Is capitalism in crisis? Not quite the way communism was 10-20 years ago, comments author Robert Reich. Communism had shown itself as a fraud – individual greed and corruption ruined it. Capitalism has huge cracks in it, but we live in mixed economies, with a good element of social conscience. Social capitalism.
Did competition between companies lead to the mess we’re in? Reich believes competition was out of control – to the point of eroding the foundations of democracy. Corporate lobbyists in Washington battled each other for laws and regulations that advantaged them and disadvantaged the competition. These lobbyists stopped the regulation of Wall Street.
Reich talks about socialising the downside risks of capitalism – bailing out the big companies. But this still does little to support the ordinary person on the street. He proposes more of a mixed capitalism – mixed appropriately for shared prosperity, not just to accentuate the disparity we already have.