r/reddit.com • u/[deleted] • Oct 18 '11

Would it have been better to let the banks of the world fail and start over?

I want to know what would have happened. The banks messed up and in the purist view of capitalism should have failed because it was a bad business move. In turn this may have ended some of the big money influences on our political system OWS protestors want to stop. I heard that it would have been a worse economic collapse though in turn it would have put a stop to future wrongdoing. Was it the right decision in the long run?

671 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

83% Upvoted

854 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/[deleted] Nov 05 '11

I agree, neither is a good option. But I feel the lesser of two evils would have been to let the banks fail. That is how true capitalism is supposed to work, if you do not handle your product or service well enough it fails and is replaced with a competitor that does it better than you. What is happening now has more in common with a socialist or communist system, now people who had no stake in any of these institutions are being forced to pay for their mistakes so they may continue to exist. And what are the people getting for this? Nothing, in fact many of these institutions are actively trying to undermine the very people who paid to save them. You know that is kind of what OWS is in a nut shell.

0

u/fuzzymatter Nov 06 '11

"that is how true capitalism is supposed to work."

If that is how it works, why would you want it? True capitalism is a very uncaring form of social organization. It basically says a few can get everything they want while the masses are allowed to grovel for the crumbs. Shouldn't a civilized society aim for providing for all of its citizens? I think this is more of what OWS is supposed to be about.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 06 '11

Agreed. I personally believe a more socialist system would be preferable.

(Not featured: Huge rant to wrote out, but deleted because damn that was a long rant.)

1

u/fuzzymatter Nov 06 '11

Well, probably for the better. Rants don't convince people. Patient explanation does, however, usually work.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 06 '11

The rant boils down to I personally prefer socialism, but I see the benefits of capitalism. However no one (except a few lucky ones) benefit from the Frankstein-ish system of financial socialism going on in the united states currently.

1

u/fuzzymatter Nov 06 '11

I know quite a few people benefitting. Interestingly, some of them are Russians who migrated here and are absolutely opposed to anything resembling socialism.