Free Republic

The next time you're debating the merits of capitalism vs. socialism, just ask yourself one question, "Would you rather spend a few hours at your favorite restaurant or the Bureau of Motor Vehicles?"

With authentic growth scarce, there's no other way to reap huge profits but cannibalism. When people say "capitalism has failed" or "capitalism has succeeded," we have to ask: what type of capitalism do you mean? Authentic capitalism, in which capital is placed at risk to earn a return in a competitive, transparent marketplace, or do you mean cartel-state capitalism, or crony-capitalism, or monopoly capitalism or finance capitalism, i.e. the types that dominate the global economy? As long as most startups crash and burn, and anyone with a few bucks and plenty of inner drive can start an enterprise, authentic capitalism...

Made in response to Gravity Payments fiasco. It's hard to believe someone smart enough to build a successful business would be dumb enough to throw it all away...guess Dan Price wasn't that smart to begin with.

When Dan Price, CEO of the Seattle-based credit card payment processing firm Gravity Payments, announced he was raising the company's minimum salary to $70,000 a year, he was met with overwhelming enthusiasm. But in the weeks since then, it's become clear that not everyone is equally pleased. Among the critics? Some of Price's own employees. Two of the company's "most valued" members have left the company, "spurred in part by their view that it was unfair to double the pay of some new hires while the longest-serving staff members got small or no raises." Maisey McMaster — once a big...

My guess is most of us would agree that America seems to be in decline, but not for the reasons TIME magazine does. Much of the decline is centered in the politics and policies of the governing party.But TIME is pretty sure that, given the study that they cite, the reason is … capitalism. Here’s the “it was great, but” reason: “We looked at very broad measures, and at individual measures, too,” said co-author Hershey H. Friedman, a business professor at Brooklyn College – City University of New York. The most dangerous sign they saw: rising income and wealth...

Yes, Pope Francis is encouraging civil disobedience, leading a rebellion. Listen closely, Francis knows he’s inciting political rebellion, an uprising of the masses against the world’s super-rich capitalists. And yet, right-wing conservatives remain in denial, tuning out the pope’s message, hoping he’ll just go away like the “Occupy Wall Street” movement did. Never. America’s narcissistic addiction to presidential politics is dumbing down our collective brain. Warning: Forget Bernie vs. Hillary. Forget the circus-clown-car distractions created by Trump vs. the GOP’s Fab 15. Pope Francis is the only real political leader that matters this year. Forget the rest. Here’s why: Pope...

After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, Hanoi, capital of a now-unified, Communist Vietnam, was a bombed-out disasterscape. Residents lived under an egalitarian reign of terror. The grim ideologues who ran the country forbade citizens to socialize with or even speak to the few foreign visitors. People queued up in long lines past government stores with bare shelves to exchange ration coupons for meager handfuls of rice. The only traffic on the street was the occasional bicycle. Since then, however, Hanoi has transformed itself more dramatically than almost any other city in the world. Today, the city is an explosive...

On arrival in La Paz, Pope Francis was presented by Bolivian President Evo Morales with a wooden crucifix carved in the form of a hammer and sickle, the symbol of Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Fidel. Had Pope John Paul II been handed that crucifix, he might have cracked it over Evo’s head. For John Paul II had seen up close what communism did — to his country, his church and his people in 45 years of Bolshevik rule. On his arrival in the Nicaragua of Daniel Ortega in 1983, Pope John Paul castigated a priest-collaborator who dared to serve that...

Recently we had a rendezvous with my daughter’s future roommate (plus her mother and her mother’s best friend). The roommate is moving to Los Angeles from New Jersey after graduating from college. When we met the mother and her friend, they were both prominently wearing crosses on necklaces. We felt much more comfortable about the future of our child’s new living arrangement. They were delighted to find out we were committed Jews. I spend extensive time discussing with people who adhere to different denominations of Christianity. I am still befuddled by the varieties of Protestantism and I am confident I...

