IS FREE MARKET CAPITALISM DEAD?

THE WEEK (2008) 10/10

4/ Numerous sources argue about who caused the crash and what should be done. Free marketers indicate that little or nothing should be done. The other side indicates that the Free market works for only a short while. Government has always been involved with building highways and roads as well as supplying social services. As this is being written,

the next president of the USA is not known. Thus, if the country moves slightly to the Left, you would have more regulators and more safeguards in place. Both sides can argue

and argue. If we move back to something like FDR’s New Deal, the USA would become

democratic capitalism. If it should move even further, where government is the employer of the last resort, one moves to social democratic capitalism a very mild form of socialism. That means the WORKFARE STATE. Think Denmark, and other Scandanavian countries. However nearly all the major means of production are held by individuals or capitalists.

The United States is probably the most conservative country among democracies. Perhaps, Ireland or Switzerland is more conservative. That is subject to debate. Whatever fiscal and social policies that follow into the future, many in the country try to keep the

Political center together. Centrist are the glue that keep a country going. If that folds, the USA is subject to a dictatorship probably on the Right. However, history has indicated that if it is a Right wing or Left wing dictatorship, the ultimate outcome is some form of authoritarian capitalist dictatorship. If it becomes an authoritarian state, you still have the

“freedom of the coffee house.” Thus, you can complain to your friends and neighbors as well as folks at the bar that you don’t like the government.

However, if you print something or go on the internet or try to form organizations to change things, you generally go to jail or disappear.The upper middle class get special rewards of prestige and money to keep their mouths shut.

13/ As an example of that which was discussed just above, in Austria there is a new rise in power of Nazism. It attracts white folks who believe that the market is unjust. The new leader offers some simple understandable solutions that the masses can understand. Once in power, those promises may be set aside. However, followers get something in terms of money and/ or prestige. Property of the enemies is redistributed to followers to expand the movement.

19/ A new study by Dr. John Hibbing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (and one of my former students) devised a technigue that measured the autonomic system such as eye blinks and related. He found that Liberals and Conservatives differ in response to pictures

of horrible incidents. Conservatives are likely to become more aroused than Liberals and suggests why each group supports certain political policies.

19/ How not to die? Exercise and eat well. Well, you will live longer.

19/ Dreams are improved if the room is filled with a smell of roses. Those who had a rotten egg smell had bad dreams or nightmares.

19/ When one is rejected or given the cold shoulder, they are likely to feel cold and anxious and are attracted to warm drinks.

19/ Tylenol for babies is linked to asthma.