Originally Posted by
Into the Night
Okay. It seems obvious to me that you don't understand what capitalism is. It is simply the creation of wealth by voluntary effort. It does not require any government to even exist for capitalism to exist. Anyone can play the game. All you need is initiative and drive. Absolutely NOTHING prevents a poor person from becoming rich except his own initiative and drive. You could even say that such almost chooses to be poor.
Money is not wealth. It is only a trade medium to conduct transactions. It's more convenient than barter.
So if money is not wealth, what is? It is the products and services that people provide to others. It is literally service to others. It is doing something or providing something to someone else that they are willing to pay for. What you provide is voluntarily paid for. If someone doesn't want to pay for your product or service, there is little point in providing it, is there? It is the public saying that your product or service has little value. It is not wanted.
In every market there is a phenomenon called price discovery. This is the rather difficult task of figuring out how much people are willing to pay for your product or service. You of course want people to pay as much as possible. People wanting your product or service want to pay as little as possible. Eventually you come together upon an agreed upon price. If that price is enough to satisfy you and your client, the transaction takes place.
The Federal Reserve is not capitalism. It is a form of socialism called fascism (government control of a market). The market in this case is the price of money. It is literally price controls on money itself...or the cost of borrowing it. As such, the Fed is constantly behind the market, and indeed mucks it up so badly that the money and loan markets are totally distorted. The result inevitably is crash after crash. It is the Fed that causes the crashes. It prints money whenever the government wants to cash a rubber check. If money is being printed faster than the wealth being created in the country, you have inflation. If it prints less, you have deflation. It always acts after the fact, so it's constantly wrong.
Socialism is not a government. Neither is capitalism. These are models of economics. While capitalism is creation of wealth, socialism is theft of wealth. It literally cannot exist without capitalism to steal from. Socialism takes two major forms: fascism, which is government control of markets, and communism, which is government ownership of markets.
Wall Street is not capitalism. It is a mixture. Much of it is pure speculation. It is gambling. Like any gambler, they often lose. The casino they use is the stock market and other financial instruments.
The United States was never a democracy. Neither was the UK. The UK has always been a monarchy or an oligarchy. The US was organized as a federated republic. That means a government by constitution. Democracies have no constitutions. There are currently no democracies anywhere in the world.
As for dictators, who are you suggesting is a dictator? The Constitution of the United States is the highest law of the land, and even the President and his office is defined and it's authority and power comes from that document. That's what constitutions do. They declare and define a government and give it specific authorities and powers. That government has NO authorities and powers beyond that. Any republic that goes beyond it's specifically designated authority and power is no longer a republic. It becomes an oligarchy or dictatorship.
Do oligarchies exist in the United States? Sure. Examples are the EPA, the Fed, the Education department, the Energy department, the Agriculture department, and many others. The Constitution of the United States never authorized the creation of these agencies nor empowered Congress nor the President to do so. Despite this, those that honor and support the Constitution of the United States exist in the federal government, even today (at least, what's left of it).
The States created the Constitution of the United States. They own it. Only they can change it. Only they can interpret it. Only they can choose to destroy it and thus dissolve the federal government that it creates and defines.
Does socialism exist in the United States? Sure. The fascism of the Fed is one example. The fascism of the EPA, the Education department, the BATF, etc. are others. Is Trump fascist? No. He is largely conservative. He supports the Constitution. He has made mistakes to be sure, but he is largely conservative. He wants to conserve and protect the republic of the United States.
Is Biden fascist? Yes. Quite definitely. He's even a communist over certain aspects. He does not recognize the Constitution of the United States nor the constitution of any State. Neither do the Democrats in general. It is Democrats that want to limit free speech, freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, the right to trial by jury, and horn in on the sovereignty of the States.
You are right about the Fed. It is insolvent. It is broke. Its balance sheet is so out of what they have to print trillions for the government just to keep the whole drunken party barge floating at all. It cannot last. People are already starting to look for another currency. No government can stop that.
Right now the United States has capitalism, fascism, and communism all existing at the same time. This is true in most any nation you want to name. To implement socialism, which is theft of wealth, oligarchies and dictatorships are necessary because people don't like their wealth stolen.
Capitalism is the only system that creates wealth. It creates it out a few raw materials, and the voluntary efforts of those providing their services and products to their fellow man. Anyone can play. Rich and poor alike. It is the best chance the poor have to lift themselves out of poverty and to make something of themselves. Rags to riches stories abound. They are the essence of capitalism.
This post is necessarily long because you raised so many points to address, and I am taking the time to present my own reasoning and arguments, not copy and pasting from others. This IS philosophy. That is what philosophy is all about.
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