I find it very disturbing when I read remarks that suggest capitalism causes homelessness. If anything it causes far less homelessness than any other system of government. The poor in the United States of america are vastly wealthier than the poor anywhere else in the world, and we have a far lower unemployment rate than many of the socialist countries in europe. Now, what is better for homeless poor people? Capitalism or socialism? Look at the facts!
Please don't start harping on the "vast disparity" in wealth between the poor and the rich. Why should that matter? Why can't we just look at how well off the poor are? Anyway, do you really think that there is an endless continuum of grotesquely opulent lifestyle? No! Where does all that extra money go...back into the economy, new jobs, fewer homeless people, MORE WEALTH FOR EVERYONE.
I'm not saying we shouldn't give to the poor---but I think that should be done entirely voluntarily---government should not put a cancerous tumor in the economy to try to help the poor---this ends up screwing them over!! WHY DON'T SOME OF YOU UNDERSTAND THIS??
Basically the bottom line is, the poor man's best friend is the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs CREATE WEALTH! Government DOES NOT! GET THIS THROUGH YOUR HEAD AND THE WORLD WILL BE A BETTER PLACE.
What I find very disturbing is that someone apparently very intellectual and educated like you comes up with a so ridiculous speech. I'll blame it on your youth, but seriously you should go out and learn about the world; see what's actually going on out there.
First, there is no socialist country in Europe, that's just a typical narrow-minded point of view that I don't know whom brainwash you in the USA, The whole world is capitalist today, except maybe North-Korea. Even countries like China or Viet-Nam which are governed by so-called communist or revolutionary parties are, in actual facts, ran in a capitalist economic system, otherwise, believe me, no foreign investors would bother put a single dollar there.
Low unemployment rates in the USA are not due to the altruism of USA entrepreneurs or their super-efficiency or whatever; it is due to the US government and Federal Reserve's financial and monetary policies: low interest rates, low tax rates, low exchange rate for the dollar and every year going deeper in national public and private debt; indeed it's a strategy which works, at least currently but in the long run it makes USA very vulnerable to a major financial crisis and then you'll see how unemployment will sky-rocket. So your statement about irrelevance of government action in wealth creation is pretty mislead.
Now, about the “entrepreneur”, let me tell you something, I've worked all my career as a finance manager in private firms and the later years in a global one; I can tell you that the goal of private firms is to you use as few employees as possible and at the lowest salary. Capitalism aims at rewarding the shareholders for their financial investment, so the less wages you have to pay the more you can satisfy them. Actually, just the announcement of a downsizing makes the stock exchange quotation improve. More and more, you will see the big players leave western countries, including USA, to use cheap labor in less developed, hence more “competitive” countries, especially in Asia and eastern Europe. For the moment it's mainly European countries which have to undergo the consequences, because they made the EURO currency error, but believe me, sooner or later, US economy will have the same problem, by the time the current financial/monetary strategy becomes not sustainable anymore. And it is inevitable, you cannot indefinitely maintain a “way of life” just by getting into more debt each and everyday.
Topic: homeless people