The United States is not capitalistic. It is in fact partially socialistic and partly capitalistic. Public roads, public services, public buildings, public schools, libraries, veterans’ services, Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, workers compensation, police protection, fire protection, etc are all examples of socialism within the United States. However, there has been a movement in the United States over the last forty years which is trying to transform the economy from a hybrid socialistic-capitalistic one into a purely and totally capitalistic one. Most people in the United States have been led to believe that capitalism is good and both socialism and communism are bad. The only real way of measuring or evaluating an economic system is to look at the standard of living for the majority of people living within the system. Are public roads, public services, public buildings and public schools bad? The vast majority of Americans enjoy these services. Are public libraries a bad thing? Are healthcare for veterans, education and training benefits for veterans, home loan programs for veterans, and burial benefits for veterans bad things? Is social security which is government mandated old-age and disability insurance and which provides benefits to 63 million Americans a bad thing? Are Medicare, unemployment insurance or workers compensation bad things?
If the essence of a capitalist system is the private ownership and or control of the production system, then kingdoms and empires were capitalist systems since the production systems were owned and controlled by the king and his noblemen. Unfortunately, the economic life of the majority working class within kingdoms and empires was terrible. The king and his noblemen owned virtually everything including the lives of the people. The economy of the United States has always been based on capitalism. Yet, there have many periods in US history that show a complete failure of capitalism as measured by the majority working class; the age of the Robber barons and the Great Depression being the most infamous. The Great Recession of 2008 is another example. There have been 47 recessions since the founding of the United States. Recessions always have a significant impact on the working class. Recessions have been and are bad for the majority of people, but they are very good for a select minority. Many wealthy families owe their wealth to a recession.
Capitalism as an economic system in which the production system is owned and or controlled by private individuals does not necessarily bring about an economy which benefits the majority of the members of the nation. At least this is true when a relative minority of the population (perhaps one or two percent) own or control virtually the entire production system of the economy. It would be different if it was ninety-nine percent or more of the population which owned the production system. Within kingdoms and empires and throughout the history of the United States the production systems were owned and or controlled and are owned or controlled by a small and elite minority. The vast majority of the people have little to no ownership share whatsoever in the US production system and virtually no control over the US production system. While people do in fact comprise the production system and generate as output all of the goods and services that are available for consumption, the capitalists claim ownership of virtually everything. They look down on the working class and do not consider the worker as a partner or equal in the production system. As a result, the capitalists within kingdoms, empires, during the period of the Robber Barons and during the Great Depression took far more than their fair share of the profits of the production system and deprived the working class (which represented the majority of the population) of what was their fair share preventing them from being able to buy the goods and services which they needed and wanted and which was necessary to drive the economy. In order for capitalism to be effective, the private ownership of the production system needs to be as widespread as possible throughout the members of the nation. Capitalism, or private ownership of the production system, needs to be distributed throughout the entire population and not concentrated in the hands of a few.
This means that the ownership and control of the United States production system, the complex network of farms, factories, distribution centers, transportation carriers, stores, banks, hospitals, schools, etc, should not be concentrated in the hands of a small minority of individuals. No, instead the ownership of the United States production system needs to be distributed as much as possible throughout the entire population.
What is better for the economy ; one mega $400 billion corporation, with over 6100 stores or 6100 different corporations with average revenues of $66 million? ($400 billion divided by 6100)? What is better for the economy, one mega $370 billion corporation, Exxon-Mobil, with 22,000 stations or 22,000 corporations with average revenues of $17 million? What is better for the economy, one mega Bank of $140 billion, Citigroup, with over 5000 branches or 5000 independent, separate banks with an average of $28 million in annual revenue?
Giant corporations are financially more powerful than most countries. Virtually all large corporations dominate the marketplace, dominate consumers and dominate suppliers (and they also dominate the government). They have few competitors and through common goals and purpose, they form oligopolies that dictate price to both customers and suppliers and policies and laws to the government.
Things are tending towards the feudal situations of the Middle Ages and the coal mining towns in the 1800’s where the corporation owned the mines and owned and ran the entire town. The company paid the employees in company money, which could only be used in company stores. The only homes that could be bought or rented were company homes. The only bank was the company bank. The police were company police. Employees and their families were vassals to the company. The United States is actually moving in the direction of pure and total capitalism : bridges, roads, schools, and services are being privatized. A significant percentage of the efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan have been privatized. There were more mercenaries in Iraq than US military. This privatization is not only extremely expensive, but it also reduces or eliminates public control and accountability to the people. Privatization of what rightly and naturally belongs to the people results in deprivation and injustice. For certain things must be shared by all of the people and not hoarded by a few. This movement towards total and absolute capitalism is the primary cause of the current economic crisis.
The current US economy is significantly out of balance and there are six main factors which reflect this imbalance that if not rectified soon will cause the current crisis to exceed the Great Depression in length and severity.
1. Unrestrained prices; primarily but not limited to energy, health care, education, and food
2. The ever-widening economic disparity between the top one percent of the population and the lower ninety-nine percent of the population that constitutes the working class
3. The increasing instability of the working class’ ability to work and produce and the increasing rate at which workers are prevented from working at their full potential
4. The financial rape of the working class by an uncontrolled and out-of-control financial industry.
5. The continued failure of the US government to balance its