The death of Capitalism

During the first Great Depression many people began to question the viability of capitalism as an economic system. In those days, of course, the principal alternatives available were Socialism, Marxism, Communism, and many Americans began to subscribe to those ideas to one degree or another. FDR came in and, depending on who you want to listen to, either used John Maynard Keynes or World War II to restore the economy and introduce a form of constrained capitalism, which we lived under rather successfully until Reagan and his successors dropped all the constraints on capitalism and took us back to the days of the robber barons and the Guilded Age.

Not that we're facing the second Great Depression, people will undoubtedly begin to question unfettered capitalism once again. Certainly, they should. But, there don't seem to be any competing isms around anymore. I think we need a few. I'm certainly ready to declare capitalism dead this time around. And, somebody needs to drive a silver stake through its heart to keep it from rising from the grave once again.