Cobber said:
+1.... I might not have agreed with your point of view much in this thread, but I do agree with this.
With all the screaming about socialism, it seems ironic that the most capitalistic institution in this country, the financial sector, is the biggest benefactor of government spending. We seem to have "Socialied Capitalism" - Capitalism when Wall St is making a profit, socialism when it isn't. It's crazy!
That's what I meant by derugulated capitalism when it's profitable, the socialization of private debt when it isn't.
Capitalism, per se, isn't the problem, rather the finacial market without rules is. The politicians in Washington have persued a hands-off policy in the affairs of the so-called Wall Street gurus since Reganism, and even placed chief investment financial bank officers (that is those who stood to make the most profit from a stock market without rules) as the ones in charge of regulating it. Also because those same investment banking firms and their leadership, poured huge campaign funds into the politicians' pockets vis-a-vie their corporate lobbiests.
Such a incestuous relationship between Washington's body politic and the Master's of the Universe at Wall Street, largely explains the perverse form of capitalism we have, one which is causing the financial world to tremor at the moment.
The other problem, I would say, is socio-cultural and psychological: Americans, with a desocialized (or to put it in the charged format,
privitized) society of higher education and healthcare and since the invention of private creditcard dept and since Reganism, have displayed a maniac's pention for material consumption, which, along with other depts like student loans and, naturally, having to pay a costly medical insurance, places them under extremely high risk of insolvency when such overhead costs and debt are based on phantom wealth and not actual earnings.
And that's what the essence of this form of deregulated finacial capitalism accompanied by a culture of high accumulated private depts has produced: that is the perception of a phantom wealth (because we should always consume more, want a bigger home - and that this should, of course, just always be somehow magically possible, because evidently it is the "American Way") that is in no way based upon real earnings and thus real wealth.
For the same socio-cultural reasoning the economic crisis, while certainly hitting hard at the the multi-national corporate world in Europe as well, did not strike directly at the lives of individual European consumers with such brute force. Because they simply live much more within their means, don't generally have overburdening credit depts, nor high tuition costs to pay back, nor costly medical insurance to buy, etc., and the European banks did not subscribe to that same lethal type of "creative financing" which led to the rampant accumulation of portfolios of so called "toxic bonds", that weren't worth a cent because they could never be payed back by those who were lent far too much money for that new "castle" than their real salaries should never have ever permitted them to have.
This is what is meant by "healthy downsizing" and "responsible spending." Yet since Reganism, Americans have been tought with the deregulated capitalist regime put in effect and guiding thier lives and their choices, that they should want and indeed have whatever they desire. And that is cultural, before being economic. Well it is a culture which needs to change. And it is also a fine justification to have some socialized programs integrated within the capitalist culture, as in Europe, which must be regulated to a degree by government. There must also be new rules with corporate campaign financing to break the perverse incestuous relationship between the politicians and wall street mentioned above.
However, judging by what has taken place since the last bubble burst at the stock market and Obama's constant backstepping on healthcare reform, etc., evidently the nation is simply not mature enough to change its ways. That and the fact that there are just too many conservatives in government to push the serious reforms through, just as there are far to many American citizens who have no clue that they are living completely different mode than the citizens of the rest of the world.
So I won't hold my breath.