Observations: The QandO Podcast for 06 May 12
This week, Bruce and Dale talk about what the Trayvon martin case says about the media.
The direct link to the podcast can be found here.
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Before discussing Socialism, it must be defined (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/socialism). Now granted these are simplistic ideas, but the generally describe the system. Notice that “fairness” if not included—that’s because what’s fair or not fair is relatively subjective, vague and ambiguous. “Fairness” is a highly emotive term, coloring the meaning word to which it is applied differently depending on which site of the political spectrum one falls. But, even in Capitalism, we believe in “fairness”. for example, in sports—where we have rule to determine fair play—and in business—where we have laws against such thing as fraud.
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There’s no such thing as pure Capitalism. Like Socialism, it’s an idealized theory that exhibits certain characteristics (see definition: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/capitalism
To me the single characteristic that distinguishes the two systems is private ownership vs. government ownership of the means of production. But in plenty of socialist countries, there is private ownership—so the two are not mutually exclusive.
I think Robert Reich is using the above distinction (ownership of production) as his definition when he speaks Socialism not being the answer to Capitalism; whereas the writer of this article is using his own definition.
Of course there is such a thing as pure capitalism. Whether or not it exists is another question.