Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bentway who wrote (107940)	1/23/2012 5:33:48 PM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

Yeah, pretty much. I don't believe in Socialism to the extent that Bernie Sanders does. He has stated he wants to remake the US more in the model of Europe. I don't believe that is a good thing for the US. We are prosperous, because we have opted for smaller social safety net in favor of a freer market. That creates a wilder roller coaster ride in the business cycle, but the growth curve is higher also, which is why we are more prosperous than Europeans. I like the American-style markets since WWII and don't want to experiment with a larger social safety net and slower growth. Having said that, I do believe that American-style markets are now broken. The secret sauce that made them successful (light but effective regulations and a level playing field) has been replaced with something worse. Now we have crony capitalism, out of balance corporate influence of government, lack of enforcement of laws on the books, bailouts of corporations and banks instead of letting them go through bankruptcy, and an increasingly all-powerful Executive Branch. So I think our government and our economy is broken. We need to fix it, but I don't believe the fix is to go Bernie Sanders' way of Europeanizing America. But rather, we need to go back to what we had during the Clinton Era. I believe the 90's were the sweet spot when taxation was high enough to provide for an expansive government spending program, but low enough to allow the markets and private enterprise to flourish. In addition, Clinton was a fierce enforcer of the rule of law, but was even-handed when it came to business. It was the Goldie Locks economy. Nowadays, we have lunatic fringe rightwingers that want to turn America Fascist and we have lunatic leftwingers that want to turn America Socialist. What happened to the centrists like me that want something in between?