For the good of the poeple I think we need to move away from Capitalism?

Question

Now that we control Congress, how do we get our representatives to do what the people want? We need free healthcare for everyone. Free housing, shelter, and food should also be explored.No one should be allowed to make more than $80,000 a year as that is more than sufficient to live on. The gross profits that companies make should be put into funds that help out the poor. Why don't you people care about the poor?

I'm not saying to end all capitalism, just the gross injustice that is taking place under capitalism.

Answer 1

For the good of the people, capitalism is the only thing that has helped. Look at dictatorships around the world. Do the citizens eat? barely. Look at capitalist societies around the world. The poorest are fat!

Case closed.

Answer 2

Most of the "gross injustice that is taking place under capitalism " happens because capitalism extends the upper end of economic possibilities faster than it lifts the median. This is inevitable in any statistical distribution that starts from zero. Market-based systems are the reason that starvation in the world today is due to isolated distribution problems instead of being a worldwide problem for the poor as we had in the 1950's.

What capitalism will need to deal with, and soon, is too much success. We're reaching the point where all of the goods and services we want can be supplied by machines. This effect started with unskilled labor and is now reaching even into design and executive skills. Since human labor has a certain minimum cost, there will continue to be pressure to automate jobs out of existence as the machines and their intelligence get cheaper and cheaper. This already happened in agriculture, is almost complete in manufacturing, and is well under way in the service sector.
When we can provide all the goods and services we want with no human labor - how do we distribute the wealth so the economy can keep going?

Answer 3

your idea sounds just fine and dandy, but what would make people want to work if they couldnt excel past an income of 80k a year and they didnt have to work to get food, shelter, etc? The economy would fall to pieces because nobody would have any reason to go to work each morning, no reason to try and come up with better ideas or work harder than the next person. It is like the bad side of unions- people realize that no matter how much extra effort they put into their job, they will still be paid the 7 bucks and hour that the 90 year old pushing a mop at snail speed is getting paid. Without incentive, there would be no economic growth. Economic growth is what best helps the poor, because it creates new jobs and money making industries. And without growth, there would not be excess money the organizations like the Gates foundation put to good use helping those in need. So sure, it's totally happy and idealistic for everyone to get all they need for free, and its a great equalizer to put down salary caps, but its not a good idea because it will damage the economy and create even more poor people for you to worry about.

just because you dont have any motivation to work hard and earn what those with a drive to excel do, doesnt mean that you need to push for laws that would distribute other people's hard earned input back to you making it so that you dont have to lift one lazy finger.

Answer 4

I agree that certain things such as education and healthcare should be socialized so that your income doesn't determine your kids education level or how long you will live, but income caps are too extreme. Instead, you might want to focus your efforts on getting universal healthcare and education, and maybe change the tax code to make it more progressive, so that we can move from an income-based or commerce-based taxation to asset-based taxation, where you pay based on your net worth rather than how much you spend or how much you make. Also a higher estate tax for the ultra-wealthy could prevent family dynasties from controlling huge amounts of wealth for hundreds of years.

The simple answer of saying "look at cuba or venezuela" has an easy rebuttal, because you could also say "look at Mexico", a place with low taxes, some of hte wealthiest people on earth, a huge rich/poor divide. They are a very capitalistic society. Some could say we are headed that way, each year in the US, your income level is more determined by your parents income level than any other factor, and the divide between rich and poor gets larger every year. Most of the people in top univerities have parents who are in the top 5% of income earners. This is a trend we need to reverse, in order to preserve the benefits of capitalism, which gains it's efficiencies and benefits from fair competition. You don't have fair competition when the biggest factor in your financial success is your parent's wealth.

Answer 5

Look at what is happening in Venezuela or what happened in Cuba when people thought as you do. Only a few powerful people benefit- Castro and his buddies or Chavez and his friends- everyone else suffers- they suffer equally, but is that really what you want?

No other system yet invented works as well as capitalism, because it matches with inherently competitive human nature.

The trick to having a "fair" capitalistic society is a very strong educational system and an open flow of information.

The poor will always be with us. There are poor in socialist countries as well- no country has eliminated poverty.

Free capitalism creates opportunities. Many of the billionaires and millionares of today grew up poor. This never happens in Cuba or the other socialist countries- only politically connected people (with the party) rise to power and wealth.

Answer 6

Just ask some of the people who live in Socialist or Communist countries how free health care for everyone is working. There is no such thing as free healthcare. I have a lot of friends in Sweden who pay half their income for "free health care". I do not mind helping the poor but most of them could also work and help themselves. I think we live in the greatest country in the world and have traveled throughout the world. Capitalism is the only way to go.

Answer 7

I agree with you, something is going wrong with how we
are handling capitalism. The width between wealth & poverty
has never been so pronounced & if there isn't some kind
of control of what's going on, there will be unfavorable consequences.
First thing to address might be, if companies are making great
profits, it might be a good idea to pass on the rewards to the
employees, instead of just the CEO's getting million dollar
bonuses & pensions. I mean really, at this point, you would
think McDonalds or WalMart could afford to pay more than
$7./ hr.
I find working people who still can't afford rent, a bit disturbing.
Health care - you are correct, if something isn't done there,
our hospitals might be in for fianancial ruin.

Answer 8

What you are suggesting is practically communism pure!

Basically I even agree with you! That would be a real dream of a society, however it will never be more than a dream!
It is not so that communism is not good enough for people, but that people are not good enough for communism!

It is the plain desire of getting more than what other people have, what makes mankind moving forward. You take that desire away from them and the human evolution will simply stagnate!

Allready in the very first christian community communism did not work, because already then their were some who wanted to have more than the others and communism never will work!

Answer 9

Problem is Communism and Socialism , just doesn't work with mass amounts of people. But that doesn't mean Capitalism and eventually Fascist Dictatorship is the only way to go

Answer 10

I think you have a valid opinion, but if everyone where at the same economic status the economy would never progress. It is sad, but poor people have their purpose in society, by balancing out the economic scale.


Holla Back,
Candi Lovejoy