So, because capitalism has caused trouble for folks it must be a sub-standard system and we should dabble with a little socialism. Government taking over businesses like the automotive industry and the banks is socialism, as is socialised medicine. We are told that we need this to clean up the mess that capitalism has made of our economy.
So, if we are turning to socialism because capitalism has cycles, socialism must be a recession-free system, right? At the very least, it must be more stable.
Let's do a check into the history books. I happened to be thumbing through a 2008 National Geographic Magazine recently. The cover story was on India's new highway system. In the article, it mentioned that India had modeled its economic system on the socialistic ideas of Gandhi and others. India had to switch to another system after a time, though, because socialism just wasn't working out for them. I wanted to do a little more research.
A BBC News article, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/55427.stm, tells about the government interference in the Indian economy and the mess that it created for the country. To start a new business, an entrepreneur had to deal with 80 different government bureaucracies! The economy did not keep pace with the rest of the region and by the early nineties, the global market had lost faith in India's credit. In response, they had to make their economy more capitalistic. Socialism has problems.
Looking at the communist countries of the world(and socialism is just a halfway house to communism), I don't see an enviable economic track record there, either.
Turning to our south, we see the island of Cuba. As everyone can tell you, Cuba is a communist nation. How are they fairing in this economy? According to a miamiherald.com article, the recession has been bad for them as well. So bad, in fact, that they have had to "scale back" the on the socialism. The article says that the government is allowing farmers to own land, reconsidering ration cards, and closing government funded workplace cafeterias. Communist Cuba has "a failed economy that buckled long ago", according to some experts. That doesn't sound like any kind of economy that I want to be apart of. As a side note, capitalism is pelted with the charge that it is the system of greed. Those who level that charge would do well to consider how Cuba's state run newspaper characterized the fruit of Cuba's communistic ration card system: a "gimme mentality." Sounds like communism has problems.
How about us? Our nation has faced a credit crisis, major industries and financial institutions have been on the verge of collapse, and the stock market took a deep plunge. People have lost their jobs and their homes. We have problems, too.
I certainly don't mean to say that capitalism, socialism, and communism are all equal. My point is that the next time someone tells you that capitalism hurts people, ask them to find a better system.
Sure capitalism has problems. That is because it involves people. As full of potential as they are, people seem to mess up anything that they have anything to do with. It is just that excessive government messes things up even more and I believe that in the final tally, the current recession will probably find much of its cause in government meddling in the system.
So, to all would be socialists who say they want to bring power to the people-I have a great deal more faith in populace-powered capitalism, than in government run socialism.
both quotes from Winston Churchill
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