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In view of the worsening global economic crisis, is capitalism a failure?

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Capitalism used to have a 'trickle-down' effect on society where eventually everyone would benefit from it.

Now due to globalization these days are gone. The super-rich are getting richer and everyone else is getting poorer. We have witnessed unprecedented levels of greed, selfishness and lack of social conscience in the banking sector. There is a need for safeguards and government intervention to prevent this from happening in the future.

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Capitalism failures 2008 and global economic slowdowns have fully logical reasons. Capitalism means money/currency unit use. The currencies units is not the problem. The crisis problems comes from failure to practise good fiscal discipline. Currency usage in capitalism is not problem .

Human weakness in incorrect usage of currency is the failure.

How much was the annual Global GDP in 1900 and how much, is it today,around 60,000 to 70,000 billion USD.

How much more money is there to create, there is definitely more. The failure is the incorrect usage by humans that has lead to a failure in the systems.

Incorrect usage is the failure,this is not controllable because all of us are given freedom to use currencies to practise incorrect usage.

Freedom is failure. Abuse of it for incorrect use is there.

Certain kind of freedom is not heaven's blessings or heaven mercies. The question should be is heaven a place on earth or heaven is not a place on earth. World has miseries and happiness,this is the duality of life.

Rich times and not so rich times. We can get by,neccessity is the mother of inventions and solutions.

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There have been a lot of good posts here and not one that I would disagree with. I really can't add anything. Nicely said.

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if it wasnt for the negative aspect of the news would we even read it. The sky is falling the sky is falling, its becoming the song of all the news sites,hoping they will get the readers to argue points that dont matter. The only faliure in the world thats 100% confirmed is the news outlets. THey have failed to show even sides for the good and bad in the quest to get readers.

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Of course, everyone knows a crisis much smaller than the Great Depression spells the end of capitalism.

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Is freedom a falure?

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I don't think capitalism has failed, humans made it fail with lack of common sense, greed, lack morals etc, the same as what happened to communism.

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Capitalism never failed. Government central planning is what has failed, like it always does.

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The nature of capitalism was a movement of capital. Many people wants higher return for their savings. Higher return means higher risks too. Now a days most of the wall street kids and investment bankers are young, immature & unwise. Mostly they are just sweet talkers and do not understand the new financial products by themselves.

Bankers wants higher return on top of their salary. They do not care other people will become beggars. Short selling practice is a forcing the target stock become almost worthless. The other meaning is speculation with rumour for this company is going to broke soon. It was a cruel nature of extreme capitalism. Some will get rich with other people savings. Some will suffer.

Some investors are also so navie and dependent on this lazy and opportunistic people. Most of the profits were paper profits and evaporated when the market crunched. Many eldely lost their life time saving. Market is loosely regulated and lack the transparency.

When the things were going well, financial wizards took the credit for their wisdom & risk taking principles. When the things are out of control, they can do nothing. They just took their bonus & termination package with smiles. US congress bailout for failed institutions were walfare for rich and incompetent people.

If the small business got broke, he or she can not expect the handouts & liquidation of assets is a only answer. Why can not treat the large organization for same principle? Strong will survive. Weak will die. It is a way of real and true capitalism. Uncomfortable truth is US is no longer capitalist. It is becoming semi socialist nation.

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We're all suffering from the negative side of capitalism; the constant need for expansion and economic growth. As a result the world's resources are being consumed at an unsustainable rate. Capitalism was a failure from the onset, but we're all just treading water waiting for the come down. It will come, most probably in our lifetimes.

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Capitalism can only fail if you assume it's goal is to help all the lazy people that don't want to or can't work. That is not the goal of capitalism. The goal of capitalism is to provide a framework in which people that want to get ahead, can get ahead. As long as people are getting ahead, that is proof that capitalism will alwasy be the preferred method. Unbridled capitalism leads to the possibility of unbridled success. Rock on.

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Capitalism cannot fail as it is the best model that mimics true human nature. You get to eat what you kill. If you don't have the skills to kill, then you shouldn't eat. If you can't make money, you shouldn't spend. It isn't capitalism that is failing, it is the idea of people getting things, borrowing money for them, without any real plan for paying for them. And these people are not capitalists, nor are they operating from a capitalist model. They are operating from a "I want so give me" model. Wanna know why capitalism rocks and will NEVER FAIL? Because amid this crisis, there are people getting rich, and who are they? Why the capitalists of course.

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Unbridled capitalism is a failure just like unbrilded socialism was a failure.

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Capitalism is not perfect however it is better than Socialism. When the cold war has ended, Ronald Regan introduced the his popular "Reganomic Economic Theory". According the Reganomic, government is problem for free market & free enterprise. Market has own magic & not need to interfere. Let's the God manage the financial market & capital movements. Prosperity will fall from sky. Therefore, he started deregulations. During his term USA started becoming a debtor instead of creditor nation.Bush followed Regan legacy. He said Reganomic likes a bible and needed to be worshipped.

