Gas Price Shocker in Japan

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Schmika\";p=\"113810)</div>

Actually, for most of the 20th century, the USA's been a mildly controlled capitalist society. Controlled by Government. Personally, despite all it's faults, I think it worked pretty well. The American 20th century saw the largest expansion in wealth, health, intellectual progress and social progress than had ever seen before. And now that we are heading back to the laissez faire capitalism of the 19th century, the USA will not see that kind of progress ever again. IMHO

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Schmika\";p=\"113810)</div>

Actually, there used to be a time when the people were the government and the government was the people. And if we don't have the government to help us move forward, who DO you have?

Because as you say, private industry has zero incentive to benefit the mass of people out there. They are responsible to the stockholders. So what can be done to get them to make socially responsible decisions, when those socially responsible decisions will hurt their profit margins?

And don't say the marketplace. The marketplace is not there for society. You said so yourself.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Schmika\";p=\"113810)</div>

All large entities have created large bureaucracies that muck things up. Do you really think GM is a mass of efficiency?

And as for mucking things up, how about landing on the moon? Winning WW2? The electrification of every nook and cranny of the USA? The interstate highway system. Social Security that pretty much wiped out elderly poverty, Unemployment compensation? Did you know that the USA had a major depression just about every 20 years going back to 1776? The last one was in 1933-40. Why did they stop? Modified capitalism. None of those things, and thousands others, would have happened without government intervention.

Sorry, but making the Government, in spite of it's faults as the source of everything that is mucked up is propaganda. And it's working. The USA is rapidly on it's way back to the 19th century. Great for the elite but too bad for the USA.

Just my opinion from the facts as I've seen them.

 

It's not a pure capitalist system in the US at all. Aside from the direct subsidies to energy companies, a lot of the added costs of oil usage are paid for from other sources, particularly income taxes. The war in Iraq and against terrorism in general are a direct result of the huge demand for oil in the US, for example.

I think that the energy payment models in countries such as Germany and Japan may be closer to true capitalism than in the US, which is more of a subsidized energy bonanza.

 

[font=Comic Sans MS:63923866c4]Thanks for your analysis and comment, Prius04. I concur. As long as we, the people, don't realize we are the government, we will continue to suffer at the hands of the elitist monopolists. When Grover Norquist talks about starving government to the point it can be drowned in a bathtub, he's talking about starving and drowning us.

Bureaucracy breeds inertia. As long as we, the people, don't resist that inertia, as long as we let the status quo continue, we must hold ourselves responsible. As incredible as I find it, the current administration was elected by (probably) a majority of the voters. The voters are not a majority of the people. If you didn't vote against them, you tacitly voted for them, and that applies to all sides.

The people of the US always get the government they deserve. The rest of us just suffer along with them.[/font:63923866c4]

 

Actually, it is not so good to own any car that burns gasoline and the Prius would be one of those cars.

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