Spartanmack
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2013
- Messages
- 17,144
Not from what your POV of it is, obviously.
Your line of employment and career hinge upon unfettered capitalism, that which is primarily benefiting the 10% who own 80% of all stocks, and corporations whose stocks are publicly traded, so you have a larger bias than most DSF members who post here.
My career dealt with working in both private and government service, that was beneficial to private business, government, and the general public.
I could link to some definitions of what capitalism is supposed to be, but none would exactly match what is being practiced here in the USA.
We are led to believe by conservatives that the "free market" is all that is needed to self-police capitalism, but that would only be completely practical in a closed-off society, w/o any trade with other nations who do not practice "our" hybrid version of it. The gargantuan trade deficits that have grown exponentially since offshoring rapidly increased in the 80s, and outsourcing exploded with the the advent of broadband internet ~turn of the century are obvious (and ominous) signs that there are no level "playing fields" globally.
That, along with deregulation, mergers, consolidations, monopolization, downsizing, rightsizing, (JIT) automation, technology, robotics....and we are only on the cusp of what AI is capable of doing....that being a complete game-changer. All of these things have and will affect both competition and consumerism, being those who sell and/or manage, purchase, and lease products and services. You may call me a socialist, but I detest what "capitalism" has become, it is by no means a panacea for all what ails this country economically or socially. I can vote to change who represents me in government, but I have absolutely no voice or vote in who manages or sits on the board of directors for any given corporation...unless I am a (majority) stockholder or investor.
My line of employment and career hinge upon nothing of the sort. If it did, I wouldn't have a career because we have nothing close to unfettered capitalism. If you think we do, you definitely don't know what capitalism is. Money accrues to Wall St largely because of regulations - regulations are also often what cause bubbles that lead to things like the subprime housing disaster. If you think Wall St was responsible for that and not the government, mostly Democrats, you're either blind or willfully ignorant of the facts. If you want to pat yourself on the back because you think you did something for the greater good being a government leach, go ahead but I'm not buying it - zero credit. Our gargantuan trade deficits are driven by bad regulation, bad tax policy and bad treaties, not because of a self-policing capitalist free market.
I too detest what "capitalism" has become in America, the difference is I'm smart enough to realize more regulation and government interference isn't the answer.