Capitalism, or the lack of it, is the reason the US is a failing enterprise.

Capitalism, by definition, is an economic system characterized by freedom of the marketplace. Private and corporate entities own the means of production and distribution and making a profit is the goal for every business.

With that freedom of choice, capitalists have chosen to relocate their means of production around the globe to achieve the lowest labor costs. Because of the disparity in wages between the East and the West the rate of migration of labor-intensive manufacturing to the East will continue and increase in the future.

Because people value their lives more than anything, duh, they are subject to extortion in the most perverse fashion by the healthcare industry. By artificially restricting the number of healthcare professionals and resources available (a subject for future discussions, I hope) healthcare costs have gone beyond ridiculous. This is causing the migration of millions of patients to institutions out of this country.

For example, the fact that our hospitals need $100,000 to perform an operation a hospital in India can do for $10,000 will simply increase the rate of exportation of our professional jobs to emerging nations.

Business cannot remain competitive when government expects an ever larger slice of gross revenues, which is another problem that capitalism is struggling with in this country.

Capitalism and greed are not the same, but greedy capitalists are destroying the distinction. Business has been able to replace capitalism (remember, freedom is the key word in capitalism) with rule by a financial elite. It is the members of this elite who determine market movements. By manipulating and bending our Congress and executive branches to the will of special interests they have effectively circumvented the markets from operating freely. Since nothing is really “free” about our economy in a capitalist sense, we can’t really consider ourselves living in a capitalist nation any longer.

It has been really amazing to have witnessed, over the past 30 years, the shift of capitalism from the US and Europe to, of all places, Communist China.

Capitalism, as a business model in this country, is in the wind.