awgee_IHB
New member
WILLIAM HISTED
December 2, 2008
CAPITALISM HAS NOT FAILED US
I don't think that we could get true capitalism passed at most local Chamber of Commerce meetings in the country.
Some in government and the Wall Street owned media say that "capitalism" has failed us, referring to the call for even more of what caused our recent bubbles to collapse.
At best, we today have a MIXTURE of socialism and capitalism, the same as most countries have. It all is a matter of degrees.
The biggest factor in the United States economy is socialsm, not capitalism. You can't even go into business today or operate a business without the government authorizing it. By almost every estimate and set of figures available, over 40 percent of our national toil and sweat go to the many and various levels of government. We often hear of the statistic which says the average American must work until almost May to pay all of the hidden, unhidden, revealed and concealed taxes and costs of government.
But that is only PART of the matter. What is left of the "private sector" is heavily regulated by government, politicians and their hangers-on.
Privately owned firms are beholden to adhere to and enforce literally tens of thousands of various government regulations, rules, restrictions and demands.
The cost of complace is in the many billions of dollars. Many things said to be "private sector" costs are actually government costs passed on to the private sector, such as lawyer fees, compliance costs, tax collection costs, the costs for many rules that really are not necessary or make no difference at all.
It would be hard, if not impossible to find ONE business in the United States that is not regulated by rules by some government entity somewhere.
The financial crisis is largely due to government and politicians in the following ways, and more:
----The "expansion" of the "money supply" faciliated people ignoring prudent savings plans and instead got them involved in risky real estate, stocks and other speculations.
----Artificially low interest rates fostered by the Federal Reserve Bank caused still others to throw common sense to the wind and borrow as much money as they could for as long as they could, hoping government-created inflation would carry the ball for them. It did not.
---Socialist politicians using the force of government to transfer money to help buy and finance homes for people who had no business owning homes helped cause the housing and mortgage market collapse.
---Almost no one saves any significant amount of their incomes any more because they know the Congress and the Federal Reserve Bank will continue to inflate and cheapen the future purchasing power of any "money" saved.
---Tremendous "campaign contributions" by Wall Street firms, major banks and big speculators helped curb any efforts to address the recklessness in the housing markets and in finance. The media has reported how major banks and major Wall Street firms have flooded candidates with money and in some cases, those politicians dropped investigations and inquiries into earlier concerns that a huge balloon was being inflated.
---Federal government policy deliberately has steered people away from saving their money and speculating with borrowed money in hopes of beating the long-term decline in the value of the unbacked paper dollar.
It is government, not the free markets, that have determined what currency is, how much of it there will be and at what general interest rates.
It are socialistic government leaders and their accomodating central bankers of funny money who determine our wars, certainly not the average citizens.
An elderly banker, now deceased, told me 30 years ago that both major parties are run by major special interests and one party appears to want the same things as the other party, only once wants just "a little bit less."
He compared this with getting on an express train to take you to a destination, or a slower, afternoon local train that just takes a little longer getting there.
States one of my friends, "Yes, there is a difference between the two major parties, the same as their is a difference between the two major cola brands." But, he added, "There's not enough of a difference I'm going to get in a fight with someone over!" The joke is told of U.S. tourists who visited Russia several years back. The tour guide in Moscow said, "You people have four major TV networks that say the same thing. How did you do that?"
I don't hear or see any major media organization today talking about the massive inflation of the "money supply" that has been going on for a long time.
You may see a report of "rising food prices," but that's where it ends. There is no effort to compare the flood of "credit" and "the money supply" in recent years with the huge spike in grocery prices.
I have not seen one national reporter talk about the fact that gold and silver were the basic money discipline in this country for a century and a half.
No where in a "mainstream" media outlet have I seen reported the U.S. Constitutional provision of gold and silver to be money coined by authority of Congress.
Huge debts are coming due---and yet the federal government and the Federal Reserve Bank are doing exactly MORE OF THE SAME that got us in this "crisis."
They are exploding the "credit" and granting unheard of and historic "bailouts" to banks, insurance companies, Wall Street brokers, mortgage companies and soon, the entire auto industry, or what's left of it.
Please don't tell me that "Capitalism has failed us."
We have not had anything close to a capitalistic society for many, decades. Government today is the largest whale in our society. It is the largest debtor. It is the largest borrower. It is the largest spender. It is the largest rule-maker. It is the largest enforcer. It is the largest single employer. This, is what has failed us, not free enterprise.
