Dee D. Flint wrote:
"Mike Coslo" wrote in message
...

Dee, Capitalism is the best darn economic system to ever hit the earth.
Period. And supply and demand is a better bet than anyone's deity being
the real one.

But, our country's economy is not really what I think you think it is.
Unbridled capitalism tends toward major boom and bust cycles, and can
produce some particulary nasty characters, as the running motive behind
it at times alllows one small group or person to grab all the cookies so
to speak. Capitalism turns a basic human characteristic, greed, into a
pretty good thing. But all by itself, greed turns into something else
than what we might want.

Our economic system has plenty of controls on it to help avoid the
greediest to own it all. And it works pretty darn well IMO.



No I never said we should have unbridled capitalism. I'm quite aware of the
problems that result from that. What I am saying is that the controls must
be minimal and well thought out. Things like the practice of a large
company with significant reserve capital choosing to sell at a loss to drive
their smaller competitor out of the market cannot and is not allowed
(assuming they get caught at it of course). I agree that today's system of
controls achieves a pretty good balance. That's why we have to be very
careful about any changes so that we don't throw it out of whack and create
a new problem possibly much worse than what we face today.



And yes if you are willing to move, there are sufficient jobs for

people.

But vast numbers of people won't do that.

Are you saying that if all the unemployed moved someplace they would
all get jobs? Sounds oversimplified to me.



Not quite. Some people are simply chronically unemployable. But many would
indeed be in better shape if they were willing to bite the bullet and move.
Right, and they may be moving to a place to get that minimum wage job!

There are a lot of other things involved in the jobless situation.
During my first job, the economy tanked. I lost my job, and despite
attempts on my part, it was about a year and a half before I could get
another. Most people were up front about it:

First choice goes to married vets
Second choice goes to vets
Third choice is married.

Remember there were a fair number of vets coming home from Vietnam. As
an unmarried 19 year old, I was nowhere on their radar screen.
Unemployable. I think I probably interviewd for 30-40 jobs in a
depressed job market. I was just about to enlist when I got my current job.


I know people who have been waiting decades in southern Ohio, and are still
waiting, for "the steel mills to return" and refused to even think about
going where there was work because of it. They decided to get by with
whatever combination of odd jobs, welfare, etc they could manage to put
together.