Nearly all of us, to a large extent, are both capitalists and socialists.
Most of us believe a market should decide how resources are invested. And most of us believe in some level of social services. We’re only arguing about where the balance of capitalism and socialism should occur.
History is full of examples where pure socialism fails. It tends to reduce an individual’s incentive to produce and reduces the economic output of that country. However, social services are required to address issues markets ignore, like military, police, roads, air quality, climate change, radio air space and many others.
History is also full of examples where pure capitalism fails. It tends to create an unsustainable spread between the haves and have-nots. (Prior to the creation of the Federal Reserve Board, the U.S. had depressions and dramatic recessions roughly every 20 years.) However, it does provide an individual’s incentive to succeed, and in the short term, increases a country’s overall economic output.
We all need to chill out and stop arguing the extremes. It is destroying our country. Neither extreme is sustainable.
We need to respect each other’s perspectives and find a balance that we can all live with; not one in which only one side wins, but one where everyone is better off.
Marc Peterson, Sandy