Thank you Judah for that excellent summary of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations.
On Monday, May 12, 2014, Judah McAuley <[email protected]> wrote: > > I do not think they are capitalists, I think that it is a plutocracy. Any > notion that there has been a mostly capitalist economy in the country > should have ended with "to big to fail". > > I believe that there have been times when our country has been more > capitalist and less capitalist. Capitalism seems to end up creating large > enough winners that they quickly work on capturing the governmental means > of regulation and move toward a plutocracy in which the winners cannot, via > any normal economic process, be anything other than winners. That is, they > turn to extra-economic means to solidify their place in a plutocracy. > > Eventually (at least previously), there is enough push back that the > plutocracy gets torn down a fair bit and the pendulum swings more toward > the socialist end of the spectrum. Even at this point, we've always been > significantly more capitalist than many economies, but certainly less so > than at other points in our history. > > Gradually, however, regulation starts to get eroded in name of business > nimbleness and success and that seems to work for awhile until > consolidation of money leads to a consolidation of power and we move back > toward a plutocracy. > > I'd like to think that there is a way to achieve a reasonable balance and > make a stable environment where we have a lower level of regulation but do > not have a situation that tends toward plutocracy. I'm not sure if that is > really possible, though, the environment for business and government may > just be too dynamic to find a stable state. Not really sure. > > Cheers, > Judah > > > On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 9:08 AM, LRS Scout <[email protected]<javascript:;>> > wrote: > > > > > Do think the ruling class in America today is "capitalists"? > > > > Open question to the group. > > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:370077 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
