Kierke, I am new to this group and am interested in this topic as well. I did read your defense of Capitalism and agree with many of your points. In general, I feel that putting things such as education and health care or God forbid banking as well(look how well Fannie and Freddie turned out) under Gov't control is foolish. While I'm not opposed to some form of regulation to attempt to "level the playing field" I would err on the side of big business most of the time. Money makes the world go 'round and if more people realized this we would all be living on a much happier and productive planet. Demonizing 'profit' is the goal of Marxists and morons. Protecting the public from Monopolies such as Ma Bell and Standard Oil is one thing-ruining economies by encouraging lending to people that have no business borrowing is quite another. Bailing out banks that practiced this and then over-leveraged themselves into failure just makes me sick to my stomach. There are members of Congress that should be tarred and feathered and rode out of town a rail. I won't mention any names but their initials are Chris Dodd and Barney Frank.
As I'm sure you're well aware and another person has touched on this; Ideas such as Capitalism and Socialism don't and couldn't exist in pure form. We are people, not machines. However, my feeling is that we should base our laws more closely to promote the former just for the sake of efficiency and to avoid massive waste. The Federalist Society encapsulates my opinion on law. I'm a firm believer in competition. It promotes excellence and keeps prices right where they should be. The Invisible Hand is a beautiful thing. Read 'Free To Choose' by Milt Friedman again if it's been awhile. That guy just makes too much sense. They don't make 'em like him anymore and if they do, they don't run for Congress. We desperately need to eliminate capital gains taxes and corporate taxes and we seem to be headed in the wrong direction. It's all a little scary, actually. dj On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 7:20 PM, Kierkecraig <[email protected]> wrote: > > I haven't been able to catch up with this thread, but I don't want to > abandon it either because when I left it appeared that I was the sole > defender of capitalism. So in order to get back on track, can someone > summarize what the issues are that are being covered in this thread. > I know the general topic is capitalism vs. socialism, with some > arguing for a hybrid of the two. What's really the fundamental > argument though? Using the principle of charity with both theories, > how would we characterize the desired goals of capitalism and > socialism. Lets begin by ignoring the rhetoric associated with each > side, and begin by placing them each in their own light as charitably > as possible. What is it that capitalism claims is its goal? What is > it that socialism claims is its goal? What is it that a hybrid system > claims is its goal? I have a hunch that they will all cover some > common ground as to what they hope to obtain. The argument will > probably be whether that system can really obtain the goals it claims > to espouse. Any takers? > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
