Topic: Capitalism
It's Not Capitalism This article is a letter I sent to the Pueblo Chieftain in response to an article they ran wherein Monica Moorehead, managing editor of the left-leaning newspaper Workers World, claimed that economic system in the US is a "capitalist" system in which tax-payer money is handed over to multi-billion dollar corporations. My rebuttal is concise but poignant.by Steven McDuffie
(libertarian)
Monday, May 4, 2009
I would like to offer a correction to your April 4th, 2009 article entitled "Protesters demand bailout for the people". The AP writer, presumably paraphrasing the Worker's World editor, described the system of giving tax money to giant corporations as "capitalism". To be blunt, this system is very nearly the exact opposite of capitalism. It is corporatism.
Under capitalism, if a company cannot stimulate the market, it fails. Under corporatism, a company that cannot stimulate the market runs to government for a handout. The capitalist free market was set to punish AIG and the rest of the insolvent Wall Street and Detroit companies until the corporatists in Washington stepped in and saved them.
This is, of course, the reason many people hate or fear capitalism: they are holding strong opinions about things they do not understand.
Sincerely,
Steven McDuffie Colorado City, CO
Did you like this article? If you did, Thumb It! 20 thumbs so far
The views expressed in this
article are those of Steven McDuffie only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Steven McDuffie is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
Steve, I think you make a good point about 'nearly the exact opposite of Capitalism'. If Free Market Capitalism is a system in which the markets are completely free [no advantages such as corporation or gov. intervention] and capital is completely self-directed, then a system that forcible directs capital by gov. intervention to corporations would seem to be the exact opposite.
Actually, the Workers World rag is a propaganda piece put out by the Communist Party USA which is a subversive organization supported by the IWW and other left leaning socialist and communistic parties across the world.
The problem with your claim is that there are multiple definitions of the term "capitalis". Marxists like those at Workers World still use the word in the original, traditional sense, whereas you use the word with a later, polemic re-definition.
See my column "Socialism and Capitalism" for more details:
Posted By: Clark Lockerd
Date: 2009-11-13 09:33:51
If we look at the institutions that have or are threatening to destroy our country from within, it appears that there are just a few. Interesting to list them:
1) The failure of the banking system to provide a stable monetary system. Examples or near collapse date as far back as the crash of 1932. Basically we have tried to regulate banking to keep clever people from taking advantage of the systems, but it is too complex. There is not way to govern this problem out of existence without taking it over all together. The complete take over of banking is the solution but has some issues. If there are libral polocies that use the government banking to give loans to unqualified people in the name of fairness, that will fail as well. There needs to be a constitutional amendment that sets the banking policy and creates a stable monetary system. Otherwise we fail
2) Medicare. The attempt by the government to provide the best medical care in the world to anyone over age 65 is not sustainable. It will destroy us. Sorry, we provided this for our parent, but we were the baby boom. We did not have enough children for them to provide this for us.
3) Social security. Loaning the surpluses from this program to failed programs leave this program as a time bomb. It will attempt to destroy us.
Want to comment on this
article? Leave your comment here. Your email address is
required to track your comment. However, we will neither
publish your email address nor distribute it to other
organizations or persons. The only reason we might use
it would be if we needed to contact you regarding your
comment. All comments are subject to our
terms of use policy.
