Posted by: GajabChhaBa February 20, 2011
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There are always 2 sides to a coin. For those of you who think US has fared so well under Capitalism, don't forget $50-Trillion debt US is currently buried under.
For me, capitalism will eventually lead to demise of any society. Anything that has no checks and bounds grows too much and explodes one day and capitalism is on the same track
When I think of capitalism two things should stand out
1. Competition (that should ultimately reduce prices)
2. Trasparency (you should be able to find out excatly how much something is going to cost you)
But here in the US and almost any where else, both competition and transparency are slowly disappearing.
Where is the competition? Why does Gasoline cost the same (may be a few cents up and down) in all gas stations within a city? Why are things so ridiculously expensive no matter which store you buy them in (Inflation cannot be the answer to everything). Why is healthcare so expensive here in the US (while in India and Nepal, it is dirt cheap). The answer is that the prices are set around the same mark by all the corporations and they decide to collectively keep it high. If some company wants to sell something for cheap, the big coporations just acquire these small companies and the prices never go down.
Where is the transparency? If you break your arm and call a hospital to inquire about how much it will cost you, they most probably wont tell you how much it will cost you. They don't have fixed prirce or even a ballpark figure for anything. Heck if your insurance covers $1000 of the procedure, and the actual cost for the doctors to fix you up is only $700, the doctors will tell you not to worry about the cost since your insurance will cover all of it and they will charge the insurance company the whole $1000 for a $750 procedure.
Like most of you have said Capitalism widens the gap between rich and poor. I agree with that. But then Socialism also does the same. Dictators have unlimited access to wealth and poor people are still poor. Capitalism makes it easy for anyone to do so.
So basically what I've seen is selfish people will use whatever system, be it Capitalism or Socialism, for their advantage. Money is everything now a days and people will go to any limits to earn it. No one gives a crap about society and the future of mankind.
For me, capitalism will eventually lead to demise of any society. Anything that has no checks and bounds grows too much and explodes one day and capitalism is on the same track
When I think of capitalism two things should stand out
1. Competition (that should ultimately reduce prices)
2. Trasparency (you should be able to find out excatly how much something is going to cost you)
But here in the US and almost any where else, both competition and transparency are slowly disappearing.
Where is the competition? Why does Gasoline cost the same (may be a few cents up and down) in all gas stations within a city? Why are things so ridiculously expensive no matter which store you buy them in (Inflation cannot be the answer to everything). Why is healthcare so expensive here in the US (while in India and Nepal, it is dirt cheap). The answer is that the prices are set around the same mark by all the corporations and they decide to collectively keep it high. If some company wants to sell something for cheap, the big coporations just acquire these small companies and the prices never go down.
Where is the transparency? If you break your arm and call a hospital to inquire about how much it will cost you, they most probably wont tell you how much it will cost you. They don't have fixed prirce or even a ballpark figure for anything. Heck if your insurance covers $1000 of the procedure, and the actual cost for the doctors to fix you up is only $700, the doctors will tell you not to worry about the cost since your insurance will cover all of it and they will charge the insurance company the whole $1000 for a $750 procedure.
Like most of you have said Capitalism widens the gap between rich and poor. I agree with that. But then Socialism also does the same. Dictators have unlimited access to wealth and poor people are still poor. Capitalism makes it easy for anyone to do so.
So basically what I've seen is selfish people will use whatever system, be it Capitalism or Socialism, for their advantage. Money is everything now a days and people will go to any limits to earn it. No one gives a crap about society and the future of mankind.