http://crisisofcredit.com/

Watch that video and you will get a better idea of what happened to the American economy recently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCMsm4P6MMk&feature=related

This is a video of a speech made showing how Unregulated Capitalism is Moral. His feedback skills are nothing to be admired but it still gives a good view of it. Everyone is blaming capitalism but the truth is that capitalism had nothing to do with it.

My opinion has to do with what these two videos have in common, and that is the Federal Reserve. Should it be removed? Should it be reinstalled in a more powerless form? I believe it does need to be changed. Its influence has increased dramatically over the years.

Discuss.

I agree with most of what you said but I want to add something else to the mix. The increasing power of the global corporations is scary. These corporations seem to go unchecked in what they do. Take the financial instituations for one example. They basically tank the system and what happens? The governments around the world hand over billions, and probably into the trillions, of OUR dollars. This money didn't come from nowhere... it's taxpayer money that went to failing companies.

I'm sure there are other examples of these corporations that have skewed things so far into their favor that they practically don't have to compete anymore. That is not capitalism at all.

Capitalism actually is to blame for it. Corporations want to be wealthier so they do what they can in their power to gain profit even if that means screwing customers and employees in the process. This is probably why the government did what they did with the bailout money. They had the power and freedom to do what they wanted with it in order to gain profit.

Plus when you got a free market then you basically saying anything goes, we will buy all our stuff from other countries and sell them for more here in ours. That in return, destroys the domestic economy because we then import more then we export, which makes the companies earn more money and makes our country earn less.

Then the government probably makes less money in those transactions so they mess with the people and start doing their magic to steal it from us in form of taxes or scams.

Then we go banks for money and get it from them. They jack the interest so high no one will be able to pay it off.

This causes a HUGE ripple effect. Then when people don't have the money to pay it off then the corporations whine about it and threaten legal action against you. Then when that happens we have come full circle and you meet with government the ones really to blame for all this mess.

If someone is broke and robs a bank its wrong, but if corporations are broke and steal their money from taxpayers its right? See people got their freedoms all messed up. I guess they didn't really steal it, since we are in a free market it was the governments money and they spent it how they wanted so we have no right to whine about it. So yea its definitly a capitalist issue here.

The only real difference and problem in this "free market" is goverment and corporations get away with stealing or scams and we don't. Just like how they get away with murder... it's too funny how this messed up system works.

Governments laws are the last leg in this fight, once no one gives a crap about them anymore all hell will break loose. Crime will rise so bad, it's bound to cave in anytime and the WHOLE system will fail. This will either cause chaos or it will form the much anticipated new world order everyone has been hearing about.

yeah, but corporations are not capitalism. And the government interference (both during the crisis and previous to it) are also not part of capitalism.

The problem is not capitalism at all, but people using their power either in government or in enormous corporations to skew things to be in their best interest.

See, I think we agree more or less Jigsaw... we agree on the problem (large corporations and the government) but we disagree about whether or not capitalism is the root of the problem.

If government would stop taxing the crap out of it's people and let them keep their money and provide everything in the private sector then we wouldn't have these problems. It's when we expect the government to step in and "fix" things that these problems happen at all. The general public has 100 times the power to influence corporations than the government does. If people would actually open their eyes and pay attention and buy based on what these companies do then we could clean up their acts pretty quickly... but instead we're lazy and want someone else to deal with the problem so we don't have to. Except that it's like sending crooks to deal with crooks.... all we get is more crime.

It's hard to not say it's not capitalism's fault though. It's all our faults really (Corporations, Government, and the people). I do believe that the free market is a major role in aiding in the position we are at today economy wise. I also believe government plays another role in spending way too much money and asking way too much from people. There needs to be more rules in the free market. One is global trading, we need to trim down on imports so we can focus on creating more domestic jobs.

And the people themselves also need to be smart money wise and not splurge on stuff they don't need. People don't need big houses, or nice sports cars, what they need is food and a place to live thats it.

I'm not blaming capitalism completely but I think it's those few people who take the term too far you know? Just like how someone takes the term "freedom" too far. Just cause you have the freedom to kill people doesn't mean you should. So I think those people are what make it a bad system.

You two have made very good points in your posts. I will compel myself to find out more if I can...

Also I'm surprised no one has mentioned lobbyists and the battle between tariffs/exports (determine which one is unconstitutional or not).

I think lobbyists are what keep the businesses and Congress together, because thats exactly what they do is push Congress to accept interests and to focus on what a particular group or bureaucracy wants (it doesn't have to be business, but it is most commonly business).

I think the thing that frustrated me the most is that people somehow believe that a centrally planned economy would function better than a capitalist/free-market type.

Does no one remember the Soviet Union? or North Korea, or Cuba? Those economies failed or are failing. Why do we want to be more like that?

The problem in our capitalist systems is that large corporations and the government do similar things that were done in those countries. Instead of letting the market decide how things should be there are protectionist policies that are bought for by certain corporations that allow them to retain market share and control. If true capitalism was allowed to function there would be less need for government intervention. The more intervention the more problems there are. In my opinion.

Originally posted by geeogree

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The more intervention the more problems there are. In my opinion.

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Bingo!

Lassiez-faire, lassiez-faire, lassiez-faire

The policy that has reluctantly been abused.

Capitalism is a dying system used back in the 1700's till teh present age. Captialism was used to increase busneiss ventures and to those who were successful to make more money and become snoobish and cruel to others. There has to be a system which that big busneiss won't rule the world like in the Alien Series

I see capitalism as the practices of a free market economy. Some regulation is needed to keep people from being ripped off constantly, however, too much just ends up slowing the system down and the economy as a whole suffers. It's not a perfect system, but it does give more incentive to make a better product or provide a better service, provide a more streamlined process, and is generally self-correcting.

I view socialism as the theoretical situation where everything can be coordinated together efficiently under government supervision. So far, any attempt at large-scale socialism has turned into communism, which is basically super rigged capitalism.