[geoschmo]

[quote]Originally posted by tbontob:

I think this comment would be more appropriately addressed to Ruatha since he was the one who made it.

NARF! Sorry about that, to both of you.


[quote]Originally posted by tbontob:

Similarly, capitalism in the 18th century is fundamentally different from the capitalism you are proposing.

No, it's not fundamentally different. It's fundamentally the same, although their may be some differences of degrees and in execution. But the needs for those differenaces are based on a realistic understanding of the changes in world between the 18th centruy and today.

200 years ago you could get by with a mule and the sweat of your brow. You could eeke out a living of bare sustenance working your own piece of land. And if you wanted to improve your station you developed a skill and marketed it freely. Competition, supply and demand all worked on a local scale. Government wasn't needed to get involved in those things.

In our modern industrial world technological advances have improved our lives immesurably, but it has also made us dependant on those technologies. Water, electricity, phones, gasoline, these are all fundamental needs for a person to exsist in todays modern soceity. Specialization has made production more efficent, but the same time made the role of the individual producer or craftsman smaller.

In my mind this doesn't change the basic advantage of capitalism of any other sort of economic system we have devised, but it does need to evolve somewhat to remain relevant.

[quote]Originally posted by tbontob:

Seems to me that when governments pass laws which affect the market place, it changes the private decisions of investors, and interferes with free market competition.

And each law that is passed which affects the market place, takes the country one step further away from capitalism.

I think you are wrong here. Laws can be written in such a way as they encourage entrepreneurship and competition, without interfering in the natural flow of the market.

I don't see it as stepping away from capitalism. Capitalism is evolving as soceity evolves. It may not be capitalism in it's pure 18th centruy theoretical form. I have conceeded that. But that doesn't mean it's something entierly different.

Geoschmo