Would this country be better off with a true capitalist system ?

Question

That means complete free market without government regulation over commerce. and absolutely no social programs provided by the government .

Answer 1

A "true capitalist system" is hard to define, but as you put it; no. The biggest reason for this is because of the ability of monopolies to form in nearly every sector of the economy--anti-trust regulation has kept competition healthy and steady for many years, and the introduction of antitrust legislation and enforcement was met with an increase in the economic efficacy of the lower classes. Other regulations that protect the "average consumer" would include laws against unethical business practices (insider trading, etc.). These would also include human rights law that are generally accepted as the international norm, like child labor laws.

In addition to that, social programs generally increase the quality of life. You'll notice that there are absolutely no countries that have no social programs and those with additional social programs often sport a higher quality of life. Social Programs include education as well, and without public education (despite the dismal state that some consider it to be) the wide gap between the rich and the poor would be even wider. Consider the fact that providing a worthwhile education costs a significant amount of money (some estimates range upwards of $100,000 to the age of 18). Without this social good provided by the government, millions of families and children would be out of the school system and without an education that would allow them to lead successful lives in the business community or in any community. This is emprically true: states that enacted public education and mandatory attendance experienced parallel raises in their standard of living.

In addition, there are social programs that are designed to promote competition, such as GSE (Government-Sponsored Enterprise), where the government can offer some resources and in some cases, funding, to allow a business to start and become competitive within the local communities in which they operate. These have had a net gain in social productivity and quality of life. Without such programs, we would have a significantly lower standard of living.

Answer 2

a true capitalist system is not a free market one. In a free market profits are equal to 0 as you may remember. A capitalist system is a system where capitalists (owners of the mean of production) rule. If they rule, then they want to make big profits, so they engineer all kind of monopolies. That is what true capitalism is.
What you ask is a return to the mercantile world prior to the industrial revolution, individual consumers meeting individual producers.
This is higly unlikely. And in the mean time, given the tendency of capitalists to create all kind of monopolies, government intervention is often a good tool to improve the economy. Yet it also often fails and much can be done to improve the efficiency of government regulation.

Answer 3

An unbelievable YES.
And there would not be more poverty. That is ridiculous. Liberty does NOT create poverty. There would be less poverty.
There would be more innovation.
There would be more inventions.
There would be more pharmaceutical products.
There would be higher standards of living.
Citizens would value personal and parental responsibility because they would have to - or suffer the consequences.
Education would be more highly valued - or they would suffer the consequences.


“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”
-Thomas Jefferson


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Answer 4

I don't think the country would be better. There would be a lot more poverty. If people don't have money to buy things it would hurt the economy.