One of the things I like about Trump is that yes he seems like a capitalist and he is but he has compassion. He is using capitalism responsibly. America is on the rise because they are using the positives from Western capitalism (by Western i don't mean europe necessarily but more UK and US) and the positives from Eastern Europe and the ideals of socialism. Those socialist ideals are great but have not been implemented successfully.
Trump is able to do so amazingly by smart, businesslike economics. I can't believe what I am seeing @goldgoatsnguns. I was always anti never Trump but now really starting to like the guy.
The problem with the word 'capitalism' today is that it does not accurately describe what 'capitalism' is. The political left has very carefully equated capitalism with corporatism... the merging of state and private enterprises.
Capitalism is simply the free exchange of goods and services without interference through force. Trump is no angel in this respect. He is a mercantilist, which is a form of corporatist that is targeted on generating national wealth through protection barriers and a cheap currency... this is a form or "rent" as we discussed in a different thread.
That said, Trump does have a big heart and is truly a capitalist in the traditional sense of creating wealth for all through his entrepreneurial ventures. Everyone I know who knows him personally or who have worked for him says this is absolutely true.
I have mixed feelings about Trump, because I think his grasp of fundamental economics is weak, but his entrepreneurial instincts are unmatched for a modern politician.
In short, he will do a lot of good and some bad along the way.. At least he's not a doctrinaire socialist like Obama. If you want to understand why socialism is fundamentally flawed, read Ludwig Von Mises' 'Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis". Available for free from the Mises Institute.
https://mises.org/library/socialism-economic-and-sociological-analysis
Thanks, why do you say the left has equated capitalism with corporatism? Hillary Clinton seems like the ultimate corporatist to me.
She is, and many on the Left hate her, saying she's a right wing Fascist... hence the Bernie Sanders movement.
Listen to Sanders and Corbyn (in the u.k.). they are classic marxists who see corporatism as a natural outgrowth of capitalism. When the choice is quite the opposite. Corporatism can only exist within the framework that they advocate, complete dominance of the state.
they are two sides of the same coin... or the same side of two coins... it matters not. Both are totalitarian.
I heard this one guy say once, I think it was Robert Kiyosaki, that the government wants you to work for a big corporation because that way you pay the most tax.
So interesting what you say about Sanders and Corbyn. Never thought about it that way but kind of makes up a missing piece of the puzzle for me.
At my shared office space CNN is on the whole time.