I find myself defending capitalism when speaking to a socialist and vice versa. Without going too much off tangent from the subject, I want to point out few things on the role of government.

Capitalism is good for people who have capitals, I guess socialism is good for those who don’t. But just because select few are fortunate enough to build the wealth, doesn’t the mankind have a role to support the unfortunate others? You might say that helping others should be a matter of choice not law, I can see that point but given a choice between a not-for-profit org and government, I trust the latter. Besides, government’s role is not just to help but provide stability for sustainability. I don’t believe in absolute free market, I know market adjusts itself but the cost of adjusting itself might be too huge….if we can decrease the damage why not do so?

I don’t think a government should be interfering in housing (Fannie May, Freddie Mac), neither do I think every other tax imposed are appropriate. Heck, I was surprised that I had to pay tax for my library when I didn’t even use it, but the distribution of burden does help achieve things that one person might not find important..but in larger scheme of things it might be beneficial. If absolute capitalism was allowed, we, from the third world, would never have the privilege of debating this issue here.

Government role should be reduced, but we still need it in many things.

You say take away Government, I ask what's the option? Corporate running those programs (medicaid and all)? I trust the government more.