Bill Maher and Michael Moore discussed capitalism vs socialism on the 13 September 2019 episode of Real Time, and Maher nailed the essence of capitalism in this single statement: “Good luck — sucks to be you!” Therein lies the ethos of America! I agree with Maher more often and more intensely than any other political pundit and personality. As for Michael Moore, his beliefs are in the right direction, but I take him with a grain of salt when he articulates certain arguments and his documentaries are a bit too biased to watch; it becomes difficult to distinguish fact from exaggeration, and once that happens then everything in a film becomes suspect and unwatchable. But I digress.
Now, back to the “sucks to be you” American capitalism. Has anyone ever questioned why capitalism works so well in America? Why is it that capitalism in its most unencumbered form seems to “prosper” best in American society? Capitalism in Japan is probably the closest corollary to American capitalism — we did remake the country after WW II in our own economic image after all — but they experienced the lost decade. While America has survived periods of massive booms and busts, capitalism has persisted whereas other countries have progressed to more socialistic economies. Why is that? Again! I ask why does capitalism exist so well and so longlived in America? Answer: America is precisely the country of opportunism, selfishness, and greed by which capitalism thrives. Everything that defines this country perfectly reflects the qualities capitalism needs to survive. It is a sad truth that morons of America simply accept this pernicious characteristic of a country as part of the “price of freedom.” Citizens are blithely unaware and too stupid to understand that the revered American-style capitalistic economic structure is not the solution, but it is the problem.
Yet egalitarianism and socialism are still considered four-lettered words because fundamentally while Americans aspire to and preach equality, fairness, and just consequences of one’s industriousness, they simply only want those favorable consequences to come to themselves and no one else. This country is the epitome of “sucks to be you!” and RepubliKKKlans, MAGA morons, and Christianity (especially Evangelicals) are the paragons of this American moral ethos. And we wonder why nothing ever changes for the better. It’s because this is America at its deepest, truest self. Welcome to trump stupid America. It’s a trap and no one seems to understand this or care, but they love to complain about it while doing nothing to change things! Steady as she goes!