Given the current state of our economic system, which system do you prefer

[Deja Q]

Be honest.

Freepers can go wear their silly faded made-in-china t-shirts actively promoting the death of liberalism in wal-mart's dirty lavatory where they belong.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. feudalism

eom

[Deja Q]

2. Defined:

"Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)"
Feudalism Feu"dal*ism, n. Cf. F. f'eodalisme.
The feudal system; a system by which the holding of estates
in land is made dependent upon an obligation to render
military service to the kind or feudal superior; feudal
principles and usages.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. That's The Ticket

eom

[SarahB]

13. So you're a Republican?

:shrug:

[Placebo]

3. Capitalism.

[Deja Q]

6. Why still capitalism? (I will explain why I don't. Not any more.)

Good people, not just deadbeats, are out of work and cannot get work or the education to make a new job.

Any new jobs have shit pay and can't begin to support one person properly, let alone a family.

Corporations fleece the government for subsidy WELFARE while jackin' the rest of us around.

They exploit for selfish benefit.

Capitalism, as it stands, is why there are no price controls, excessive price gouging, et cetera. I hope you've good insurance because one halfway decent illness will bankrupt you. Yet that horribly evil socialist Canada still creates big budget surpluses... how odd. x(

They do not promote an evolutionary society. They promote devolution, right back down to our animal ancestors.

Supporters of the system proudly go out wearing anti-liberal T-shirts. Now if anybody else wore an anti-capitalism or anti-conservatism t-shirt, they'd be summarily executed in today's devolved "society".

That's why I don't like capitalism as it stands. It has gone too far and is anything but a compassionate system.

Why do you support it?

[mongo]

5. Free enterprise

which is not the same as capitalism.

[Deja Q]

7. Like NAFTA, CAFTA, FTAA, et al?

No thanks, if that's what you mean. We've seen the effects of that for nearly 10 years now.

[bobweaver]

8. Highly regulated capitalism. Small businesses. Strong government control.

[Deja Q]

9. I agree with you there. Here's the problem:

the size of the larger corporate empires have a stranglehold on their own industry and use their money to acquire other industries. We've sene these effects for something over 10 years. More and more buyouts and takeovers. Indeed, the only expanding industry right now is retail - and only because no one has found a way to nix cashiers yet.

I would LOVE to see a nation of small businesses; where we could all be put to use.

But that's not going to happen without some serious reforms. And as the top 5% won't like that, it will not happen.

[MatrixEscape]

10. You should have included ...

the more utopian system as outlined in an episode of Star Trek:TNG.

There is no more "money", per se. The replicators manufactor most of what people need. You work because you want to fulfill your life and do something, not for mere sustenance.

I will never forget that episode where the greedy Capitalist is unfrozen from our time and whatever disease he had is cured. He is excited and expects to be a mega-zillionare based on investments he had made before he was turned into a human popsicle. It turns out that there is no economic system like in the past. He is broke, but that really doesn't matter anyway.

When Picard breaks the news to him, his reaction is very interersting.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

11. Just look at the state of our infrastructure... look at the blackout in

the NE. Look at the I-10 bridge in N.Florida and the hurricane damage..... this NEVER SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED. I don't care how high the waves may have gotten... this is BS.

Our country is crumbling from the inside and all these fools can concentrate on is forcing democracy on people who might not want it... that is if the majority rules... and I thought that is what democracy is about. Coulda been wrong though....

[Selatius]

12. Capitalism always has winners and losers

It's a competitive system. Safety nets were created to help the "losers," but there will always be people who want more and thus don't want to pay for safety nets. Capitalism as a system, I believe, breeds greed. I do not believe greed is a natural state for any human. I think it's an issue of environment over heredity. Why do people want more than what they need? Because the system reinforces the notion that more is better. Thus, greed is "good."

Setting up safety nets in capitalism will always be a precarious venture at best. We cannot maintain control forever. They will eventually win some of the battles, and when they break through, they will undo what we have built, and we are left trying to rebuild. Repeat this over and over again, and this is what you have when you stick with trying to mix compassion with capitalism.

