When times get tough, many people often look for reasons to take issue with capitalism. It certainly proved to be the case in America during the Great Depression years of the 1930s.
In fact, after World War II ended, European countries adopted generally what is referred to as the social-democratic approach to governing and the economy. Even Great Britain largely forsook the free market capitalistic system.
Of course, Russia and China were staunch opponents of free market based competition until quite recently. Now they both employ individualized forms of state directed capitalism. Nordic countries like Sweden also have embraced a social-democratic system.
What all these countries have in common is some individualized form of hybrid capitalism. They evidence an apparent dislike for capitalism as practiced in the U.S.
It's probably safe to say that democracy and individual freedoms are also less important in most of these countries compared to the United States. They acknowledge, however, that living standards for their citizens will be higher by using some version of a market based approach. Hence, hybrid capitalism is in vogue throughout the world and will be for a long time to come. At least that's my view.
But what about the future of capitalism in America? Will it stay the same as it is, and if not, what form will it take?
Worker-Owners of America, Unite is an editorial whose title borrows liberally from Upton Sinclair's novel "The Jungle," a 1906 novel which advocated socialism for America.
Here's a prediction from the above referenced editorial by Gar Alperovitz, also the author of the book "America Beyond Capitalism:"
"And while the American public has long supported the capitalist model, that, too, may be changing. In 2009 a Rasmussen poll reported that Americans under 30 years old were “essentially evenly divided” as to whether they preferred “capitalism” or “socialism.”
A long era of economic stagnation could well lead to a profound national debate about an America that is dominated neither by giant corporations nor by socialist bureaucrats. It would be a fitting next direction for a troubled nation that has long styled itself as of, by and for the people."
What new form of hybrid capitalism may be developing in America? Here's the editorial writer's guesstimate:". . . something different has been quietly brewing in recent decades: more and more Americans are involved in co-ops, worker-owned companies and other alternatives to the traditional capitalist model. We may, in fact, be moving toward a hybrid system, something different from both traditional capitalism and socialism, without anyone even noticing.
Some 130 million Americans, for example, now participate in the ownership of co-op businesses and credit unions. More than 13 million Americans have become worker-owners of more than 11,000 employee-owned companies, six million more than belong to private-sector unions.. . .
Local and state governments are likewise changing the nature of American capitalism. Almost half the states manage venture capital efforts, taking partial ownership in new businesses. Calpers, California’s public pension authority, helps finance local development projects; in Alaska, state oil revenues provide each resident with dividends from public investment strategies as a matter of right; in Alabama, public pension investing has long focused on state economic development.
Moreover, this year some 14 states began to consider legislation to create public banks similar to the longstanding Bank of North Dakota; 15 more began to consider some form of single-payer or public-option health care plan.
Some of these developments, like rural co-ops and credit unions, have their origins in the New Deal era; some go back even further, to the Grange movement of the 1880s. The most widespread form of worker ownership stems from 1970s legislation that provided tax benefits to owners of small businesses who sold to their employees when they retired. Reagan-era domestic-spending cuts spurred nonprofits to form social enterprises that used profits to help finance their missions."
Currently America, along with the rest of the world, is going through some very difficult economic times. How long this troubling period will last is unknown, but it seems like we're in for several more years of less-than-strong growth and higher than tolerable unemployment levels.
In prior periods of prolonged stress, capitalism has come under attack and then adapted. The Great Depression years are a good example of how things can change our system permanently, sometimes for the good and sometimes for the not-so-good of future generations of Americans.
It's highly doubtful that we'll ever return to the self-reliant ideals of a freely capitalistic Emersonian society. On the other hand, it's incomprehensible that we'll return to the terrible days of "The Jungle" as depicted by Sinclair in his epic novel about poverty, immigration and serious workplace health issues existing in the Chicago meatpacking industry during the early years of the last century.
So we know what won't happen? What we don't and can't know is what will happen.
But we do or at least should know this. There is a profound difference between socialism and capitalism.
Winston Churchill perhaps said it best when he compared the two systems and said:
"THE INHERENT VICE OF CAPITALISM IS THE UNEQUAL SHARING OF BLESSINGS; THE INHERENT VIRTUE OF SOCIALISM IS THE EQUAL SHARING OF MISERIES."
Let's resolve to do what we can to impart that simple lesson to the 50% of our age 30 and under Americans who evidently have yet to learn it.
Thanks. Bob.
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