Spirit Calling ~ Bill Ardis
American Free-Market Capitalism Is Broken
posted Friday, 10 October 2008
I've been expecting it for 30 years, writing about it here, giving speeches about it to my local Toastmasters club. We are in the midst of the meltdown of the American free-market economic model, whose core philosophy is unrestrained wealth accumulation -- wealth which does trickle down to some degree, until, inevitably, a bubbles bursts, the market caves in...over and over and over.
Writing for The Washington Post today, Anthony Faiola's "The End Of American Capitalism" supports my thesis.
What is needed is an economic model to replace free-market capitalism. The new model must have imposed ceilings on 'capital formation', the accumulation of excessive wealth. How many homes can a person have? How much capital? How much real estate should a person have? And a family, what should be the limits on the Trumps, the Rockefellers? What constitutes a family?
Limits are needed. Greed, it turns out, is not good.
Nor is socialism.
What is needed is a thoughtful, measured mix of the two philosophies that is inclusive of our population. No child -- or adult -- left behind. Everyone who is able to, contributes in some way. Period. All of the others are taken care of, physically and psychologically. We need all the able bodies and able minds to row the big boat together, regardless of their age, race, gender, sexual orientation, educational level...everyone.
The screams of protest will be heard from the free-market advocates. Let them howl. The old American model -- unrestrained capital formation -- is shattered.
Put your thinking caps on. We need everybody to figure it out. This is what Wall Street and Washington D.C. should be doing. Right now.
The old model is not fixable. We need a new model. Call it New American Capitalism. Capitalism 2.0.
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