Skeeter,
It pretty much existed in this country for a long time with the single exception of minor problems in the banking and monetary system. Those smallish flaws, as much the result of the ignorance of the time as the greed of financial elites, lead to occasional monetary and banking issues that could have been corrected in fundamental ways that retained free markets.
Instead, the country (and others) went on a path of addressing problems with band-aids and interference in the markets because the problems were mis-diagnosed. As a result, new and bigger problems were created and the interference grew.
All that interference eventually lead to catastrophic economic problems that helped change the politics and economics of the world. Those that hated free markets, freedom etc... used the failings of the crippled and distorted free market system that existed at the time as a political weapon for moving the world in the direction they wanted. People have been doing that for decades now.
There was probably an element of corruption and greed in the process initially, but ignorance was a major factor. Part of it was simply an error and misdiagnosis. Had we made the right choices, the world would look a lot different right now. IMO, standards of living would be much higher and many of our biggest problems would not even exist. Surely we'd still have plenty of problems, but we would be much further along.
At this point, the greedy, the free market haters, and the stupid have twisted the system so badly that major changes are almost politically impossible without a major bust (either a total currency collapse or depression). IMO a major problem is almost inevitable eventually though - probably within a century or so. Then we will have another choice. We will either correct the problems in a sustainable way or go further dowm the path of destruction.
IMO the eventual failures of the system will have nothing to do with the original intent of the country or what it could have been without some key mistakes. It didn't have to be this way. |
