There is only so much money to go around. Our elected officials can not make the tough choices. Our governor spends $6k to fly back and forth from Chicago to Springfield. Our elected officials spend that money to get votes and make friends rich. RobertN, you would love us to be a socialist society. Hows that working in France? That country is in the crapper because they socialize everything. Capitalism might not be perfect but it is far better than any thing else going.

I doubt few are interested in getting rid of capitalism in USA , prefer socliastic leaders elected to office or prefer socialism .....ease up on the criticism .... America is a very far cry from being a socialist system. It's about as far away as is demoracy as we know and love & will ever come to Iraq .

On the other hand when economic and political power is concentrated in the hands of a small number of decision makers in any system including capitalism and democracy , oftentimes those without much influence get the pig's ear while those who grease the pig get most of the benefits.

Politics by basic defintion is the system in which who gets what is decided. It can be configured in alot of ways and on a continuing scale from totally free market ( it does not exist in any modern state) to totally controlled markets (OIL) ruled by divine right which comes close to what is Saudi Arabia today - a Bush family life long friend and partner. Go figure that relationship when we seek to bring democaracy to Iraq!!!!

Greasing the pig is how the game of politics has been played, is played and will be played in any system which redistributes wealth thru group or only individual effort or in combination of those two possibilities.

Sometimes progress has to do with the amount of time, energy and skills devoted to making the earth move in a competitive system , other times sh!t happens, some people get passed or screwed over in a capitalistic or any other system for not being connected to the power brokers in government or corporate offices......

The unbridled greed of capitalism is not necessary good on its own merits and neither is its flipsiide - unbrideled waste & rewarding incompetence & sharing of resources and wealth regardless of one's own substandard effort and skill.

I am NOT about to argue in favor of pork nor against it in our government, in capitalism or any system. It has made Chicago what it is; a world class, clean , beautiful and propersous city managed successfully for generations. Not too many urban centers today around the world have done much better and where is pork more abundant than Chicago with its rich and questionable history of connections to Congress & Springfield with Democratic Party leadership.

Guess it all truly boils/filters down to the basic question in any system : who's ox is gored and who's ox is fed at the trough.

I do know that if the health of a population is important to it's long term success and happiness, the system in socialist Sweden probably does not have all the bells and whistles found in the states for the more well healed , but I don't think you will also find 25% or more of the population foregoing basic health care services there for lack of coverage.


I am NOT advocating the Swedish health care system over our current system but the pluses and minuses of how any system fits a population in a given locale when compared to others needs consideration.

klake87 Wrote:There is only so much money to go around. Our elected officials can not make the tough choices. Our governor spends $6k to fly back and forth from Chicago to Springfield. Our elected officials spend that money to get votes and make friends rich. RobertN, you would love us to be a socialist society. Hows that working in France? That country is in the crapper because they socialize everything. Capitalism might not be perfect but it is far better than any thing else going.

My point was not that we socialize everything. I think an over abundance of pork is bad but some pork can be good. My point is what one area feels is a need(thus not pork) in other areas see it as pork(and not worth their spending their tax dollars on).