Is unbridled capitalism really good for a country?

Question

'Survival of the fitist' taken to its ultimate conclusion would leave one Corporation owning and employing just about everyone on the planet. Corporations need to be held in check and broken up by law. What do others think?

Answer 1

Failing to factor people and their basic needs into the plan prevents 'pure capitalism' from being a realist form of economic management. Pretty early in the Industrial Revolution, governments realised legislation and social intervention was needed to happen as the majority of people's quality of life (the workforce) was declining rapidly along with their life expectancy.
If left to it's own regulation, capitalism can create great wealth for a few and enormous misery for the rest.

Answer 2

Of course. that is the role of govt to ensure that fair competition is maintained in an open economy. Unbridled competition is what is good for a country- it is called the Invisible Hand, that automatically regulates fair wages, better products, and consumer satisfaction without any formal laws.

Ppl say, capitalism is evil, but the decision as to what ppl want and how much is a decision of free will. Unregulated capitalism breeds great national growth in a broad sense, but unfortunately is not always fair to all people- so the govt does have to step in to ensure that basic human protections are enforced.

Answer 3

In theory, capitalism, in its purest form, is GREAT.
In theory, communism, in its purest form is GREAT.

Either one of these systems can be great for any country. However, the real world happens to get in the way.

Capitalism can only function properly when competition is present. With competition absent, natural checks and balances can be subdued which can lead to manipulated markets, unsustainable inflation, recession or even depression.

Exhibit A: Standard oil
Exhibit B: AT&T
Exhibit C: Enron
Exhibit D: Housing market boom c 2004-05

In each of these exhibits, competition was absent due to profiteering and/or neglect for the law of supply/demand. In the first two cases, the government injected a dose of communism (regulation) for the sake of the consumers. Nothing was done in the last two cases: thousands of investors lost tens of millions of dollars in the aftermath of the ENRON stock manipulation and we figure to see full effects of the inflated real estate values in the next 1-2 years.

I am not rooting for communism, far from it. Communism does not work in the real world, only in theoretical discussions. One needs just one example as proof: the collapse of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics- USSR. China does not have a true communist system, it is a semi-capitalistic system controlled by a totalitarian government.



BTW you are mixing Darwin's theory with capitalism. The former describes animal behavior while the latter is a form of maintaining economic homeostasis.

Answer 4

Not really. Most poorer countries have this type of system. It creates a huge permanent underclass that supports a privileged few. They have all the money and power while everybody else has to get by on only a few dollars a day. The poor have few or no opportunities to improve their lives. In those countries, being poor not only means a bad life but also an early death.