Capitalism and the Democratic Party

[TexasTowelie]

The most successful economic system shouldn’t be a dirty word.

By Bret Stephens


John Hickenlooper ought to be a poster child for American capitalism. After being laid off from his job as a geologist during the oil bust of the 1980s, he and his business partners turned an empty warehouse into a thriving brewery. It launched his political career, first as a problem-solving two-term mayor of Denver, then as a pragmatic two-term governor of Colorado, and now as a centrist candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Yet there he was on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” squirming in his seat as Joe Scarborough asked if he would call himself “a proud capitalist.” Hickenlooper protested the divisiveness of labels. He refused to reject the term “socialism.” He tried, like a vegetarian who still wants his bacon, to have it both ways: “There are parts of socialism, parts of capitalism, in everything.”

But Hickenlooper did allow this: “We worked 70, 80, 90 hours a week to build the business; and we worked with the other business owners in [Lower Downtown Denver] to help them build their business. Is that capitalism? I guess.”

He guessed right.

Today, despite Friday’s disappointing jobs report, unemployment in the United States clocks in at a rock-bottom 3.8 percent. Wage growth, at 3.4 percent, is at a 10-year high. The median household income is as high as it has ever been. The United States is the world’s most competitive economy, as well as the wealthiest once you exclude small countries like Qatar.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/opinion/hickenlooper-capitalism-democrats.html

[Farmer-Rick]

1. NO, that is NOT capitalism or socialism

Capitalism is ALL about using money to make money. What Hickenlooper did, work hard with others to develop a business, was simple traditional market economics. Let's list ALL the forms of economics shall we: Traditional market economics, Slavery, Feudalism, Capitalism, Socialism and Communism.

Did Hickenlooper buy up another company? Did he buy stocks or invest in another company? NO, NO Did he inherit excess wealth and then use it to run an already existing business? NO. People forget that free enterprise, markets and business are not capitalism. These transactions existed long before capitalism and frequently are part of most types of economic systems.

As Hickenlooper said, "There are parts of socialism, parts of capitalism, in everything.” He is more right than that ignorant NY Times reporter.

[mia]

2. "Capitalism has worked for millions of Americans. It worked for me...

We need to reform it so it can work for everyone."

[Farmer-Rick]

3. Capitalism is designed to concentrate wealth at the top

It is a feature of the system. It is designed to pay workers as little as possible while ensuring the highest prices on products as possible.

If you pay workers less and less and raise your prices more and more, you will wipe out your market base. You can not last long in business if you wipe out your customers but that is exactly what capitalism is designed to do.

It always fails, crashes, stagnates and corrupts. It must be constantly regulated to prevent abuse. It is distorting and corrupting our country right now because we failed to regulate it.

Shouldn't we have an economic system that does NOT have built in flaws and requires constant regulating? Shouldn't we have an economic system that doesn't crash every so often? There are better ways. Humans can't be so stupid as to think this is the best we can do.