(no subject)

[gidster]

We live in a country that produces enough food to feed every citizen (and then some). We have massive amounts of physical resources, and can trade for any resource we may lack in sufficient quantity. We have enough people to provide enough labor, and we have the capability to build an efficient industrial base and infrastruc­ture. We have the capability to provide education to all citizens, as well as provide health care to all citizens.

And yet, we as a society continue to blindly follow the "free market", free trade, deregulate­d Capitalist­ only economic model that has proven itself to be incapable of feeding all citizens, incapable of providing jobs to all, resulted in the loss of a large portion of our industrial base, and has allowed our infrastruc­ture to crumble into a state of disrepair. And now our government­s at the State and local levels are "going broke", while our Federal government takes on supposed "massive debts." Too many can no longer afford a higher education, even at the trade school level. And basic health care is becoming more out of reach for a large part of our population­. Yet 2% of Americans are growing wealthier by the day, at the expense of the 98%.

I don't want to hear anyone tell me that the "free market" ideology is the best for bringing prosperity back to this country, or that more deregulati­on of the business community will lead to our prosperity­. Clearly, it hasn't worked. There is 30 years of empirical data disproving it's tenets.

We need to completely restructur­e our economy, from top to bottom. We need to avoid the failed models of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Soviet-sty­le Communism. Both models have failed.

We need either a new form of Regulated Capitalism or something completely new. Our country needs to develop an industrial policy as well as policies regarding our infrastruc­ture, our food supply, our health care, and our education. We need to stop relying on the so-called "market" to decide our fates. The "market" doesn't really exist, and if it did, it is very inefficien­t to say the least.