I'm a Democrat and not a socialist. n/t

[WSHazel]

111. That is not accurate

Money is just a mechanism for allocating resources within a society, and one humans have used for thousands of years because it is far superior to barter.

Capitalism enables people to choose what they want to do with their lives. Want to be a teacher? Be a teacher. Want to work less and not chase the brass ring, then don't. Capitalism allows for that decision. People price the marginal hour of their time in the labor market every day, which is why jobs that demand longer hours have to pay more on average. Are you against that?

All those European "socialist" countries are still fundamentally capitalist economies, just with a bigger safety net and more regulations. Picking the right level of safety net is difficult. The problem with a lot of their regulations is that they make hiring very expensive, which leads to high unemployment. There are not too many or too few regulations, just good and bad ones.

Capitalism is not perfect, but it is far better than any other economic system, all of which result in big, persistent shortages, social stratification, and ultimately autocracy. Capitalism also results in a much fairer and more dynamic society than any other system. You could argue that early capitalism in the west started in Venice in the late middle ages, or more likely Italy and the lower Rhine valley in the late Renaissance, and everywhere it took hold, every aspect of life improved dramatically. Capitalism didn't really get going until the 18th century, and within a century or so, most of Western Europe had some form of democracy. This economic model was so superior that Japan threw off its Feudal system in 1868 and within 35 years was one of the wealthiest, most powerful countries on the planet.

95 or 98% or pick your big number, of all human innovation has occurred under capitalism. While wealth inequality remains a sticky, and solvable, problem, our overall quality of life is unimaginable by those who lived just 100 years ago.