Sadly it was a fairy tale & not realistic. Market has dishonesty, manipulation & rumours. Sub prime morgage crisis was a result of reckless lending & some politics.

Triple A rated loans become default and may never recover.Colletral Obligaion of Debt was just a slogan on the white paper. The funadamental structure of financial system has collapsed.USA becomes a semi socialist nation & bailing out the failed banks.

Combining 70% of capitalism and 30% of socialiim is better than 100% capitalism. Canada & Australia has universal healthcare & government subsidy for medicine & housing. They are partly socialist nations.

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How is the government taking over companies, baling them out, and propping them up Capitalism? Let the companies fail, free market wins in the end.

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No, the present economic problems have not been exposed at this point in time. The scale is much larger than presently known, and Pres. elect Obama has even stated so to the media. The problem has been explored by recent books by Prof. Chalmers Johnson and has more to do w/ the funding of a massive military/industrial complex. My posts on this topic is very sensitive to US Agency personnel, so I am receiving confirmations on my posts. This is not about Capitalism, but was exhibited by the former Soviet Union in the late 1980's - geopolitical extension.

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williamsmith -

how could a "socialist nationalism" government end up being a bad thing?

Thanks, that made my day. Sarcasm at its finest. Thinking back half a century to a time and a certain European country with those very words in their party name and platform.

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No.

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Capitalism on a bad day beats socialism on its best day.

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Worsening global economic crisis. Capitalism.

Where exactly are you trying to put greed and selfishness?

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Yes, obviously we are experiencing the failure of capitalism. What we need is for every nation to handle its own nationalist interests in a socialist manner. A "socialist nationalism" for loss of a better term. Yes, it will require a strong leader. But how could a "socialist nationalism" government end up being a bad thing?

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What we are experiencing isn't the failure of capitalism, but the results of political manipulation of the marketplace. There has been no "deregulation". The problems we are facing now are the result of one thing, the American Federal Reserve system keeping interest rates too low. Had the market decided the rates by the usual principle of supply and demand, rather than a government agency (we all know how well governments handle money), we wouldn't be affected by these occasional "bubble" markets. Low interest rates caused the housing boom, which caused ridiculous speculation in real estate. Double digit increases in real estate decreased the risk of writing loans to people with poor credit (if the borrower defaulted, the lender would merely resell the property for an even higher price). This economic house of cards was doomed to fall, made all the weaker by high energy prices and inflation.

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Political Capatilism has failed, while free-market capitalism gets blamed. It's the oldest political economic/social planning trick in the book: cause the problem with well-intentioned law, blame the problem on someone else, and then propose you have the solution to the problem you created in the first place by not having the foresight to understand the implications of your 'benevolent, enlightened' plan.

Please learn the difference between Political Entrepreneurs and Free-Market Entrepreneurs, before you blame the "free market" ;-)

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It is very important to make a distinction between "Capitalism" and "Greed."

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The deregulated form of 'new capitalism' that has been allowed in recent years has been a failure. There has also been a health risk to 'new capitalism.' Farmers and factories have been allowed to produce contaminated, poisoned products with lower, regualted safety measures, all in the name of competition and price competitiveness.

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Capitalism is a failure but I can't think of any system that would be better. Perhaps a benign dictatorship, if such a thing were possible. What worries me is that the reports each day of thousands of people around the world losing their jobs show that too many people are falling through the cracks of the capitalist system.

Yet, the other day, I walked through the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Tokyo in the afternoon and the cafe was full of wealthy older women enjoying 5,000-yen afternoon tea. There seems to be a wealthy class who are immune to the recession and the gap between them and the masses is growing.

I reckon this ongoing crisis may lead to violent revolutions in some countries. We are already seeing it in Europe. When thousands lose their jobs and their pride, it doesn't take much for someone to whip them up into hysteria and take what they want.

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Hear me now, M51T is well right. Risk management failed due to those being in a position of risk managing not knowing enough to do their jobs, or being manipulated by greedy management.

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No capitalism hasn't failed. The system has corrected itself. Risk management processes have failed.

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Just as I wouldn't blame religion but religious followers for twisting the underlying messages to better suit their needs. I wouldn't blame capitalism but the capitalist for twisting the underlying concepts of capitalism to better suit their needs. Both Capitalism and Communism are good systems but fail to account for the ugly side of human nature. In truth I would blame the baby boomers for the global economic crisis. They destroyed concepts like loyalty and commitment(Downsizing, 50%+ divorce rate, outsourcing),they have a complete inability to manage anything finicial(ridiculous levels of indebtness, corporations failing, broken banking system), they created toxic politics(Partisan) where good ideas are ignored because they are too left or too right and a complete lack of responsibility coupled with an overly inflated sense of self worth(Nimbyism).

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What a question. Yes it is a failure. The entire world should be run by a single government, a divine monarchy with me at the head of it.

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