Regulating Capitalism, For Its Own Good

PURE, FREE MARKET CAPITALISM, which Americans call "conservatism" and the rest of the world calls "neo-liberalism", simply does not work. Neither does pure, top down, state command socialism. Both systems leave the people out. Government must be involved with the economy, regulating it for its own good. Just the other day, Pfizer pharmaceutical was fixin' to pull a fast one, Uncle Sam stepped in, and the corporate giant backed off its nifty little plan to merge with a European firm, move overseas, and avoid American taxes, while continuing to rape the American people with outlandish drug prices. Same with Halliburton; possible merger squashed by big fed gov. Go feds! We must preserve competitive capitalism against its very own rapacious, ravenous self, and its tendency to keep competing until one person has all the money. Without regulation and democratic oversight, corporate capitalism degenerates into fascism, capitalism under state control, such as in NAZI Germany. A typically brilliant American conservative recently remarked that the term "democratic socialism" is contradictory, like the term "carnivorous vegetarian". Yet, consider Denmark, where everybody votes on everything, free market advocates freely speak their mind, capitalism thrives, and socialism dominates the economy, even as the Danish have the highest per capita standard of living in the world, and the highest level of contentment. Denmark is definitely socialist, and it works. Doctors, lawyers, and custodians live in the same neighborhoods, corporations do just fine in Denmark, as do small businesses. All with socialistic government regulation. Socialism works particularly well in the United States, with our public streets, highways, and sewer systems, public schools, public police and fire departments, and so forth, on, and on. No, government is not the problem, as our brilliant conservatives bleat. Misuse of government is the problem. Sometimes, misuse entails government doing nothing to regulate the economy, when it obviously should.