"Do you still believe what the conservatives used to say about trickle-down economics too?"

More money in the hands of capitalists does not necessarily mean more wise investments, but they must have some capital.

"The American system has been highly deregulated since the Reagan years"

False. The American system has been increasingly regulated since the Reagan years. In many fields it's impossible to comply with regulations any more, and the only saving grace is that the regulations are too complex for the regulators to understand - so a certain amount of regulations are simply ignored.

"the result is an ever-widening gap between the wealthy and the poor."

True. Within the U.S., at least, the rich are getting richer and the poor have stayed about the same. Worldwide our policies have done much better, lifting billions out of the deepest poverty.

"Capitalism's less impeded expansion has resulted in increasing exploitation and imperialism across the world, and thus more wars, not to mention the massive toll taken on the environment with fracking and the relentless pursuit of polluting, non-renewable fossil fuels."

False. Poverty has decreased around the world, living standards are rising, we have fewer wars overall, the environment has become considerably better in most nations, and we are making considerable strides toward renewable energy. This is all fact, easily verifiable. Perhaps you need to find some better news sources.

"not to mention the banking crisis that the government bailed them out of!"

That was state action, not the free market. The wise thing to do would have been to let the banks fail. Unfortunately, each bail out makes the problem worse because it distorts the markets.

"Capitalism has never been designed to bring wealth to the majority"

Yet capitalism is the only thing that has ever brought wealth to the majority.

"The only reason so many of my neighbors can even afford some of the food their families require is because of social programs like food stamps, and their situation certainly does not improve as their food stamp allotment is continually reduced every year while the costing of living continuously goes up."

If you are living in a place like that, GET OUT! I am not kidding here. There are lots of places where the economy is better, even in America. Move to one of them. You do not want to stay there for the final economic collapse. Anyone you think deserves to live, bring them with you. But leave your economic ideas behind: the people in the places you want to move to will consider those ideas pathogenic, and will not appreciate you introducing them to a healthy host.

"I've seen hard-working people try to make do with up to three jobs at once, and still have to choose between their cell phone bill, their rent, and a sufficient amount of food to feed their families every week, because communications, shelter, and food all have hefty price tags"

I am sure you have. Many localities have regulated housing in particular out of most people's price range. Housing doesn't have to be very expensive - it could be reduced to a few hundred dollars per month if not for minimum lot sizes, minimum house sizes, restrictions on materials used, and many other regulations that we didn't used to have. Cell phones are not strictly necessary, but plans are available for as little as $100 per year if one is willing to restrict usage to only the most important calls. Food is a different story - much of it is subsidized, and if one is already purchasing the cheapest options there isn't much to cut - but if regulations had not driven up the cost of other things, there would be more money available to purchase food.

"I believe you align your loyalty with the wrong people in this world"

I'm aligned with the workers I know who are working hard and finding half or more of their income taken from them in taxes or to pay higher prices because government regulations have distorted the market, and getting nothing in return, despite the fact that some of them are having the same difficulties paying for food and housing that your friends are having. I'm aligned with the workers who lose their jobs and discover they don't qualify for the benefits they paid for until they are so far gone they can't recover - because the bureaucracy doesn't want to end poverty because then they would be out of comfortable jobs. I'm aligned with the workers who would have good jobs if the government didn't regulate whole industries out of existence, and make it virtually impossible for them to start their own small businesses. I'm also aligned with the business owners who would be happy to hire more employees if the government didn't make it so difficult to do so, and the would-be entrepreneurs who don't bother to create the businesses that would hire more employees because the government has created a tax and regulatory system so complicated that they would need to hire several office workers to deal with that before they could hire their first revenue-generating employee.




Baldur