Is Capitalism broken?

[dutch508]

Star Member SleeplessinSoCal (7,132 posts)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216619983

Is Capitalism broken?

I can't get beyond thinking that inflation is driven by politics becase it could easily go away if those price gouging companies ceased gouging. It benefits them at a time like this to keep the public outraged at Democrats. But very unhealthy for our economic system. Before the Limbaughs of the world were paid outrageous salaries to promote shredding the safety net, we had a healthy middle class. And we weren't told to fear an educated public.

I also think because the number of monthly bills has more than doubled over the past 30 years, that most of us will never be able to have enough money to pay for all the extras we've come to rely on.

If gougers were controlled, they would cry "Socialism!" But they give Capitalism a very bad name and seem intent on destroyimg the whole thing. WE ARE THE ECONOMY.

Then there's this from The New Republic, that I missed:

"Don’t be hoodwinked. It isn’t Joe Biden who’s making record profits and gouging U.S. consumers. That would be corporate America.

The prices of everyday goods are going up, and everyone from members of Congress to talking heads on cable news have their own diagnoses as to why it’s happening. But they’re all missing the biggest piece of the puzzle about what is to blame—namely, corporate profiteering.


https://newrepublic.com/article/164505/inflation-corporate-profiteering-biden-consumers

 

Eko (5,411 posts)

2. Its not broken, its doing exactly what its supposed to do.

Make the rich richer and everyone else poorer.

Star Member Wounded Bear (49,802 posts)

4. Not really, it just needs meaningful regulation to avoid becoming fascism...

Star Member SleeplessinSoCal (7,132 posts)

5. One huge problem today is that lying is is the norm.

We experience reality. But then are flooded with lies. It only succeeds in making us depressed and feeling hopeless. TFG should be rotting away in prison for what he did January 6, 2020. The sheer will power of that beast is devastating to us as a so-called nation of laws. That is how we've been described historically. Also, if the business of America is business, what does that say about how much cheating and gouging goes on to create so many monopolies?

Where are the antitrust laws today?

 

In It to Win It (2,465 posts)

12. Capitalism isn't broken. Capitalism is a means to an end. It's nothing more than a system.

Capitalism can have negative consequences. Capitalism is doing what it's supposed to do.

- Inflation can happen with capitalism.
- Outrageous salaries can happen in capitalism.
- A healthy middle class or no middle class at all can happen in capitalism.
- Recessions can happen in capitalism.
- Homelessness can happen in capitalism.
- Fraud, corruption, price gouging, child labor and so many other things can happen in capitalism.
- Capitalism doesn't need an educated public or a social safety net.
- Capitalism allows people to be down on their luck, and homeless and starving.
- Capitalism allows people to work full time jobs and still not afford housing.
- Capitalism allows people to work full time jobs for 30 years and still not have enough for retirement
- Capitalism allows people to be worked until they're in the ground

Capitalism is emotionless.
Capitalism is ruthless.

Capitalism doesn't abide by rules and tenets that would produce what we would consider a healthy economy. The system of capitalism can throw everything we care about out the window. It is up to us, the people, to use and manage capitalism to achieve the ends we want. We have to put people in power who will create rules for capitalism that will achieve the most good for the most people. Capitalism isn't broken. The rules for managing capitalism and the rule-making system are broken. Capitalism by itself doesn't create a safety net for people who can't afford to live. Capitalism unmanaged will not solve every problem.

The people who scream the loudest about how good capitalism is are the people who have benefited most from it. They don't like rules that change the system they know because it works for them exactly the way it is. They will scream to the mountaintops that markets work and are efficient because people will transact rationally but that assumes that market participants think rationally 100% of the time.

The right loves to tell people that capitalism is good if you would get off your and work. What the right doesn't tell you is that you can work your ass off and put in maximum effort and still end up at the bottom of the totem pole. The right will happily leave you behind. They will happily pay you minimum wage while the cost of living increases, leaving you at the bottom of the totem pole.

 

Edim (251 posts)

16. As long as the working class is exploited and it is in capitalism, it can not end well and the system is 'broken'.

 

[DefiantSix]

Star Member SleeplessinSoCal (7,132 posts)

Is Capitalism broken?

I can't get beyond thinking that inflation is driven by politics becase it could easily go away if those price gouging companies ceased gouging...

 

In an amazing coincidence, as damned near the other side of the "Communism/socialism fails every time it's tried" truism...

Capitalism works every time it's tried

[SVPete]

Star Member SleeplessinSoCal (7,132 posts)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216619983

Is Capitalism broken?

I can't get beyond thinking that inflation is driven by politics becase it could easily go away if those price gouging companies ceased gouging. ...

This passes for thinking on DU? Inflation is too much money chasing too few goods. The Dem-controlled Congress and LIEden injected trillions of dollars into the economy, while throttling and increasing the expenses of producers - shutting down oil pipelines, increasing royalties on oil, ceasing new oil leases, threatening to shut down oil, NG, and coal producers, forcing wages up by paying potential workers to stay away from jobs, Covid business-shutdowns ... just off the top of my head, but I'm sure LIEden's gooberment did more and worse.

Inflation is "driven by politics", Federal Gooberment stupidity. Those "price gouging companies" are simply raising their prices, largely, to offset gooberment-induced cost increases, with trying to avoid running out of product by using higher prices to discourage panic/impulse buying is also in play. I'm sure that as simple as all this is, it is beyond Star Moron SleeplessinSoCal capacity for thought, and outside of his/her worldview.

[FlaGator]

In my lifetime I have come to the conclusion that negative views on capitalism come from two sources. One is the pro-socialist/communist point of view that hates capitalism based on an ideological viewpoint that everything should be free and no one should own anything. The other, and this is what I see at DU, is from those who have failed to take advantage of what capitalism offers them because it requires some effort and taking responsibility for one's decisions. Bad decisions by people are never the reason they are poor, it's capitalism's fault for allowing the rich to take what is they believe is theirs by right.

[Wineslob]

DUmmies, one of the sayings about Capitalism is " a poor man never gave me a job".

[landofconfusion80]

Capitalism is the best way for the downtrodden to escape grinding poverty. Don't believe it? Millions of bidens border jumping buddies at the border prove otherwise

[67 Rover]

Eko (5,411 posts)

2. Its not broken, its doing exactly what its supposed to do.

Make the rich richer and everyone else poorer.

So by your theory under President Trumps time in office the poor were richer and the rich were poorer?

[enslaved1]

Capitalism works fine, as long as there are people with morals working it.  Issues come when people with no conscious or sense of right and wrong are trying to get as much money as possible while working the system and abusing the system to do so.  Leftists have no moral compass, neither do many who play right leaning, and many of both are high up in the corporate world, or high up in our government taking "donations" from these folks to write and pass laws that help those whose only allegiances are to themselves and their offshore bank accounts.  Get back to teaching right and wrong, not pragmatism, and watch capitalism adjust itself after awhile.  A long while, cause of how long leftists have demanded there is no absolute right and wrong. 

[landofconfusion80]

Capitalism works fine, as long as there are people with morals working it.  Issues come when people with no conscious or sense of right and wrong are trying to get as much money as possible while working the system and abusing the system to do so.  Leftists have no moral compass, neither do many who play right leaning, and many of both are high up in the corporate world, or high up in our government taking "donations" from these folks to write and pass laws that help those whose only allegiances are to themselves and their offshore bank accounts.  Get back to teaching right and wrong, not pragmatism, and watch capitalism adjust itself after awhile.  A long while, cause of how long leftists have demanded there is no absolute right and wrong.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RWsx1X8PV_A