God Bless American Capitalism

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Even Karl Marx himself agreed within his Communist Manifesto that
Capitalism is the greatest mechanism for creating wealth the world will ever know

Not everybody benefits.

Yes, everybody does benefit. I grew up in rural North Carolina listening to the old folks talk about a time before paved roads, electricity, and cars. Everybody has definitely benefited.

Well, that's true about the Soviet regime and the CCP too, and we all know about the terrible things they did.

Good to know we both condem socialism.

You condemn socialism?

But you were just gracious about it in your comment above where you said about growing up hearing the old folks talk about a time before paved roads, electricity, and cars. That time continued into the first third of the 20th Century, and they would have remained that way if it wasn't for, ironically, the Great Depression.

That's when Franklin Delano Roosevelt came to the rescue. It was social welfare - what you call socialism - that wired up the South, that paved over those dirt roads, that allowed for something other than mule drawn carts for transport. Literally. Tar roads? Oh, they had tar all right, but they used it to coat people with before setting them on fire when they lynched them.

All countries maintain roads, bridges, fire departments, and other public works. All governments maintain a social safety net. That is not socialism. Socialism is rent control, regulations that make private businesses unprofitable, nationalizing businesses, and general government overreach.

As already stated, that is social welfare, not a social safety net. Perhaps you should look that term up. And that's exactly what you describe as socialism, because it is government/taxpayer funded. Perhaps you should look up what socialism actually means as well.

Maybe you are the one who should do some critical research. Look at what is going on in the UK as we speak. Socialist policies are destroying the country: mass immigration, energy policies, and restrictions on free speech.

No need to do any research on the UK, at the time I joined this site, I actually knew more people from the UK than I did from the US online. Granted that was a decade ago and that's it shifted some, but I had it first and from people that live there, as if I didn't know already what the deal is like someone who doesn't live with their eyes shut. Let's just say I'm one of the third of US citizens who can locate Canada in the map.

The economic situation in the UK has been in decline after World War II as it lost its colonial holdings which is where it money from in the first place.

What is going on right now in UK? Not 20-75 years ago.

Capitalism has made some amazing things possible, but it has deep flaws too.

Modda, No one can deny the success of American capitalism. I never said it was perfect, but it can create amazing things. In a thousand years the USSR could never have invented the computer you are using at this very moment. You know that is the truth no matter what excuses you can come up with.

The computer you said it was invented in the 1990s? Good gosh.

What strawman are you going on about now?
Try to focus on what you're attempting to respond to, or simply don't bother.

I condemn brutal autocracy. The democratic socialist countries of Western Europe, Japan (and you could argue, Canada) have some of the highest standards of living on the planet. I wish we were more democratic socialist in the US.

Eww, so gross

Do you know what's going on in Europe and Canada? Their living standards are decreasing because of socialist policies on energy and migration especially. The UK is a basket case. France, Germany, and Canada aren't far behind. Sweden and Italy are dumping socialist policies. Argentina is transitioning to capitalism because socialism failed so badly.

. . . in the 1960s?

When has American capitalism not produced brilliance? There have been a few ups and downs, but way more ups. Cell phones are ubiquitous. There is so much American tech and culture around the world that it dominates.

A time or two comes to mind.

So stop everything. We have to adopt socialism now because some people did bad things years ago. Shall we go over all the horrible shit socialists have done?