Is capitalism dying?

[kentuck]

We hear this morning that the European Union and the IMF are putting in a trillion dollars to bail out Greece and to prop up Spain and Portugal. This follows the huge bailout of the banks in America. But these are countries, not banks.

How much sacrifice will the common people have to make to assure that this system survives? How much more proof do we need that it is indeed in dire straits? Can it be revived with all this money?

Or is capitalism simply following the same footsteps of its competitor, communism, which fell in the late 1980's and early 1990's? If the IMF had put the same amount of money into the communist system, the USSR might still be around today?

But who suffers when the capitalist system fails? Just ask the Greek people. They may have had social programs that they could not afford, but it was the capitalist system that made it possible. Now the people are paying the price, not the big banks. They all have a sugar daddy.

[Name removed]

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[kentuck]

3. And your point is?

That you would have none of this if we do not bail out the big banks and capitalistic ventures?? And the crooked, terrible decisions by these robber barons?

[zeemike]

4. you learn to love it when you become one with the Borg.

They will fill all your needs and most of your wants if you play along.
And we will never notice the cost because it will fall on our children, and future generations.

[fasttense]

10. This morning my alarm clock didn't go off.

because it was made by Chinese workers paid 5 cents an hour using poor quality parts and no standards, then sold for pennies to Wal-Mart, where I bought it for $20. Luckily, I have an internal alarm clock and I woke up at 4 am anyway. It was powered by the TVA, an electric company built by the government during the 1st RepubliCON Great Depression and sold for pennies on the dollar, at a loss to the government, to a corporation. The corporation has failed to keep up maintenance on the plant and existing distribution system so that the electricity goes out whenever there is snow, rain, or high winds.

Then I took a shower with the water barely trickling out of the shower head because the water company bought up the local government built water distribution system and yet again a water main had busted (because they failed to put any money into maintenance).

The house I live in built by Centex Homes, sold to me by a Century 21 real estate agent, and mortgaged by Citibank. Will soon be owned again by Citibank because it's value has dropped over 30%. I owe more than it is worth. I'm mailing off the keys to the bank in two months and will be renting my neighbor's first story apartment for a third of my current mortgage payments.

After that, I turned on my Panasonic television but the electricity went out two weeks ago and crashed the cheap Panasonic, it hasn't worked since. I purchased it for $500 with a Washington Mutual credit card but they suddenly jacked up my rates and now what had been a $40 charge has grown to a $150 charge and I canceled the card. I wanted to listen to a local NBC Corporation affiliate to hear their team of hired meteorologists read from the NOAA weather forecast but I looked out the window instead.

While watching the birds freeze from the sudden frost in May, I ate my breakfast of eggs and bacon, both produced by a local farm and sold to me a the local Farmer's Market. The local grocery store had to recall all it's bacon and eggs last week because of salmonella poisoning. I took my prescribed medication and immediately got sick to my stomach. The doctor claimed it would help my ulcer but it only seems to make it worse. I wonder if Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Astra-Zeneca, and Novartis bribed him to get him to prescribe a drug not designed or tested for ulcers.

When my Motorola-manufactured Cable Set Top Box suddenly and for no apparent reason, stopped working, I knew it was time to go. I got into my Toyota vehicle and set out to throw boxes at the Wal-Mart Distribution Center because my previous employer, a graphic design corporation had moved their offices to China. I was going to stop to purchase some gasoline refined by BP, which had destroyed all the beaches affected by the jet stream, but the accelerator got stuck and I drove right by the station. On the way to my workplace, I crossed the picket line of striking workers to drop off a package at the local UPS store for delivery, and drooped my children off at the local elementary school. The school is hard to find because it looks almost like an abandoned building, ever since the Charter School corporation took it over. There are rumors that the corporation is skimming off funding and not maintaining the buildings.

Then, after spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to a recent lawsuit by former Wal-Mart workers that forced management to follow safety standards, I drove back to my house which had burned down because I forgot to unplug the coffee pot and it started a fire. I was able to rest easy knowing that I had an Allstate insurance policy which I thought would cover fires. But they had declared bankruptcy last week and the likelihood of them ever paying my claim were nil to none. The agent on the phone said they wouldn't have paid anyway because he claimed coffee pot fires were not covered by the insurance. He even quoted a recent Supreme Court ruling claiming coffee pot fires were exempt from general fire protection clauses.

I moved in early with my neighbor and then tried to log onto the internet, but Comcast cable wasn't working, rain don't you know, how rain affects underground cables I haven't figured out yet but that's what my neighbor said the woman on the phone told him when he called to complain. After 2 hours, I was able to log on to DU and found some freeper, probably paid by a corporate front group, posting, "Corporations are wonderful, corporations are good, corporations are people too."

[Warpy]

2. "Social programs they couldn't afford?"

They could have well afforded them all had they required an honest accounting of wealth held by their own plutocracy plus that plutocracy's contribution in the form of taxes.

Greece is in trouble for the same reason the US is, they tried to give their plutocracy a free ride while borrowing the shortfall.

It didn't help that they were sold a bunch of bad "investments" by hedge funds and brokerages.

[NNN0LHI]

5. European Union countries are comparable to our states

The Federal Government here keeps our states from going bankrupt all the time.

Its about the same thing.

Don

[Demeter]

6. Capitalism Died a Long Time Ago

the Dot Com frenzy was its last hurrah. It's all looting and fraud, all the time now.

[Turbineguy]

7. Let's see....

Lend money to one country. It flows up the pyramid to the rich. Country cannot pay debts. Lend country more money to pay off rich guys. Take money out of pockets of middle class of other countries to accomplish this.

This is why the rich like us to elect idiots for politicians.

[kentuck]

8. Yep.

Robin Hood in reverse.

[ixion]

9. Capitalism was long ago replaced with cronyism

I don't believe we've lived in a capitalist system since the 1800's.

[blindpig]

11. The sort of capitalism you refer to is a stage in the development

of capitalism. It was a time when there was much "small capital" which balanced the "bigger" capital" of the day. But capital begets more capital or it ain't capital so it was impossible that should last, monopoly is the inevitable result, and the business-government nexus ain't far behind. There is no 'going home', no backing off, for capitalism, just more, more, more.

[ConcernedCanuk]

12. Communism is dead?

.
.
.

Isn't the largest country in the World communist?

like 1.3 billion people??

Did I miss something?

[Statistical]

14. Yup and has a massive and growing stock market.

To consider China a purely communistic state is silly.

State owned enterprise but the State sells shares so now many of those "State owned enterprises" are partially owned by private investor and a significant portion by foreign private investors.

PetroChina, China Mobile, China Life, PICC Casualty, China Petroleum, Baoshan Iron & Steel, China Resource Enterprises

with trillions in privately owned publicly traded shares it is silly to consider China a bastion of state ownership. :)

[blindpig]

13. In my dreams....

We really ought to help it along, before it kills us.

It's doing a damn fine job of that in the Gulf of Mexico.

[Oregone]

15. No

Capitalism cannot stand on its own merits. It will constantly implode without state intervention. This is merely a period where it is getting its hands held until it regains footing.

The world is control by capitalists. They aren't about to give up their precious system.

[moondust]

16. Late stages.

Wall Street corporate "growth capitalism" has become destructive as legitimate and safe ways to grow profits are exhausted. The deep well oil gusher in the gulf is a good example as were all the reckless loans to unqualified home buyers. And then there's the Wall Street casino. And the fact that the middle class is shrinking.

Small business capitalism not based on growth but perhaps on sustainability might survive if Wall Street capitalism doesn't destroy everything first.

:shrug: