The Wealth of This Nation (Diane Alden on NewsMax)

In its best form, capitalism is a system which is not biased towards any group of people or special interest. At its best it emphasizes and supports a level playing field on which as many individuals and economic entities as possible will progress.

When capitalism is working correctly no particular economic interest has a comparative disadvantage. Capitalism doesn’t ask for favors from government nor does it expect government to pay its bills or change the playing field in its favor. In the past, and of necessity, it must struggle to maintain a kind of balance in the economic realm and that has to do with the actions of a free market. When it works well it frees and supports the political and social realm so that a range of good can be accomplished for the greatest number of people.

The fact is in the United States today, at least on the transnational or multinational economic (globalist) level, we do not have capitalism. What we do have is corporatism.

Global corporatism has nothing to do with the free market. It is instead about the concentration of economic ownership in fewer and fewer hands. It is about having the taxpayer pay for its mistakes and covering its investment losses through bailouts and government intervention in the market place. It is about the central management of a single global economy by the World Trade Organization or speculation and bogus monetary policy through the IMF, or the machinations of a bunch of bureaucrats in Brussels or Davos. It is about derivatives and junk bonds and paper chasing. It is about a number of large American corporations opting out of their responsibility to the nation-state known as the United States of America.

The problem for the United States at this moment is that an economic and political imbalance favors large transnational corporations. Those multinational or global entities owe no allegiance to the United States, to communities or to U.S. workers or even to the very idea of the nation-state.

We will grow again if we can convince the politicians that government does not create wealth, that government must get off the backs of small to medium business by reducing the regulatory nightmare and the tax burden. If we can do that there will be no stopping us...

RIGHT ON! Small and medium business is the life blood of this great nation!

Really good article, thanks for posting.
A couple points from the article:
Our current "corporatism" is not the same as capitalism. Its the centralization of power in the hands of the few. Right now WalMart is the largest employer in 21 states and controls a lot of retail economy. Think they won't turn a blind eye to communist activity in China?
There's been a change to "Look at what we can sell to the Chinese" to "What can they make for us"? Selling too them == jobs. Buying from them == more 'stuff' but the power is centralized.
With large companies moving production over to China, they become less American companies, and more "companies of the world." Why look to improve thing in Toledo, Ohio when your main area money making is in China? She quotes Adam Smith on speaking on Mercantilism:
private persons frequently find it more for their advantage to employ their capitals in the most distant carrying trades of Asia and America, than in the improvement and cultivation of the most fertile fields in their own neighborhood.

What I gleaned from the article was that concentration of power in the hands of the few is never a good thing. Right now a few companies (WalMart, Microsoft, etc) are running the show and using the cheap labor force in China. The politicians don't want to stop it as they're either in the pocket of these companies, or they just want to see a $500 tv from China vs a $3000 one here. Does China have any reason to improve its living standards to the USes? Why would they, then they loose the main reason all the manufacturing jobs are going there.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.