I'm interested in anarcho-syndicalism nowadays. It's a cooperative system, not a competitive one. Rather than having a few owning and controlling the means of production, this model advocates that the means of production being in the hands of the people and administered by the people directly in a democratic manner. This is not authoritarian socialism where some man, who claims to be doing it for your benefit, tells you what to do at the point of a rifle. It is supposed to be bringing democracy to the workplace as well as the community.

Anarcho-syndicalism probably is not as strong an engine for innovation, but I can deal with that if it meant finding a balance not only with the environment but with each other. Instead of trying to trick, win against, or war against each other for the limited resources, I'm interested in seeing if cooperation instead would work better.

You cannot jump from one system without making sacrifices. To gain something, you must lose something else.

[American Tragedy]

17. This cooperative system sounds pretty abstract to me.

"this model advocates that the means of production being in the hands of the people and administered by the people directly in a democratic manner."


I've heard this a thousand times and I've never really understand it.

[InvisibleBallots]

22. here

http://www.cuna.org

nothing abstract about it, the system has been working quite well for what, 300 years now?

[InvisibleBallots]

21. we already have anarcho-syndicalism in the US

Corporations are basically an anti-democratic form of a syndicate, and the US is a rather anarchic system as a whole, though much of the US is broken into smaller police states (say, New Jersey).

If you want to have democratic, people-controlled federated anarcho-syndicalist system, first thing you do is sell off all the Bakunin and Antiflag t-shirts and hook up with the non-government, non-capitalist organizations - syndicates if you will - we already have - the AFLCIO, CUNA (credit union association).

And always remember, in the USA the largest, democratic, federated, anarchist organization is the Southern Baptist Convention.

[Ladyhawk]

14. I feel like I was born to the wrong family in the wrong country.

I don't know...I just have this vague sense that this is ALL wrong. This isn't the way things are supposed to be.

Capitalism does not favor the sensitive and the artistically gifted. I am both. Or rather was both. The capitalistic system has dumped me at bottom because I am disabled. The stress that goes along with this is intolerable. So, I lose my creativity and my sensitivity becomes something twisted. I'm hyperaware of my surroundings, ready to flee at any moment.

[Festivito]

15. Mankind seems to exist to curb excesses in nature.

The natures of Socialism and Capitalism each need to be curbed. The excesses of Socialism made more and more pure leads to inequitable equality. Purified Capitalism leads to deplorable disparity. Pure, they both lead to the same place: stifled ingenuity, destroyed human spirit, corruption, and more bad things than are needed for this list.

Whether sane or not depends on us. Sanity is a benchmark of our collective human imagination which may or may not be sufficiently worthy of our programming's aim.

Now, I'd vote Socialist. But, if Socialism started to purify, I'd switch to vote Capitalism. It's just my job as a human.

[DireStrike]

16. I think I agree with you

But what is "inequitable equality"?

[Festivito]

18. I mean the opposite of disparate distribution of wealth,

that being an equal distribution regardless of the work and talent a person offers, which I find inequitable. Inequitable in that if a person works more, he should be paid more.

No implementation of either Capitalism or Socialism will ever be perfectly pure, thank God. The problem I see is that the closer they try to get to pure, the worse the government becomes.

Worse, the more arrogant they become.

Communism insisted it needed the resources of the whole world in order to function more purely, i.e., better. Here in America the arrogant want to destroy regulations until there are none. But, they realize this destroys competition. So, they arrogantly continue their fight against regulation even while in full control of government, like a hot-rodder spinning tires, but not moving up the hill. But, it all looks and sounds hot.

[davhill]

19. Highly Regulated Capitalism

Without regulation by a strong government, the rich have a competitive advantage over the poor. The rich get richer; the poor get poorer. The genius of the American system is to use progessive taxation and governmental regulation to level the playing field and achieve an equilibrium. That system is currently being dismantled.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

20. In a sane world your post would be a paragraph in a 7th grade history book

And in an even saner world it would be lacking the last sentence. :yourock:

[UdoKier]

23. Problem is...

Freeps are unable to distinguish between Soviet-style "socialism" and sane social welfare programs like Social Security and single-payer healthcare, things that have worked GREAT everywhere they have been tried.

F'em.