Next time, and there will be a next time, it will probably be classified alongside voodoo! No, it isn't the right system but we don't have anything better that is practical.

First, I don't understand how you say capitalism has failed. It has not. The countries that are in the worst shape are the ones that have socialism or communism, while the ones with the best economies have free markets and capitalism. If you are advocating communism, please tell me where on the planet it has succeeded. Name the communist country where people have a better standard of living and quality of life than countries with freedom and capitalism. You yourself say that in Greece, the government employees don't bother to work because there is no incentive for it. This should demonstrate to you that communist principals do not work. The simple fact is that the more control government has over society, the worse it is for society. Government control is not the answer, freedom and free markets is the only way to prosperity. You say, "Capitalism is supposed to fail...it is built that way..." Please explain that statement because it makes no sense to me. While you're at it, explain how you think capitalism has failed or "blew up" as you put it.

I believe in responsible capitalism. Capitalism is what makes the United States of America a global power. Freedom of creativity to establish business, buy, sell, trade, and market. One has to understand that capitalism can be abused. The economical crisis is the result of those who get an inch and take a mile. Capitalism is a system that works well when ethical, and lawful decisions are made during its implementation. If this is not done appropriately, government will have greater involvement as a regulator and damage controller.

The countries failing around the world right now are based usually on socialism, communism, fascism - not capitalism. Currently, the United States is being pushed along the Socialism trail and it too is failing. Leaders want this method because it eventually makes them the only wealthy people and destroys the initiative of the people. If you hand out enough 'free' stuff, eventually no one wants to work or create. At that point, we are definitely all equal...equally lazy, equally broke, equally uninclined to make anything of worth, equally slaves to those in power.

In Greece and other European countries that are faltering, it is actually socialism that is causing the fail. I have a friend who is originally from Greece and when he goes back home and comes back, he is very upset. He sees everyone in Greece in employed by the government. You go somewhere to do something, there are ten people there with their feet on the desk, reading newspapers and you cannot get any of them to serve you. Also, in Greece, everyone goes out and party every night, starting at 11 pm until 3 pm in the morning, then the go to work. What are they doing at work? Sleeping. Greece production is almost nothing. This is the information everyone needs to know. It has been socialism, capitalism, and anarchy that has failed. China has been using capitalism, by partnering with corporations to come in and do business, to build their country because they know they cannot with communism.

Is perfect for human nature but unfortunately is not the answer.It encourages cheating and lying and spending and wasting resources.I mean if you build a bad car you will never tell your costumers that the competition has a better car, you will try to sell yours.Then we hear "They don`t make them like they used to " all the time.That is because the secret of capitalism is spend,spend,spend.

Let me see we have an economic crisis and Capitalism is to blame. If you look at history you will find that every 7 to 10 years you have a market correction or a recession that lasted for a few months. In 1920 you had a major economic recession and the government did very little to fix the problem and it was over in little more than a year. In 1929 you had a similar economic recession and the answer was to have the government "fix" the problem. That recession lasted over 10 years and it took a major war to get us out of the problem. The problem we are having now is caused more by the governments borrowing money and spending than anything else. Europe is in trouble because they are spending more than they take in through taxes. Look at it this way. Your family income is $75,000 a year and after taxes you have $50,000. You pay $21,000 (42% which is what the government of the US is paying in interest) in interest for you home mortgage, your car loan, credit cards and other debt, this is only the interest and not the principal. You now have $29,000 to live on each year. It is estimated that each family spends 1/3 of their gross income on food and housing and that will leave you with $4,000 to cover Health Insurance, principal on you car loan and other debt. The governments around the world say the answer is to borrow more money to do the things you want to do. The capitalist way is to cut spending and expenses. If you let the free market work it will correct its self. Will some people get hurt in the process - yes, but more will come out in better shape. The free market responds to what people want and need. When you have the government making the decisions you have what they need to do to say in power and the rulers enjoy the finer things in life.

Dark_joey pretty well nailed it, but I'll put it into short simple terms. Capitalism did NOT fail. The failure was the result of actions that were not part of capitalism. The housing bubble had more to do with socialist programs and government involvement in mortgages and banks than the free market.

