In another thread I highlight some have other views, but in truth while I said I could get it wrong you can bet the usual suspects have never had that thought.
A right that needs to rubbish those who care for others in my view is a lost right

The unions were extremely good for the workers but then they found better financial rewards in the academic/bureaucratic circles which provided the loopholes to infiltrate politics via Leftist media & shonky power mongers & the rest is history

Dear Foxy,

As far as I know he is no relation of mine.

Capitalism does three things very well.
1. Allocation of Resources
2. Organising Production
3. Concentrating Wealth

The third thing is one reason why the system breaks down. When the wealth becomes concentrated those on the top live well, and those on the bottom live in poverty. In the depression of 1929 the warehouses were bulging with goods. However, many people were unable to buy the goods that they produced. It costs money to store the goods, and the value of the goods declined. Most of the goods were junked, and the system started up again due to New Deal pump priming and preparation for WW2.

In the global financial crisis subprime mortgages were bundled and sold as financial instruments. People having mortgaged properties were unable to make payments and the banks took over the properties. With a great deal of property available and many people without the resources to buy the property, property values went down, and much of the world entered depression.

The Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands seemed to have solved the problem. They have a productive capitalistic system, political freedom, very good education and extensive social benefits. They have done by the following:

1. Encourage entrepreneurs to create wealth.
2. Have high taxes to distribute the wealth in social benefits.
3. Have a strong union movement which ensures workers will get their share of the wealth.

It works for them, and there is no reason that it wouldn’t work for us.

It works for them, and there is no reason that it wouldn’t work for us.
david f,
My suspicion is that the Scandinavians are less opportunistic & more community minded.

Dear Foxy,

My wife is not writing at the moment.

Dear runner,

Corruption is rampant. There is corruption in the corporations, the unions, the universities and the government. When I was working for Philips, one of the employees, a doctor, was sent to Kansas City to oversee a magnetic resonance imaging system. While he was there he uncovered corruption between a supplier and the hospital that was getting the system. The hospital employees were getting kickbacks from the supplier. He was fired. Apparently Philips thought it was none of his business, and it might disturb the relations between Philips and the hospital. He should have turned a blind eye to corruption. To eliminate corruption we must expose it wherever it is found.

https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2017
lists corruption by country. The ten least corrupt countries are New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore, Sweden, Canada, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. There are 180 countries examined, and Australia ranks 13.

I don’t know why they are the least corrupt countries. Individual could be right, and people in those countries might be more community minded. One thing the union movement does when it is working right is to make people more community minded.

Hi David,

A belated happy birthday ! May you live to 120.

Yes, we must keep working towards, thinking about, a better society which operates somewhere between the totalitarianism of socialism and the multiple opportunities for corruption inherent in capitalism. Some sort of Third Way which many people have been trying to push for over the least seventy years or more, but haven't found.

Perhaps, as Popper became resigned to, a hard-working society dedicate to incremental change where it was desperately needed, was the most likely workable way to go. Sort of a deliberately middle way, between the neo-fascism of the 'left' and the corruption possibilities of the 'right'.

I'm only 76, withered and sour, so I marvel at our persistence and dedication. If I live that long, 93, I hope I still have a glimmer of your spirit and passion, David. Le chaim.

Joe