According to the theory of most US tea party conservatives countries like Germany, Denmark, Sweden or Finland should be in deep trouble. Almost 50% of the government expenses go to all kinds of social plans for elderly, jobless, children, free eduation for students etc. This is topped by the expenses for health insurance and pensions. The German banks earn a lot of money too but their percentage of the GNP is much smaller than in the USA.
Now comes the financial crisis. The poor people in the advanced “socialist” European countries still get their monthly paycheck, which stabilizes the local businesses and provides a basic protection against depression. The large expenses for social programs has forced the enterprises in “socialized” European countries to increase their productivity. Frankly spoken it is financially more attractive for these countries to pay people for not being employed instead of supporting low quality workplaces in the industry. Certainly this is sad for people which are no longer needed by the industry. However, it is better to accept the facts and look for new ways of employment for these people. Denmark and Sweden are probably most advanced in this process and employ people not needed in the industrial world in community jobs.
USA is on different track. The US society has decided to allow a small group of people in the banking and investment arena to rake in the money generated by pension funds and printed by government. Only a very small amount of this money is actually going into consumption and to pay people for community services. This surplus money is moved around to worldwide virtual businesses providing no real value to the American people. Since it is so much easier to earn private money with virtual banking business, USA has neglected its industrial base especially the small and medium businesses.
However, there is a chance to turn this around. As soon as the financial crowd fears that all their virtual money is endangered they will try to acquire real assets e.g. they even buy the share of the new General Motors. Unfortunately they will find more good opportunities in the stable European countries and in emerging markets in the East than in the eroded industrial landscape in USA.
In theory capitalism works. Just like communism though, it doesn’t really work. We are so brainwashed into believing we have things in America like ‘free speech’ and ‘free markets’ but they are not really ‘free’ at all.
The markets are actually controlled by a grouping of industry-specific monopolies, which are controlled by a select few thousand people who sit on the boards of said companies and set all prices to American consumers. Free Speech. Yeah, sort of. Just TRY speaking out against the capitalist system and see what happens to you.
Academics who have done so are relegated to unknown universities and don’t get their works published. These people do not make it on TV (case example Dr. Herbert Schiller) to be heard by the general American public when the entire media industry is owned by six conglomerates. And just try refuting (refuting NOT refudiating) someone like Sara Palin, Glenn Beck or John Bohemer right now.
The major problem of monopolies is the lack of innovation. When the internet was in development there were so many small companies coming up with new ideas and new applications. As a result there was tremendous growth in this area in the US industry. Now big companies are dominating the web (or small companies are bought by large companies as soon as they reach a critical level) and innovation is gone. A new technology would be needed to initiate significant growth in USA. Small goups of “insighters” can publish on the web whatever they want, as long as they are really independent and are not on a payroll. However, Google and others will control the level of attention they can get.