[Lancaster Online]

[crickson]

"proven to be socialist"
Where do you live?
Let's hear the proof.

socialism |ˈsō sh əˌlizəm|
noun
a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.
• policy or practice based on this theory.
• (in Marxist theory) a transitional social state between the overthrow of capitalism and the realization of communism.
The term “socialism” has been used to describe positions as far apart as anarchism, Soviet state communism, and social democracy; however, it necessarily implies an opposition to the untrammeled workings of the economic market.The socialist parties that have arisen in most European countries from the late 19th century have generally tended toward social democracy.

[CUBSFAN3150]

HIS POINT EXACTLY!

[Harl Delos]

a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

And what do you think we've had for most of this century?

Big business, for the most part, is not private enterprise. Those are publicly-held corporations. The majority of their ownership is held by mutual funds and retirement plans.

What's the difference between an organization operated by people who own virtually none of it, and an organization operated by people who own virtually none of it? A difference that doesn't make a difference isn't a difference.

Charlie Ergen owns a big chunk of DISH network. The Ford family owns a big chunk of Ford. Cargill is privately held.

But Jim Walton only owns 10,486,911 shares of WalMart - about 1/5 of 1% of the company. Dodge & Cox is the smallest of the top ten institutional investors, and they own 25,894,452 shares. There are another 8 mutual funds that own more of WalMart than Jim Walton. And Jim Walton is just a director of WalMart - he doesn't have a management role.

Capitalism is based on the concept that the means of production are controlled by private individuals or corporations who use them to create wealth for themselves. But that's not what's happening. Big corporations are controlled by individuals who have no significant ownership of the company they are controlling.

Wall Street isn't about private enterprise. It's about public enterprise.

I'm all for private enterprise. If someone out there is taking risks in order to increase his own wealth, fantastic. But the system we have says if managers take risks and win, they profit big, but if they take risks and lose, they simply walk away unscathed, and take another go at risking other peoples' money.

And that's the flaw in most pseudo-conservative thinking. We haven't had a significant amount of free enterprise in this country since the 19th century. The stock market - the entire concept of publicly-held corporations - is a form of socialism.