Forum Post: The downfall of capitalism (greed) and the rise of Democratic-socialistic-capitalism for wealth distribution
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 17, 2011, 2:51 p.m. EST by kriman
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America is now re-inventing itself, so to follow the same steps of many European countries that are able to provide a much better quality of living and education to its citizens.
The concepts of democratic-socialism, wealth distribution and collective thinking might be new or even a Tabu for most of Americans, however that's where America is heading to.
Most American conservatives take it as an article of faith that the less governmental involvement in affairs of the market and pocketbook the better. The rich do not, whatever they might say--for much of their wealth comes from the "power and preferment of government." So writes Kevin Phillips, the accomplished historian and one-time Washington insider, in the book 'Wealth and Democracy" an extraordinary survey of plutocracy, excess, and reform. "Laissez-faire is a pretense," he argues; as the wealth of the rich has grown, so has its control over government, making politics a hostage of money. Examining cycles of economic growth and decline from the founding days of the republic to the recent collapse of technology stocks, Phillips dispels notions of trickle-down wealth creation, pricks holes in speculative bubbles, and decries the ever-increasing "financialization" of the economy--all of which, he argues, have served to reduce the well-being of ordinary Americans and government alike. Highly readable for all its charts and graphs, Phillips's book offers a refreshing--and, of course, controversial--blend of economic history and social criticism. His conclusions won't please all readers, but just about everyone who comes to his pages will feel hackles rising. --Gregory McNamee
And while you point to the European countries for examples of this -- you're seeing riots, their own 99% movements, a looming bank crisis, the lowest education scores in years, etc.
The idea of socialism goes against the very fabric of what made this nation strong. A dichotomy of unity and individualism. We strove to work hard for ourselves, but never at the expose of the union.
With that said, I don't think certain aspects of socialism are bad. It's what type of government pandering it creates and the way governments act when they have power and money. They can't control it.
Basically, the issues most Americans have with socialism is the notion that our government can handle our affairs better than the people.
F*! capital already.This idea describes the Soviet Union. http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:John_Bessa/Capital_Structure
Already the rebellion is infected by the problem, probably through socratic child-molesters
Wealth envy/distribution is the driving force behind those that seek political power, it doesnt mean that the country as a whole wants to be socialist. Don't confuse puppets yelling louder than those around them and everyone else. Socialism goes against what America stands for, so yes, to us it is a bad word. Democracies dont work. Nice idea, but in practice they are horrible. So democratic-socialism (still trying to figure out how that makes sense) is like putting crap with crap. Most Americans are fine with our republic. Sure it needs work and things need to change, but we should remain a republic.
Europe sucks- I mean look at them right now- their economic growth was anemic at 1.7% last year, and Greece is about ready to make their whole system collapse. this happened precicely because of Democratic Socialism.
No this happened because the american economy collapsed and all the foreign banks and institutions invested in said economy lost billions on assets. Greece got itself into tremendous debt through insane defense spending which it could not afford in a depressed economy (sounds familiar) which caused S&P to downgrade their credit rating which in turn caused a complete lack of faith in Greek credit and lost Greece most foreign investment. The socialism thing did not just spring up and ruin their economy.
Greece is in massive debt because of entitlement programs, not the military, i mean, 1 out of every 3 workers in Greece are employed by the government!! Ridiculous.
I agree. What I find curious is why most Americans find democratic-socialism so frightening. Is it possible to slide into such a system unknowingly, or will the American people have to accept it beforehand?
Sometimes I find it amusing how badly Americans are informed about global issues, yet there are eager to verbalized their opinions over issues they have no idea about. And most of the time, those opinions are also distorted because of the bad quality one-sided media news you get in the US.