Post by islanderPost by El CastorCapitalism succeeds because it must -- failure is
terminal.
This thread was getting pretty long, so I'm responding only to your
fundamental claim for capitalism. I see that as a flawed argument.
There are many ways that capitalism fails.
1. Monopoly occurs when only one or a few companies remain in a market
and prices are not limited by competition. I worked with venture
capitalists when at Stanford and the first question always asked of
entrepreneurs was, "How do you prevent competition for your product or
service?"
Monopoly is an obvious flaw of capitalism, thus enact and enforce anti
monopoly laws.
Post by islander2. Capitalism favors mergers and acquisitions to form companies that are
increasingly large and more difficult to manage. This is a primary
reason that it is difficult for innovation to prosper in large companies.
As I explained about the bank I worked for, capitalism recognizes this
tendency. A well run company will prune off failing portions of it's
enterprise. Had I not retired, in a few years I would have been
looking for a job as our server rooms moved to the cloud and tech
support was outsourced. Corporations are forced to prune and improve.
Look at the Post Office, losing billions as the tax payers are forced
to subsidize the delivery of tons of junk mail.
Post by islander3. A narrow focus on profitability tends to not address social
responsibility to the community. Witness the current increase in
interest in stakeholders rather than shareholders in the corporate world.
True, but social responsibility is, and should be, the responsibility
of the legislature, and the laws it enacts. Thus minimum wage laws,
product safety, workmen's compensation, safe workplace and working
condition laws, employee benefits, etc, etc, as well as unions, and
product lawsuit lawyers. Laws and lawyers aside, corporations are
incentivised to treat employees well by the fact that a dissatisfied
employee can find work elsewhere.
Post by islander4. Free market corrections often do not happen before serious damage is
done to the market. Witness the damage done to the economy by the large
banks in 2008/9. There are also classic cases where attempts to
dominate a market with an intellectual property claim are so strong as
to prevent development of a competing product.
That 2008/9 damage was largely done by well meaning laws that
encouraged, even required, unwise banking activity. As for
intellectual property claims, once again the responsibility of the
legislature.
Post by islander5. Capitalism does not work well in providing essential services. The
classic examples are police and fire protection. I happen to believe
that health insurance is in the same category.
I agree -- there are obviously some services that have always been
best performed by government.
But back to socialism -- what you have failed to do is admit and
examine the failures and weaknesses of socialism. If capitalism is to
be replaced it will have to be with a working model of socialism. What
the proponents of socialism (like yourself) fail to do is admit the
weaknesses of socialism. The fundamental flaws of socialism can never
be corrected if you refuse to admit that they exist. You are like a
doctor with a dying patient who refuses to admit what is killing his
patient. What were the flaws of socialism in Cuba, the USSR, Cambodia,
Eastern Europe, Venezuela, and even Sweden, the country you admire
most, that now has a lower corporate tax rate than the United States.