Capitalism vs Socialism - Economics 101 - Reagan vs Obama

On arrival in La Paz, Pope Francis was presented by Bolivian President Evo Morales with a wooden crucifix carved in the form of a hammer and sickle, the symbol of Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Fidel. Had Pope John Paul II been handed that crucifix, he might have cracked it over Evo's head. For John Paul II had seen up close what communism did -- to his country, his church and his people in 45 years of Bolshevik rule. On his arrival in the Nicaragua of Daniel Ortega in 1983, Pope John Paul castigated a priest-collaborator who dared to serve that...

Last week the Marxist quasi-dictator of Bolivia, Evo Morales, presented Pope Francis with a gift — a carved wooden hammer-and-sickle cross on which the figure of Christ is crucified. The Vatican announced that the pope had not been informed in advance about the gift. And some commentators said that photos of the pope and Morales show that the pope was actually offended. That was a false — probably wishful — interpretation. The pope himself later announced that he was keeping the hammer-and-sickle crucifix and taking it home, saying, “I understand this work. For me it wasn’t an offense.” And “Vatican...

As Pope Francis tours the Americas, his economic message about capitalism and redistribution is coming into sharper focus. While there's a strong spiritual dimension to his message, there just isn't much in the way of factual evidence to back it up.

Pope Francis on Thursday launched a blistering attack on the “new colonialism” of austerity, describing unfettered capitalism as “the dung of the devil” and apologising for the Catholic church’s role in the conquest of indigenous populations in the Americas. He delivered a powerful mea culpa on the part of the church in the highlight of his South American pilgrimage, “humbly” begging forgiveness during an encounter in Bolivia with indigenous groups and other activists and in the presence of Bolivia’s first-ever indigenous president, Evo Morales.

Capitalism has a new competitor and its name is "shame." The left is determined to make capitalism morally reprehensible. Cloaked in provocative terms like "income inequality," wealth redistribution has become the popular economic philosophy in America today, but it doesn't hold a candle to capitalism. When your first grade teacher asked the class "what do you want to be when you get big?" I'm doubtful anyone raised their hand to say "ooh, ooh, a welfare recipient!" I'm also certain your classmates never pointed to posters of their teen idols to say "anyone but them!" In other words, socialism isn't natural;...

The Ford Foundation vows to fight inequality but will have a hard time beating Henry’s example. On June 11, the $11 billion Ford Foundation announced that it will pour its resources—about $500 million in giving a year—into fighting inequality. “We are talking about inequality in all its forms—in influence, access, agency, resources, and respect,” Darren Walker, the charity’s president, wrote in a letter. Oh, the irony. I won’t join the public intellectuals having hissy fits over how people choose to give away their money, beyond being annoyed that since the Ford Foundation is tax-exempt, we’re all subsidizing it. Here’s the...

Children are creating their own black markets to trade and sell salt due to First Lady Michelle Obama’s school lunch rules. During a hearing before the House, a school administrator told Congress of the “unintended consequences” of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. “Perhaps the most colorful example in my district is that students have been caught bringing–and even selling–salt, pepper, and sugar in school to add taste to perceived bland and tasteless cafeteria food,” said John S. Payne. “Students are avoiding cafeteria food,” Payne said. “More students bring their lunch, and a few parents even ‘check out’ their child from...

With the announcement this week by Treasury Secretary Jack Lew that there will be a woman on the $10 bill, I found myself daydreaming about all the new equality that will presumably come with such a historic and meaningful honor. Because, surely, with all the current economic problems we're attempting to solve -- a still unstable job market, widening income inequality, rising poverty -- the United States government wouldn't waste its valuable time on some kind of empty symbolic gesture. Surely, putting a woman on a U.S. banknote will be an important step forward for gender equality and advancing women's...

A Conservative Case against Capitalism and Industrialism The purpose of this paper will be a critique of capitalism and industrialization which I would call capitalism’s natural offspring. The very nature of this critique will come from a profoundly Catholic and Conservative perspective. Most people who have criticized capitalism and industrialism have often done so from a left-liberal political perspective and outlook. This can be seen from the writings of individuals such as Marx and Engel, as well as from ideas such as Socialism, Communism, and various other modern liberal ideologies. However in presenting this conservative critique of capitalism and industrialism...