waiting for (economic) independence day

the frustration i've had is that american economics has recently been discussed as a zero-sum game. it's either capitalism or socialism...no ifs, ands or buts. and while a purely socialist economic system & government has been proven repeatedly not to be optimal, the idea that we can cling to capitalism as it currently exists is naive.

at some point, the cycles of boom and bust that we've endured were going to catch up to us. sure, it's brought us a ton of good - the good ol' InterWeb that we all enjoy so much probably wouldn't be nearly as widespread or profitable as it is now without capitalist innovation. (honestly, when i was in high school, perez hilton was the weird kid who hung out by himself. now he's a pseudo-celebrity.) and in the grand scheme of things, it really didn't affect the general population when the whole thing went pop in the late '90s - unless you were a tech geek who spent all of his stock options on a palace and a ton of toys in the silicon valley.

but it was inevitable that the same cycle would eventually attach itself to something integral like the financial sector (and by extension, the housing market). suddenly when the bubble bursts, the fallout affects everybody. if we've learned nothing else, it's that human nature tends more toward all for one than one for all. and that applies to any system - capitalist, socialist, communist, etc.

as the world's leader in capitalism, it's little surprise that we were the first to find its pitfalls. which leads me to believe we'll see ourselves engaged in an interesting social & economic experiment in the coming decade or so. make no mistake, our military has long been used as a socialist tool (not to suggest that they don't provide a very needed and very welcomed defense, but they've also been used to promote and protect american business interests worldwide). and as we've used it to the neglect of domestic affairs, don't be shocked to see more socialist ideals creep into the public discourse.

that rambling preamble was all to suggest that there has to be a semi-happy medium. the real question is where the line is drawn. there are plenty of people who are smarter and more educated in this subject that i am (and presumably aren't currently engaged in watching a spongebob squarepants marathon). we can only hope their voices and ideas are heard and applied in a reasonably timely fashion.

anyway, that's my two cents (adjusted for inflation, of course).