Capitalism is one of the pillars of America, and as it is replaced by government control, our country is weakened.
Choice is just one of the reasons why capitalism is better than socialism. We need to have choice not simply for the sake of having choice, and not simply because it is "evil" to have the government run things, but because it works better when multiple private entities compete. When the government takes over an industry or a service, they are the only ones that do it, because they compete all the private business out of business. They are their own government sponsored monopoly.
Liberals love to tell us that when companies are allowed to run services or industries, that they are scraping money off the top for themselves and their "evil" profits. They act as though handing the job over to the government will keep quality high, and prices will drop because we are cutting out the middle man. This is classic marxism, let the factory workers take over the factory and get rid of the capitalist who is profiting from everyone else's poverty. That might have been an attractive system in 19th century Russia, and America for that matter. Today, however it is a recipe for disaster.
When government takes over a sector of the economy it runs all the other companies out of business and then we are left with one choice, the government sponsored service. Yes, when you let companies run things, there are CEOs that make hundreds of millions of dollars, but you also have millions of employees making good money, and you have millions of satisfied customers. If a company fails to satisfy its customers, then it goes out of business, those CEOs lose their jobs and the customers go somewhere else to get what they want.
Not so when the government runs things. You can't go anywhere else. You get what the govenrnment provides when and how they want to provide it, and that's it. It doesn't matter how badly the entity is run because it can't go out of business. Of course the super rich can get things, just like they can in capitalism, but now that all the competition is gone, regular people are stuck with substandard government enterprises. With employees that take no pride in their work, because there is no compeitition for customers. They can treat you however they want, you have to come to them, you are their servant. They are always right, not you.
Socialism is a utopian dream. Liberals constantly point to Japan and Europe as examples of how it works. Well those countries aren't living in the real world. They are propped up by our military. They can use all the money they would otherwise have to spend on defense on inefficient social programs instead. They don't have to worry about their security like any real country would have to, because we are there to protect them. They are American protectorates and have been since WWII. The Soviet Union had to look out for itself and once it tried to compete with our economy, culture, and military buildup, it didn't stand a chance.
I ask you, look around the world and through history, where has a socialist country not protected by the United States prospered? Nowhere. It doesn't work. It makes the country poor. They have no innovation because the bureaucratic behomoth of the government smothers change. Why is the internet exploding with commerce and innovation? Because it isn't regulated, it isn't taxed. Why is the American car industry breathing its last breath? because it is regulated and unionized to death. It can't change to meet our needs on a dime like Microsoft and Apple, Ebay, and Google can. The government has bound them down with excessive regulation and the market is signalling that those companies should die, but the government won't let them. This will be every company when the government controls our economy. An economy of zombie corporations, that aren't really working right, but that the government props up to keep the economy running.
This is the test of our country, will we let individuals succeed, or will we let the government coddle everyone and control everything in the name of fairness, equity, and security. Will we let a crisis shake our belief in freedom, competition, intitiative, small government, personal responsibility and hard work? It looks as though the Democratic congress and the President are headed that way. They want to take care of us. They are protecting us from the problems that their ideologyhas by and large created. They'll try to blame it on deregulation and Bush's "failed policies" and they will probably get away with it. But they are wrong. They are ruining our country in their very efforts to perfect it.
America will decline, and the people will call out for more control to fix the situation. The people have been taught to believe in the collective, not the individual. The Congress will give more control to the executive to fix one crisis after another because they want results not "grid lock."They want to "work together and stop yelling at one another." Our republic is failing because our leaders in Congress are corrupt. They only care about staying in office. They don't care about the long term welfare of the country. They want the President to take control, to shift the responsibility of actually governing away from themselves. They want the courts to decide what the Congress should decide. They won't use the power that the founders gave them, and control the federal government. That's too difficult. It is easier to let others take control and live in the lap of luxury they have created for themselves. Instead of governing they want to milk the country, get a pension and retire while the country implodes.
Unless we weed out our corrupt congressman and senators, our republic will take the same road as the only other successful republic in history, Rome. America will turn into an empire. After all, an empire is more efficient. Legislative bodies are messy, slow, and don't always get the job done. Emperors fix things. That is the strength of the executive, that is why he is there, to take action when it is needed. Well, if we are in perpetual crisis, and the people look to the government for their security and well being then the executive is the logical choice. Get out of the way Congress, you obviously can't get it done, let the leader take over, he'll figure it out.
America won't crumble immediately, it is too strong for that, but it will decay and it will be less free, and over time it will weaken because of its decadent, irrepsonsible, and self destructive government and people.
