Suffy

Yea and changing back won't do anything to help that.

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Dakstang

No.

That is something that must be corrected though.

People shouldn't be able to mess with our currency and it would be harder to do with the Gold Standard.

The Fed just couldn't lower the rates etc...

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There'll be no sorrow there, no more burdens to bear,
No more sickness, no more pain, no more parting over there;
And forever I will be with the One who died for me,
What a day, glorious day that will be.

Assassin™

As a business administration major hoping to own my own corporation one day, I obviously would philosophically prefer a free market (well, at least capitalism) to socialism. But something I've realized, and something we all should have learned from this current economic debacle, is that no market will ever truly be "free", and that perfect competition is not only largely implausible, but it's also merely an ideal. Simply put, free markets don't work, nor are they universally desirable.

Socialism wouldn't work in the United States either. It goes against the tenants of our Republic, and in my opinion, counteracts what our founding fathers were trying to do and say in the Declaration of Independence. The repression of socialism is what causes people to hide in freights full of tuna, or try to climb over 15-foot electric fences just to get into this country.

However, it would be naive to act as if we aren't at all already a socialistic state. Things like the progressive tax serve as great evidence. Our problems arise from the fact that our incompetent politicians don't know what the hell they're doing. None of them actually have the interest of the country in mind when they propose legislation or vote on bills, or when they go on cable news and make fools of themselves. As a wise man once said, "It's all just a prick waving contest.", and it is. Everything they do and say is done solely to help their own image, or the image of their respective parties. For instance, there's been a lot of talk lately about who is and who isn't being non-partisan, and the people who say they are expect some type of gratitude.

....

Call me idealistic, but aren't they supposed to be non-partisan if and when a rescue plan for our banks, or our auto industry, or ourselves is needed? Should they not be disposed to set aside ideological affiliations and come up with solutions that work? ISN'T THAT WHAT THEY'RE THERE FOR??!?

Anyway, the answer to the socialism vs. free market society question isn't to just pick one side, it's to take the parts of them that will actually work, along with ideas from other economic theories that will actually work and combine them into one proposal and one governing approach.....that will actually work. I'm not interested in labeling things solely to associate them with other things that can be/have been demonized to turn public perception against them (like the last ditch effort many conservatives were using during the election of labeling Obama a "socialist". Looking back, that might have actually helped him.). I don't really care what discipline the solution comes from, as long as it is in fact a viable solution.

I'm not an economist, so I don't know what that solution is, but I damn sure know that "Should we do socialism or a free market?" is not the question we should be asking, as if it can only be one or the other without any alternatives.