[Larryp (Laurie)]

Brian, the thing that made America the world's economic powerhouse was small goverment and lack of interference in business-unlike us. I can remember reading in The Financial Review back in 1985, that 41% of our tax paying workforce worked in goverment/para-goverment administrative jobs compared to 21% in the USA. These people do not generate any wealth for a country, and the more you can reduce the number of public servants and employ people in manufacturing/service jobs the better. I have no idea what the comparison figures are now, but I imagine they are worse.
Its no good saying get rid of the capitalists, because its the capitalists who provide jobs. People who start up businesses should be encouraged by goverment-not hounded by a pile of rules and regulations which cost heaps of money to comply with, as they are here.
USA's financial problems were not caused by capitalists anyway, but by a dodgy banking/financial system. Just look at the big companies they took down with them-General Motors for instance.
This started with the Clinton presidency, when lending institutions were encouraged to lend money for housing to people who had no way to repay it. This led to more and more creative financial rubbish to try to hide the bad loans and as you know, brought the whole world down.
And I didn't say you should just give people money-quite the opposite.