Hi ShanksGR, I feel that neither pure Capitalism nor pure Socialism is the answer but something that combines the best of both systems. I think too that we are working towards that in some parts of the world. The important thing is that people everywhere have the freedom to choose. Blessings.

Capitalism hasn't blown up once yet. It has yet to actually fail. If you are referring to the Great Depression as the first time that was created by the Federal Reserve and if you are referring to the second time being the housing bubble was also an birth child of the Federal Reserve. Capitalism or the market responds to the information that it is given through prices as well as interest rates so it isn't possible for the system to fail unless people aren't buying or selling which is something that has never happened when talking of the global market. What caused the failure in the Great Depression was really three key things. The United States Federal Government passing protectionist laws that made it more expensive on things that where imported from other countries. This of course got the response of other countries increasing a tax on our imports into there country. This caused Demand to go down for US Products and with demand going down the Business had to cut jobs as they where no longer needed. Then the second bit was the Federal Reserve let the money supply drop by 33% in a single week period this caused a panic on the Stock market and finally you have the dust bowl which caused food to be of low supply. These things came together to form the great depression and more than likely would of extended it for a few years. The issue is the Government came out and the Great Depression took 16 years to fully recover from when a similar crisis happened in 1920 that took a year for the economy to bounce back. This most recent crisis came from the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates low which allowed for the boom in the Sub prime loan market as people who where in that category of loans where jumping get a house at the unbelievable rate of $0 down 0% interest. This of course was an insane thought they didn't know this but that interest rate could go up at any given moment which it did when the Federal Reserve raised it's interest rate for the dot com bubble and then did it again to try and advert the very thing they caused which would be the housing bubble bursting. They of course burst the bubble. Then you have Freddy and Fannie that where mandated by The Department of Housing and Urban Development to have 57% of their loans be subprime loans. Freddy and Fannie purchased 100% of the AAA securities for subprime loans to meet this goal and they actually got about 58% of there loans to be subprime. This of course got the market to also heavily enter this market that was considered high risk but also high reward. The banks did it some more than others. Washington Mutual went over the deep end making most of there loans in this category and well when the bubble burst because rates went up on the Federal Reserve end of the banking system the banks raised there rates as the Federal Reserve knew would happen and the bubble burst. So this isn't a failure of capitalism as capitalism responded to the information that it was given or I should say the market responded through the information that it was given in the rates and prices.

Well I think the "perfect" economic system is somewhere between all economic systems. If we just stuck between only Capitalism, Communism or Socialism we'll just try to live with each system's flaws while we could just focus on finding a way to reduce a system's flaws or even combine it with some other's system good points. :)

It is the fault of the Federal Reserve, which is NOT a part of our Federal Government, it is a privately held cartel of elite bankers who get very wealthy, sickenly so, off the taxpayer's of the country. The government essentially has a blank check from the Federal Reserve to spend what they want and we foot the bill. When there is a glut of money, with no product or tangible wealth to back it up, prices rise. The Fed attempts to correct this with low interest rates and makes it worse, devaluing the dollar, making it worth less and less and therefore making prices rise. Sooner or later you have a situation like we're experiencing. Add to that, the government installing burdensome regulations, costing the businesses to then have to spend MORE in meeting those regulations, and passing that on to the consumer, making the consumer spend less, with their already devalued dollars, and you have a vicious cycle of inflation and recession as the market tries to correct itself. I'm not an expert by any means. But anyone should be able to see this. Money's value has to be based on REAL substantial wealth. Precious metals were used for awhile. But in our system we did away with that. Now it is supposed to be based on Gross National Product, what the country produces. When they raise the debt ceiling, they are doing away with even basing it on that. Now, if the government wants to raise the debt ceiling, which they're getting ready to do again, you're effectively making the dollar worth less. Then those who have 'bought' our debt charge higher interest on the debt to recoup their losses in 'real' money.

Okay, I think you're mistaking capitalism for something it's not. Capitalism is based on 'capital'---the goods-&-services themselves. If your goal is growth of the community or society, that's great; but it doesn't happen without your Capital (whether you consider it 'yours' or 'the family's' or 'the state's' or anyone's at all)! Capital in the economy is kind of like righteousness in religion: though it's ALL given freely (at the start), people are fooled into believing that they don't have as much as another or -that they have more because they took some from someone else.