Originally Posted by
MatthewOlson
I did not accuse of the Free Market of being unregulated. That would be like calling water wet. ... I accused Capitalism in America of being unregulated.
Capitalism is an economic system of production consisting of two sets of people; owner and worker, which promotes private ownership. It deals in production and profit, as compared to the Free Market, which is what determines the prices of goods and services based on supply and demand. Both Capitalism and Free Market, in historical terms, have been intertwined in their functionality, but they are NOT the same thing, and to accuse one of being unregulated (Capitalism) is not an accusation against the other (Free Market). The Free Market is supposed to be unregulated.
Capitalism, on the other hand, is very dangerous when it is unregulated, and that type of Capitalism has been eroding the middle class since the 80's. The majority of the economy's growth since the 80's has gone to help the rich get richer (specifically the top 10%, as Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor stated in a recent Wall Street Journal article, September 13th 2011 ... I know cause I read it while at work today.). The progress on the other classes has only been evident because of the trickle down from the capstone of the income pyramid, and it is the capstone belongs to Executives and CEOs of major corporations, not to mention the finance-crazy jerkoffs who push economic bubbles to the breaking point as the bust swoops down and knocks over the middle class like dominoes. ... There is nothing wrong with supply and demand as the Free Market is made for,... but there is something wrong such things as... laying off masses of people for short term profits, rewarding people who plunder natural resource benefits and beauty from the countryside for their own commercial gains, and letting corporations grow so large that they become like governments all their own, pulling strings in media and politics in their facor with no real concern for social responsibility. As you mentioned, it is blatant corporism.
While in the Free Market it is normal for inefficient firms competing against competent ones to go under, if you add in unregulated Capitalism, the larger corporations possess so many resources and so much power that it is almost impossible to compete, and since it is purely financial, it is near impossible for firms to compete unless their central and most 'bled-for' goal is to maximize profits, thus only creating more 'blatant corporism'. ... And even in the redeeming case where two or large firms of the same industry are competing, and thus their products are becoming cheaper via competition, price fixing is really not that uncommon an event in our corporate world. ... This is what I mean by unregulated Capitalism 'tampering' with the Free Market.