Wall Street Reform Passes

[TheGreatOne]

I think this country seriously needs to re-evaluate free market and modern capitalism.  Capitalism depends on everyone making a profit or breaking even in order to survive.  This means that earnings must be less than the services and products sold.  How is it possible to sell all goods and services in a profit-oriented system, where everyone else is also trying to make a profit?  This will lead to overproduction no matter how efficient we make our economic system, which means the majority of people will not be able to sell their goods at a profitable rate.  Ultimately, there will be an elite class of people, who have all the money and power, and the majority of the middle class will fall into the lower class (slaves, serfs). 

Since Capitalism is so unsustainable why do we still practice it?  Capitalism has only been around since the 1700s, and it has only survived because strong countries have taken advantage of weaker countries or people through military dominance.  During the 1700s we had slaves that could do all of our work for us, and we were able to dump our goods in third world countries that did not have the technological means to produce goods or exploit their resources.  We also had a lot less people living in capitalist countries.  During the 1800s, European and American workers were treated very poorly, and the end of slavery created a larger class of pissed off workers.  At the latter half of the 1800s and the early 1900s, we started seeing our first major backlashes against capitalism.  There were just too many workers that were being treated poorly that the social elite could not quell the people any longer. Unions were formed and government regulations were introduced.  The depression of the 1930s paved the way for a new type of capitalist system called the Keynesian model.  However, Keynesians has only survived because the U.S. was successful in World War 2 as well as exploiting the resources of other countries over the past 70 years. 

Now the all the countries in Europe, Asia and South America are caught up to us or catching up.  The pie is getting smaller.  Not everyone can make a profit.  Either Capitalism dies or democracy dies.  I prefer the former.

[TheGreatOne]

Actually I'm no fan of democracy either, TheGreatOne, but capitalism is even worse.

But it can be fixed with use of a high level of Keynesianism.  The way to get rid of the excess production is redistribution - things like several months holiday per year and/or very short work weeks, plus a mandated comfortable dole, etc. 

Okay then who buys the excess goods?  You need a consumer.  Is the American government going to buy all the excess and bankrupt itself?  I can't see a good end to capitalism, even with keynesian economics.  It can't last forever when everyone is able to compete.