Just speaking out loud here. It occurs to me that many people are having a blind faith in capitalism. I'm not saying socialism or communism is good either. Capitalism, as the word itself elucidates, is really all about capital. Don't these blind worshippers of capitalism realize that most of them are actually born with little or no capital without rich parents? And the fact that they can only build up their own capital base very slowly by earning only pittance from labor? Adding salt to the wound, don't they realize that the situation has become even worse these days, in the sense that one needs to pay up immensely (education, housing) just to get a lousy chance towards economic participation? Have they not realize that capitalism and democracy are two distinct entities that don't actually need to go hand-in-hand (as opposed to the government's propaganda)? Seriously, people need to unlearn propaganda to realize that we can have a democracy without neo-feudalism in the cloths of 'capitalism'. True capitalism gives everyone a fair chance in obtaining capital without the burden of accumulating such from labor. This means that one does not need to pledge any non-business collateral in return for the unconditional borrowing of capital. Thinking this as too far fetched? Only if you believe that business failures can unleash unimaginable consequences on economic stability. The truth is, such negative effects are simply bogus. Collectively, the spending of failed businesses is also the profit of successful businesses. There is no net loss in the economy. Problem is, true capitalism can't be implemented as long as there is central planning. How can you be rich if there aren't some poor chaps around to boost up your relative wealth?
Gaining capital is not as big of a problem as you may think. The bigger problem with our society is how one uses their capital. Big corporations are the problem we have now: they use whatever means they have to raise barriers for competitors to enter their market. However, this can easily be eliminated if regular people chose to stop handing their money over to these large corporations. For example, if everyone started shopping at a local or regional grocery store, Walmart would no longer find it profitable to have their grocery section. It's really that easy, it's just that America wants an easy lifestyle, not an easy solution.
The idea that you can rise from humble beginnings is just something people like. Whether it's been socialism or communism or what have you, most people still end up (over time) in the position where upward mobility is difficult. The winners always essentially become the house in every system, and this is some unavoidable stochastic process with a definitive drift. In our system, the key is that even if you're the most dirt poor, uneducated, disabled, sexually dysfunctional minority, you can still roll the dice -- whether it's by selling dice, buying a lotto ticket, starting a business, or being a successful day trader. All I ask of government is that they make it as easy as possible for me to keep rolling the dice.
Capitalism is more than just "big business and large capital". Most people start out life poor. Through a capitalistic system, they have the chance to make it big if they try and are able.. and if lucky... to whatever degree that factors into their equation.
All we were promised was, "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". Not free healthcare, free college education, nor a middle-class lifestyle.... free to succeed if you're able (and without the government on your back), free to be lazy if that's what you choose.
Let me repeat again, the above is real capitalism. The current 'trickle down' version is some kind of communism. Under the state controlled economy, capital will only be allocated once you got the top echelon's green light. Similarly, under the trickle down economy, capital will only be allocated once many of the 'too big to fail' corporations get bank lending. It then trickles down to the workers in the form of wages. Unlike big corporations, most small businesses aren't getting much capital allocation, at least not enough in a meaningful magnitude. If you are starting a business, you can pretty much forget about bank borrowing unless you pledge your property as collateral. The artificial control of capital supply makes the system some kind of pseudo-communism, where most capital goes to the financial elite class, just like top communist cadres get to manage top juicy projects. Everyone else has little chance of getting capital other than building it up with his/her meager wages. Now that the middle class has all been tapped to the max, it has practically become neo-feudalism. Government should maintain a fair bargain between workers and productivity owners. And it should do that by giving everyone fair chance to access capital, not minimum wage law, not generous welfare, not government sponsored education loan, etc. Such pretense in helping the people is actually attempts at maintaining the status quo of neo-feudalism. The government wanna help? Then give everyone a fair chance to be a capitalist!
Good post and apropos vis a vis some of the recent revelations about the enormous amount of investment capital flushed down the toilet in those "sweetheart" loans given to many of these "Green" projects over the past 2-3 years (Solyndra is just one of many).
HOGWASH! "Access to capital" isn't something "everyone has a fair chance at obtaining"... it's not a RIGHT... (you know, like "free healthcare" and "free college"). You have "access to capital" only when you've convinced capitalists that granting you capital is a favorable risk-reward proposition.