What is Capitalism?
A column by
Harley L. Sachs
We do not have pure capitalism in
this country. In reality, the United States
is a mixed economy, part free enterprise capitalism and part socialism. Those
who laud capitalism as the ideal state, like nirvana, consider:
In a pure state of capitalism there
would be no taxes and no public services. All government does is spend tax
money. If we do away with all taxes for pure capitalism, all entitlements would
be done away with. That is: no social security, no medicare, no medicaid, no
public k-12 schools, no tax supported universities. Everything would be
privatized.
As in some communities, there would be no tax
supported fire departments. Firemen would be volunteers, and the fire equipment
would be paid for by dues assessments or contributions. If you didn’t
contribute to the fire fund and your house caught fire, they would let it burn
down. It has happened.
Some Republicans would shut down he Department of Education, thereby doing away with Pell grants. With all k-12
schools privatized, every parent would have to pay the roughly $5000 a year
costs per student. If you had four kids, that would be 20k a year If you
couldn’t afford to send all your kids to school, you would have to choose which
would get an education and which would not. Since as many as 50% of kids never
graduate, that’s not such a problem. We are becoming a nation of high school
dropouts.
With no
government to spend non-existent taxes, there would be no regulatory agencies.
No minimum wage. No environmental protection. No Army, Navy, or Air Force. With
free rein, a capitalist employer need not offer any benefits at all, fire
people at will (as they do now), and with no minimum wage, pay a dollar a day. No
health insurance, no workmen’s compensation, no unemployment insurance, no
pension benefits, no paid holidays, no maternity leave. (Read WalMart) With no
child labor laws you could put eight year olds back in the mines for twelve
hour six day a week jobs at a dollar a day. Ah, those were the good old days.
They still do it in Turkey ,
hiring children in sweat shops.
What about infrastructure? Sell the
roads and bridges and privatize everything. Why not? Indiana
sold the toll road to a foreign company. Want to make some money? Buy a bridge
and charge a toll. Buy the road in front of your house and charge a toll. Only
a socialist would want free use of a road. Parasites.
As for the army, well, not having
any tax income, the country could not
afford to invade a foreign country like Iraq .
Drones and jet fighters are expensive. Who would join the military as a
volunteer for no pay?
As for police, if you need
security, hire a body guard.
Without the Affordable Care Act,
Medicare, and Medicaid we could revert to the old method: let the poor, sick
and old die. That’s what they do: they die. Ayn Rand lives.
So you don’t like taxes, like Mr.
Trump who pays as little as possible? Go for unbridled capitalism. But be
careful what you wish for.
