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About Free Market Capitalism
If we all believe in the power of free market capitalism, then we need to make a few changes.
First, remove retirement from employment - everyone should have their retirement funded in the same way, by a 401K type fund which travels with the employee and does not depend upon the business or government unit.
Second, remove health care from employment - everyone should have their health insurance in a large national pool without regard to their employer.
Third, we need to provide for full employment.
With these changes, people are free to move from job to job to maximize their income over their working lifetimes and we will have a way to set the pay based on the value of the service provided rather than the whim of the employer.
Capitalism: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.
The primary purpose of Capitalism is to promote the efficient production of goods and services.
The strength of Capitalism is the market which provides efficiency by allowing the consumers to select the products and services most desired.
The weakness of Capitalism is the unequal power of wealth over labor. Traditional Capitalism relies on more workers than positions to keep the cost of labor down.
There is only so much room at the top of a pyramid. The people at the bottom are at a natural disadvantage. Society must use the power of government to create jobs for all. Technology has changed conditions by eliminating labor content in the market faster than new jobs are created. Government must invest in jobs which improve the human condition but do not produce the profit which fuels businesses creating wealth.
As technology continues to reduce the labor content in the repetitive labor market, we should have more leisure time. This in turn will create a greater demand for service jobs. We just need to ensure that service jobs provide a living wage. Traditional Capitalism does not seem up to the task. We need to modify Capitalism by law to ensure both Full Employment and Living Wage policies.
We need a Just Economic System. Capitalism works great for 95% of the people. We need to envision a system that works for 100% of the people.
Capitalism is like a game of musical chairs. Where there are more people who want to work than there are job openings. Why is that the case? Over time technology has created the need for new skills which people do not have because they never existed before and people are reluctant to adapt. People resist change. Technology removes the old jobs to increase efficiency. The new jobs require a higher skill level. In addition, many things which need doing to not produce a profit. So money is not available since money likes to make profit.
Capitalism is inherently unstable. Unstable systems destroy themselves.
I am an engineer and so think like an engineer. What if all the road bridges in America were only 95% complete? That would be a very serious problem.
In Capitalism, full employment is when 95% of the people who can work have a job. That does not appear to be a problem for the 95% who are employed. So, we see statements about people need to apply themselves and they can get a job because I have one. And it is unAmerican to point out that people who want to work can not find a job.
But, being unemployed is a problem for those without a job and the rest of us as well since we are not getting the products and services we could be getting if everyone was working in a gainful job.
Technology provides a solution to this problem.