December 2, 2008
CAPITALISM HAS NOT FAILED US
I don't think that we could get true capitalism passed at most local Chamber of Commerce meetings in the country.
Some in government and the Wall Street owned media say that "capitalism" has failed us, referring to the call for even more of what caused our recent bubbles to collapse.
At best, we today have a MIXTURE of socialism and capitalism, the same as most countries have. It all is a matter of degrees.
The biggest factor in the United States economy is socialsm, not capitalism. You can't even go into business today or operate a business without the government authorizing it. By almost every estimate and set of figures available, over 40 percent of our national toil and sweat go to the many and various levels of government. We often hear of the statistic which says the average American must work until almost May to pay all of the hidden, unhidden, revealed and concealed taxes and costs of government.
But that is only PART of the matter. What is left of the "private sector" is heavily regulated by government, politicians and their hangers-on.
Privately owned firms are beholden to adhere to and enforce literally tens of thousands of various government regulations, rules, restrictions and demands.
The cost of complace is in the many billions of dollars. Many things said to be "private sector" costs are actually government costs passed on to the private sector, such as lawyer fees, compliance costs, tax collection costs, the costs for many rules that really are not necessary or make no difference at all.
It would be hard, if not impossible to find ONE business in the United States that is not regulated by rules by some government entity somewhere.
The financial crisis is largely due to government and politicians in the following ways, and more:
----The "expansion" of the "money supply" faciliated people ignoring prudent savings plans and instead got them involved in risky real estate, stocks and other speculations.
----Artificially low interest rates fostered by the Federal Reserve Bank caused still others to throw common sense to the wind and borrow as much money as they could for as long as they could, hoping government-created inflation would carry the ball for them. It did not.
---Socialist politicians using the force of government to transfer money to help buy and finance homes for people who had no business owning homes helped cause the housing and mortgage market collapse.
---Almost no one saves any significant amount of their incomes any more because they know the Congress and the Federal Reserve Bank will continue to inflate and cheapen the future purchasing power of any "money" saved.
---Tremendous "campaign contributions" by Wall Street firms, major banks and big speculators helped curb any efforts to address the recklessness in the housing markets and in finance. The media has reported how major banks and major Wall Street firms have flooded candidates with money and in some cases, those politicians dropped investigations and inquiries into earlier concerns that a huge balloon was being inflated.
---Federal government policy deliberately has steered people away from saving their money and speculating with borrowed money in hopes of beating the long-term decline in the value of the unbacked paper dollar.
It is government, not the free markets, that have determined what currency is, how much of it there will be and at what general interest rates.
It are socialistic government leaders and their accomodating central bankers of funny money who determine our wars, certainly not the average citizens.
An elderly banker, now deceased, told me 30 years ago that both major parties are run by major special interests and one party appears to want the same things as the other party, only once wants just "a little bit less."
He compared this with getting on an express train to take you to a destination, or a slower, afternoon local train that just takes a little longer getting there.
States one of my friends, "Yes, there is a difference between the two major parties, the same as their is a difference between the two major cola brands." But, he added, "There's not enough of a difference I'm going to get in a fight with someone over!" The joke is told of U.S. tourists who visited Russia several years back. The tour guide in Moscow said, "You people have four major TV networks that say the same thing. How did you do that?"
I don't hear or see any major media organization today talking about the massive inflation of the "money supply" that has been going on for a long time.
You may see a report of "rising food prices," but that's where it ends. There is no effort to compare the flood of "credit" and "the money supply" in recent years with the huge spike in grocery prices.
I have not seen one national reporter talk about the fact that gold and silver were the basic money discipline in this country for a century and a half.
No where in a "mainstream" media outlet have I seen reported the U.S. Constitutional provision of gold and silver to be money coined by authority of Congress.
Huge debts are coming due---and yet the federal government and the Federal Reserve Bank are doing exactly MORE OF THE SAME that got us in this "crisis."
They are exploding the "credit" and granting unheard of and historic "bailouts" to banks, insurance companies, Wall Street brokers, mortgage companies and soon, the entire auto industry, or what's left of it.
Please don't tell me that "Capitalism has failed us."
We have not had anything close to a capitalistic society for many, decades. Government today is the largest whale in our society. It is the largest debtor. It is the largest borrower. It is the largest spender. It is the largest rule-maker. It is the largest enforcer. It is the largest single employer. This, is what has failed us, not free enterprise.
