A recent letter claimed that socialism was the core reason for all kinds of financial and cultural distress, such as the government controlling the economy, citizen apathy and the assertion that those in power are unable to keep their empty promises to the working class (“Socialism is empty promises,” Our Readers’ Views, Sept. 24). Actually, we have all those things already, but without socialism. Where did the problems come from? Perhaps it was unregulated capitalism.
Unregulated capitalism brings you profits over the planet, tax breaks that enrich the rich and drive millions of others into financial troubles, people working two jobs just to pay for basic living expenses, and drug companies with billions in profits from killing 47,600 Americans with opioid overdoses in 2017 alone just for corporate greed, and corporations owning the processes of government at every level.
About 38.1 million Americans live in poverty as of 2018. That in itself is the best argument against unregulated capitalism.
Almost everyone knows what unregulated capitalism is like. Remember Monopoly, where a lucky roll of the dice puts one player in a position to destroy all the others.
So perhaps the writer got everything right in his letter, except he confused the two terms: socialism and capitalism.
