Indeed! In order to make "meaningful" contributions to a society to advance, education is a foundational requirement. However, once it is profitized, education has lost the ability to further the society for the furtherance of society itself, as the priorities of those who grease the machine become the profit, rather than furthering the knowledge.

I have always been a democratic socialist, even when surrounded in my youth by idealistic but naive Marxist-Leninists and others like that. I still believe that a mixed economy of private enterprise balanced with a well run public sector, with a balance of taxation, public services, and social equity measures, and regulation, works to achieve a balance between private and public interests. It's not perfect. It needs review, refinement, revision and change. But looking at the disasters of communism on the one hand, and the rancid form of weaponized, crony, oligarchic capitalism that has been pursued ruthlessly from the political Right since the 1980s, which indeed seeks to reduce most people to a debt ridden form of disguised slavery, I will take it every time. The tragedy is that corrupted political parties on the so-called Left are no longer able to extoll economic reform that they can convey to their populations. The triumph of the oligarchies and their apologists over the political debate, and over political processes, has been total. I fear only total economic collapse and mass mobilization against this new order will change it.

Online dictionary definition of Capitalism
"an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth."

Online dictionary definition of Socialism:
"a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole."

Based on those definitions I am inclined to favor capitalism. If socialism is more a supporter of the individuals of a community then I would favor it. I guess I am a moderate wanting something that is the mixture of two.

Our current system has divorced economy from ecology and built everything on that work. The elite have also caused most of its underlings to have a dislike/fear of social democracy.

I will always be a commie. But it’s not about redistribution of wealth. Too long has socialism and facisim taken over wealth redistribution. No, everyone must be an agent of change. Marx discussed the privation of goods and the dictation of work by the owner of the factory. We need everyone to take the means of production in their own hands by voluterrly giving up fb and traditional goods. People need to recapture meaningful experiences then just living life drinking bud lite, binging Netflix, and go on vacation at tourist traps. When people create meaningful structures, people will want to join because it’s literally matters more. The only way to do this is through education, teaching people no to create and to invent. People will move it along. Cultural change through community, not policitcs. But that’s just my crazy ideas.

You mean crony capitalism?
Definitely a rigged, grotesque system . A clusterfuck of deceit and corruption imo . Personally I like the Henry George approach to controlling capitalism as he wrote in his great book ... Progress and Poverty ...

There is economic slavery in this country already. It's promoted by the rich not to keep the poor down, but making the middle class do their work for them by mind control. Keep making the middle rich fear socialism and make the poor fear socialism as well. If the truth gets out the world might just see economic justice.

There is economic slavery in this country already. It's promoted by the rich not to keep the poor down, but making the middle class do their work for them by mind control. Keep making the middle rich fear socialism and make the poor fear socialism as well. If the truth gets out the world might just see economic justice.

The "blind hand of capitalism" is thought to eventually correct all disparities through market economics. What they don't tell you is that millions suffer for years, millions more who don't function at all in such a system. Socialism is not perfect, Democratic Socialism a bit better. The real problem is getting people to accept change.

It certainly is as far as I am concerned. It would seem that for the ordinary person how much money you 'earn' within 40 hours determine your social worth. Nobody ever seems to have enough or let alone think about working less and living more.

Automation was supposed to liberate us from labour but instead we are working just as much if not more for relatively no more reward than we used to get. Where has all this benefit it gone?