Reply #24: Progressive Dem.

[DuaneBidoux]

For making and distributing goods and services fairly adequately I feel capitalism is a good system and thus the main foundations should be left alone if people are not being hurt. But with any system comes costs and I believe that mechanisms in society must be created to deal with those costs.

Like everything in life there are those who are great at playing the game. They will achieve more and more power and wealth and there must be a way to get some of that down into the less able groups otherwise it is eventually "game over" with both economic vitality and democracy.

It must also be recognized that any great civilization has always needed public goods and services to function. We are no different.

There is also a perception that if "I don't pay for it it doesn't cost anything." If kids aren't pulled out of poverty of all society eventually pays the cost in incarceration etc. If companies are allowed to pollute how they wish there is eventually a cost in illness that society and individuals at large bare. If banks (yes even banks) are allowed to go bust then there is eventually an economic calamity that crushes society. This thinking goes on and on but the lesson is always the same: nobody is an island.

This is not to mention that there are values other than money that I believe must be supported in society: health care, art, leisure time, family time, etc. For this, capitalism is worthless and indeed counterproductive. This is where government must step in.

People here seem not to grasp this about Europe: they have consciously made a choice to have one television in the house and long vacations and health care As a society we have not consciously asked these questions. Instead the right has made Americans not question the consumer mentality that is leading to reduced quality of life generally.