Do You Prefer Capitalism or Socialism?

I'm just STATLED that so few know what capitalism is!!!

Public streets and roads are NOT created through CAPITALISM.

 

The companies that work on building roads are not the ones deciding where the road goes, what the design criteria are, what property gets condemned, etc.

They are ONLY contracting for work, for the provision of materials, or whatever. THAT is a capitalist proposition.

But, the provision of roads comes from government and that taxes we pay. Roads are a socialized solution.

Another way to note this is that capitalism depends on competition. There is competition in what company drives the tractors.

There is NO competition in where the road goes, what the design criteria are, etc.

 

In the case of the home building in a city in CA project I had a role in, Lot sizes were decided by the City as a minimum lot size and a firm called Fremont Engineers laid out the lots and roads. The city role was to pick the St. names to be used as well as inspect the project until concluded. The contractor paid the bills.
I am not clear about your motive. My motive is to clear this up. The Firm was hired by the Contractor and they are still in business.
This man was the builder.

 

That all depends on the nature of the roads and when using road history, checking first the history of the particular roads.
Take the fabled Lincoln Highway that spans America, it started out as a private road.

 

Almost no roads get built in that manner. And, that does not counter the fundamental issue I pointed out with roads.

My motive is simple.

I used roads as one of a good number of cases where the USA uses socialized solutions because capitalism does not have and answer.

When applicable, capitalism is great and must be preferred.

But, the notion that socialized solutions do not have a serious part to play in our country and other countries around the world is just plain false.

 

How it started out is totally irrelevant.

 

Clearly that is a message to simply ignore what you don't happen to like.

 

Clearly your motive is to promote Socialism. At least to me it looks that way.

There is a vast difference in how most roads are done vs the major interstate highway system.

Question to you. How many of the roads have you worked on where you knew how they were handled?

 

Is that right? They don’t use private businesses that put in bids?

 

False.

The road you mention is fully upgraded and maintained as a socialized solution - NOT as a private solution determined by capitalism

There are no features of that road's design and maintenance that are not determined by government.

There are no roads being designed and built as private revenue producing competitors for that road.

Do you know what capitalism means? Maybe we should start there, because I don't see you exhibiting an understanding of capitalism.

 

Now, you are just failing to read my posts. And, your second sentence is absolutely false.

I know how roads are handled. And, physically working on roads is IRRELEVANT, because it has nothing to do with whether the road is a socialized solution.

I'll try to spell out where I'm coming from:
- capitalism is best when it can be applied. (So, it is no surprise that socialized solutions frequently contract out the required work - thus companies compete for contracts for digging ditches, or whatever.)

- capitalism can not solve some of the important issues we have that do have to get solved. The most common reason is that there isn't a financial reward for the solution. There is no adequate financial reward for social services, for example. Another reason is that in many cases we can not have more than one solution - and that's a problem, since the success of capitalism includes competition as a key feature. Such cases include city streets, sewer systems, provision of utilities, etc.

- having socialized solutions DOES NOT MEAN we are a socialist country. We are a capitalist country. And, our form of government is NOT SOCIALISM.

 

Socialized solutions frequently contract out work. That doesn't mean that the SOLUTION isn't a socialized solution.

It only means that some of the work is done by companies that compete for contracts to do portions of the work.

If my city contracts out the work of administering the distribution of aid to poor people, that doesn't mean that aid to poor people just became a capitalist enterprise!!

 

Another example is FEMA.

FEMA contracts work to capitalist companies that compete for those contracts. They compete for security work, for the creation and distribution of temporary housing, etc., etc.

That doesn't mean that FEMA is capitalism. It is not. It is a socialized solution.

 

Capitalism is very popular in all the other modern developed countries, the foreign speakers believe they are socialists, the English speakers are afraid of being communist lol. I have no idea where you are coming from. You're the board communist?

 

What problems? We already have far more than we could ever need, by world standards.

 

Where does the money come from to pay for them?

 

Who is FUNDING all this?

Of course it's capitalism. It has nothing to do with socialism at all.

 

Good god - I gave you a list.

Do you read my posts before you respond? Have you looked up what capitalism is and what socialism is?

I agree we have a high standard of living, but that is absolutely irrelevant to the question of whether we depend on socialized solutions to many of the problems we want solved.

Do you want a VA? That's socialized. Do you want FEMA? That's socialized. Do you want national defense? That's socialized. Do you want city people to have clean water piped to their homes? That's socialized. Etc., etc., etc.

 

Socialism is democratic, communism is a dictatorship. English speaking conservatives are really something.

 

He's talking about what I would suggest is a change that allows the population to share in the natural resource wealth of the country. Today, we have corporations owning that wealth, and we have to pay those corporations for access. The system is called geoism.

Our private enterprise would remain capitalist.

This is not a question of capitalism v socialism.

 

And ALL paid for by capitalism. How we spend the profits of capitalism, does not change the fact that it's capitalism.

 

That has absolutely NOTHING to do with whether FEMA is capitalist.

FEMA is NOT capitalist.

You still don't have a CLUE what capitalism is!! You need to figure that out.

 

Anything funded by capitalism (via taxes etc) IS capitalism. It cannot be anything other, no matter how much you wish it weren't true.

 

Capitalism:
an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

The items on my list are NOT controlled by private owners for profit. Another point is that they do not involve competition - the driving force behind the advances of capitalism.

FEMA is NOT CAPATILIST.

Social safety net is NOT CAPITALIST.

The VA is NOT CAPITALIST.

Read the list I gave you.

Sheesh - talk to any Republican. They will explain to you why these features are socialized solutions, not capitalist.

 

That is total bull.

Please stop posting until you have figure out what capitalism is.

It won't take long - at its root, it is a simple concept.