Capitalism

I accept, and I hope we have a friendly and lively debate. To make this easy to read and know what I'm doing I'll be putting down things you say into my argument into quotes and posting my response under it. Good luck! "We use Capitalism because it functions. That, however, does not mean that it is adequate. We constantly see the rich taking advantage of the poor and every time the market isn't controlled our economy spirals up and down." Capitalism is more than just holding onto all of the capital you own and having the freedom to invest and such. Capitalism also supports the idea that actions and transactions between multiple parties do not need the use of coercion and/or violence. To control these interactions violence and coercion is inevitable. I personally believe in voluntarism and full blown capitalism which in my opinion is anarchism, but to keep this from sprouting into another debate over government, I will use my arguments based off of minarchism ideals and just small, limited government. First we must ask ourselves, how does the rich get so much money over all of us? Well, for several reasons: 1. The government grants special treatment to the rich through tax breaks, corporate welfare, subsidies, and so on. This shows that the government can inevitable favor the rich and that you cannot have control on the rich, and favor to it at the same time. The government we have now supports the ruling class and will always favor the ruling class. 2. They get into political power and become a part of our government. Another way the government favors the rich. 3. They are born into it. If they are born into it, why should I be mad at them? They didn't choose to be born into wealth. Nobody has the right to impose regulations onto them. 4. They create businesses and organizations. This is beneficial to society. It creates jobs, it creates wealth, it pulls people out of poverty, it raises our standard of living, it helps improve our economy, and so much more. As you can see, all of these points show favor towards capitalism. I think you may have a misguided view on what capitalism really is. You may have mistaken it with corporatism. "These spirals [In economic trends] result in occurrences such as the Great Depression and the 2008 Economic Crisis." I'm glad you mention the Great Depression and the 2008 crisis. Capitalism did not create these at all. Who was the evil that created this you may ask? The Federal Reserve and government control on the monetary system. The Federal Reserve creates boom and bust cycles that destabilize the economy. The Federal Reserve created an unsustainable boom in the 1920s by lowering interest rates. Economists estimated that the money supply had increased by 61.8 percent between 1921 and 1929. The inevitable stock market crash was a symptom of the inflationary boom. This is currently happening today and is what is going to crash our economy because the value of the dollar will collapse. Also, Herbert Hoover was not a capitalist president. He was a big spender on the economy. He doubled federal spending in real terms in just four years. One of Hoover"s first acts as president was to prohibit business leaders from cutting wages. He also launched huge public works projects such as the San Francisco Bay Bridge, Los Angeles Aqueduct, and Hoover Dam. Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley tariff into law in June 1930 which raised taxes on over 20,000 imported goods to record levels. He raised the top income tax rate from 25 percent to 63 percent and the lowest income tax rate from 1.1 percent to 4 percent in 1932. "Poverty in Capitalist countries is always high, and classes form. These classes have limited mobility as it is often very difficult for a lower class citizen to work their way up the career ladder." Poverty is a complex issue, many countries measure poverty differently so it is hard to argue the amount of poverty in capitalist countries compared to non-capitalist countries. It is easy though, to see the success of countries. Take a look at Switzerland. Lowest tax rate in the world, low business regulation, no central bank, and it is a very capitalist-type society (although it is not the perfect model). Switzerland is one of the most successful countries in the world. The same goes for New Zealand. New Zealand has extremely low business regulation and is known to have the lowest rate of corruption in the world. Onto the class issue, I do not see what is wrong with classes. Capitalism is not about creating classes and class warfare. Capitalism offers the opportunity for everyone to move into whatever class they work their way into. If you look on this source you can see that many Americans have been moving up into higher incomes: http://www.aei-ideas.org... "Freedom can also exist without Capitalism. Freedoms of press, speech, religion, you name it can exist without Capitalism. A society without these freedoms is called a Fascism" When there is little economic freedom there is little political freedom as well. As we can see now, controlled economies have proven to be disastrous. Freedom to do those things I support to the fullest. Capitalism can coincide with those. "Although one of the most prominent solutions, Communism does not necessarily have to be THE solution. A successful Communism would far surpass a successful Capitalism, but at the moment the idea's implementation is unrealistic." This is where we may have slight agreement, I"m not sure. First I need to know what kind of anarchism you support. There is anarchist communist (as proposed by intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky) and Marxism. Anarchist communism in my opinion is in fact a good idea with great intentions, for a world filled with saints. Marxism on the other hand is atrocious as it sees the state to be the controller over the economy and that it must impose equality on all. Nearly every example of this ideology has proven itself to be a failure. Anarchist capitalism (which you may or may not see as an oxymoron lol) is the only way to achieve a free society. All interactions can be voluntary without coercion, but it is not utopian because it does not design society like governments try to do. As we can see with controlled economies, it leaves the government richer and the people poorer. That is my beginning argument, and again I"m looking forward to a fun and friendly debate!