Before we continue, ktttn and blablahblah, could you please give us your definition of what you think "capitalism" is? Because ou keep posting either gross misconceptions of capitalism, or examples that have nothing to do with capitalism, and it really looks as if we're all arguing about different things.
Any less than a bookshelf worth of information is insufficient to convey my understanding of capitalism. To be sure, my meaning of the word is very different than the meaning proffered by those who approve of it and engage in it.
I'm not in the buisiness of writing dictionaries, you understand. I'm criticizing the way things are done.
The best thing a piece of legislation can ever do is mitigate the insanity of an earlier law.
Similarly, when capitalism improves folks' lives, it only does so in respect to the ways capitalism previously distorted and wrecked those same lives.
Capitalism inserts a materialistic value system that is rather unhealthy in my experience.