October 1, 2021
Faux Capitalism
By Patricia M. McClane
A recent Fox News poll reported that 59% of Democrats have a favorable view of socialism compared with 49% who have a favorable view of capitalism. A few weeks ago, Nancy Pelosi, while speaking at an event in London, commented that capitalism has not served our country as well as it should.
Why all the ill will for capitalism? Conventional wisdom seems to be that the widening gap between the haves and have-nots is driving the shift away from capitalism and toward socialism. The gap is wide and getting wider, but the problem is not with capitalism itself; it is that we no longer have a capitalist economy. We have faux capitalism or a watered down version.
Capitalism is typically defined by the following characteristics.
Private ownership of the means of production
Profit motive
Minimal government intervention
Competition
Two classes (owners and worker)
Free markets where prices are set by supply and demand, rather than monopolies where prices are set by the seller
But how many of these key characteristics are alive and well within our economic system?
Private owners continue to control the means of production within our economy for the most part. There are exceptions, however, where government has an ownership or a quasi-ownership interest, including Amtrak, USPS, and Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac — hardly shining examples that you would want to imitate in the private sector.
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https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/10/faux_capitalism.html
