We the simple people, when we want to understand a word we reach
for the dictionary. Capitalism is the
word for our day. The most important
issue before the voter in 2016 is to what extent our economy will continue to
be defined by this word. The current
world chaos is the deserved hot button issue, however, our economic plans,
which are theoretically totally within our control, will have the longest
consequence upon the children of the American voter.
Webster’s Dictionary says that capitalism is “the economic
system in which all or most of the means of production and distribution, as
land, factories, railroads, etc., are privately owned and operated for profit,
originally under fully competitive conditions: it has been generally
characterized by a tendency toward concentration of wealth, and in its later
phase, by the growth of the great corporations, increasing governmental
controls, etc.” America has arrived at the
later phase of capitalism with the rise of large corporations and repressive
governmental controls.
Capitalism in its purist form mandates a citizen owned
economy as opposed to a government owned economy which is called by some
Socialism. Until our time, America has
not swung far from the capitalistic ideals that brought us the greatest economy
in the world. Over the last century our
politicians have dabbled in government owned business and price supports which
amount to almost the same thing; i.e. the Post Office, the railroads, Veterans
Healthcare and farmland, grain and milk price supports. Our changing economy can be documented in any
high school American history book because we choose our economy by whom we
choose to lead us on election day. This
is where we are in 2016, the choice, probably the last choice, is upon us.
As our country grew due to capitalistic competition, the
wealthy few considered labor as just another cost of production. The demand for cheap labor is built into our
capitalistic system and it was not until the rise of the union movement that American
labor gained the respect that built the middle class. The last fifty years our country has
increasingly embraced the large corporations with a corresponding withering
away of these labor unions. Anti-Trust
action by the government to break up large entities are no more. Gone is any concern for the interests of the
working poor and the middle class. Our wages
have stagnated over the last forty years while the cost of living and the
multi-layered tax system continues to expand.
Today, these moneyed interests own our politicians.
What do the large corporations, Wall Street and the big
banks with their too “big to fail” status require of their politicians? That’s right, they require cheap labor and
cheap money. Cheap labor means a no
tariffs on imports, a free trade policy.
It means that borders are pointless.
It means that our children will either be bottle washers or college
graduates without a future or worse yet, on public assistance. It means that our politicians are hired to
quiet the anger of the folk and ignore their true interests. It means that needed conservative economic principals
will not address the inequity. It means
that smaller government will not bring to us more good paying jobs. It means that tax cuts for capital gains will
only feed the dictatorship.
Wake up America, if you don’t like the system, say so and
vote. Are we going to demand a fair
trade policy and closed borders? Are we
going to be given that choice? You
judge, above all else, above social, political or religious niceties, who in
2016 has any chance of bucking the system?
G. Goslaw,
Landers, CA
