@LarsB

Quote:

I am not that euphoric about capitalism.

Whoah, whoah, whoah, I'm not either! I'm merely replying to very broad and specific claims that are demonstrably wrong.

The first problem with capitalism lies in the word's vague meaning. To some people it means one thing, to others another. Lou, makes a very good point.

My basic orientation is in favor of what I would called "unplanned economies"; that is, I'd like government and academic elites to be more humble about how much they don't know, and to market their proposed fixes to perceived problems with less pretense of certainty of the desired outcome and the lack of inadvertent outcomes. At a very minimum, they shouldn't snigger about how they lied to the people while being paid almost half a million dollars to help design a law that didn't even do what its advocates claimed.

I like the idea of free markets, but men aren't angels***, nor are they geniuses, so some government regulation is needed. When you point to Foxconn, I say yes, absolutely, why are we exporting our manufacturing capacity to a literal slave society run by devotees of central planning who control more aspects of their citizen's intimate lives more tyrannically than the Soviet Union ever dreamed? And why is it that pointing out these facts is often met by denunciations of "racism"?

Quote:

And what happens when we are old? Too old to be useful in the machinery? The vast of the people here in germany for example dont have a bright futute. Ca. 50% of all seniors will get a pension lower than 800,-€. Some are collecting deposit bottles.

I'm somewhat less sympathetic to this, but I'm willing to admit I'm wrong. I'll explain why and perhaps you can tell me how I misunderstand.

The US is much similar. Ever year I receive a mailing from the Social Security Administration that tells me I will receive roughly $1200/month. I think that's only a little more than the 800,-€ you mention.

Well, now I have the information. Unless I'm poor (and I'm not) I really have no excuse not to use the many years I have left to put aside my own money and save it for retirement. I have the opportunity to take responsibility for myself instead of making myself dependent on the State. In the US (don't know about Germany) we actually have a system set up to help people do exactly that sort of thing, but they choose not to.

Or, you know, I could do what most middle class people do these days: buy a new car sooner, buy a vacation home / time-share on the beach, buy an unlimited data plan for my much expensive cell phone that costs 10x as much as one that will do everything I need, hit the restaurants every week or even more often, buy the most expensive cable TV package, ... then complain that I'm worse off than my parents who had none of those things. So I'd actually be OK with forcing people to divert some of their income into special savings accounts that's beyond their reach until their retire, but instead people want to design a policy that makes everyone a ward of the state. No, thank you.

The situation in most Western countries is that we are increasingly extending what should be a safety net to subsidize the middle class. The result is that the middle class takes less and less responsibility for itself, when it really could take responsibility for itself, and the apparent need for a safety net grows.

So that's how I read your complaint, but I admit that I may be misreading it. In fact I'm pretty sure I am. How so? (Feel free to create a new thread so that we don't pollute this one further, unless you think it will be brief.)

***Women may be angels. The ones in my household are pretty close.

_________________
I've decided to follow an awful lot of people I respect and leave AmigaWorld. If for some reason you want to talk to me, it shouldn't take much effort to find me.