Sorry dumb question. If the ruling class wants capitalism to survive,

why don't they fix it! Why are they letting it run on fumes and drift into a ditch. The people with the money are the ones with the real power to get the economic apparatus up and running again, and they are the ones that benefit the most when it is running. So why are they just letting the engine of captialism, the economic apparatus of the U.S., to just idle and sputter?

They aren't mad scientists out of sci-fi movies.

They are morons that happened upon shit loads of money in a myriad of accidental and lucky ways.

fortune, armyowalgreens. Morons do not become super-rich. Smart, clever, ruthless, greedy people do.

And, of course, the lucky ones who come up with a great invention at the perfect time qualify for your list.

The majority the 500 richest people in the world were born into it.

their interests, they won't be in the Top 500 for long. A stupid rich person is the biggest target in the world for those who feast on the remains of dumb rich folks.

Probably a basic understanding of economics and a complete lack of a moral compass.

As we can see, there a many titans of industry that successfully ran their companies into the ground.

can run a company into the ground.

It also takes a certain amount of smarts to be able to run a company (or a nation's economy) into the ground, and still walk away with all the money you stole--while someone else foots the bill.

The guy really isn't all that bright or educated and yet he is at the top of the heap in the M$M and making millions.

No time to "fix" anything, except to "fix" ways to make government allow the greedy bastards to get more and more.

I have asked the same question many times.. as I'm sure many DU'ers have.

Answer: The Corporations control everyting... media, jobs, dialog, economy,solutions, EVERYTHING!

Behind every stock is a board that is scared to death that the price might fall. Stockholders care little for anything except the performance of the stocks they hold. Boards care little except getting through the next quarter. There is zero regard for the future, no one is looking any farther ahead than three months. Wall street and it's stockholders have us all by the balls and it seems to be the only economy that matters any more. To them fixing things just means finding another racket.

I mostly disagree with Marx, but that aspect he got totally right.

Capitalism drives you to look out for your own best interest. Above all else, your best interest is paramount. So you will try to gain as much profit for yourself because you have to get before anyone else (because they are looking out for their best interest also). So you eventually run into the fisherman's dilemma (I'll try to remember how it goes exactly).

The fishermen in a small town realize that their over-fishing is depleting the supply of a very valuable fish to the point that they cannot recover. The fishermen make a pact to not fish for those fish for a number of years in an attempt to let them repopulate, thereby saving all of the fishermans' livelihoods. The plan will work if everyone can be trusted and won't go after the profitable fish. With no one catching the fish the market would go up, and an unscrupulous fisherman could make a ton of money. But, if the other fisherman see the expensive fish in the market the agreement would be off and the fish would be hunted to extinction destroying the fishing industry and putting everyone out of work.

It's a classic example of how working for only your own self interest actually is harmful. The modern capitalist works to make as much profit as possible. With everyone doing this the cumulative effect is the destruction of the system they've built.

...as the paranoid conspiracists like to think. Because they don't have a unified agenda that they all necessarily benefit from. Because they count among their number many greedy, self-serving, highly competitive people who are often short-sighted and who are often not geniuses. Because no one, no matter how smart, powerful, and connected really understands how economies work to well enough to be sure what exactly causes what -- although if they were smarter and less short-sighted and less out for personal, short-term gain, they could at least have figured out some of the basics well enough to not cause the mess we have now.

don't seem to care whether the marketplace remains friendly to them after they have trashed their own bridges. It's all about NOW, MORE, EXPLOIT!

They definitely aren't smarter than me or you. But they are more powerful, and that makes all the difference.

And, to be clear, I am referring to a handful of Americans: The .001% who control everything.

to be suffering much.

Bust unions, gut social programs, privatize everything in sight, globalize

See, they ARE trying to 'fix' it.

why would they want to?

no need to change

Real Estate is becoming cheaper to buy, no one is cracking down on their bonuses and the federal government just covered up their mistake.

Things are working for them.

and have been making that choice for awhile now.


That's the short answer.