Capitalism is broken

[Sqrl]

ManusJustus said:

mrstickball said:

In praxis, that CEO may give his son the business only to have him totally squander the business. We've seen that very often in America. Look at the Big 3 auto makers who had a lineage of ownership by the family - at some point, a son or daughter rose to power, and squandered what they had. A similar situation is taking place in Cleveland with the Cleveland Browns and the son who inherited it.

As for your argument about the single mother. That hard working youth may have been Larry Ellison who was birthed by an unwed 19 year old mother. To this day, no one knows who the father is of Mr. Ellison.

There is opportunity, but no one can claim that opportunity is any where close to being equal.  The son of a rich CEO is still filthy rich, even if he is a total failure in life.  Even a driven person, like Larry Ellison, works to get to that same level, he had to put a lot of hard work in to get there whereas the wealthy heir did absolutely nothing for the same.

That's not really a feature of capitalism, thats a choice of an individual.

At some point all fortune's started from zero and the men and women who earned them have every right to spend them however they want....after all they earned it. 

The point being made about equal opportunity is that the system does not pick and choose winners and losers...people get to decide if they win or lose through their own actions.  The rich kid who gets everything handed to him was chosen by the winners who have previously earned the right to make that choice, he is not chosen by the system of capitalism to be given that advantage. Even so, the kid handed everything can squander it all in 5 years, thus releasing that fortune to more capable hands.  Or he could prove skillful at managing it and create more wealth for himself and others through investments, inventions, etc.....Either way the money eventually makes it back into the hands of people who put the fortune to work for everyone by creating jobs, making products, providing services, and generally creating wealth for everyone motivated by the drive for their own wealth.

Neither capitalism or socialism play favorites, it is the people within those systems who do.  Under capitalism people can only play favorites as far as the money they've earned will allow them.  Under socialism they can play favorites ..pretty much indefinitely if they can get into the elite positions that make those choices.

Now the original post Manus responded to was wrong in that capitalism doesn't gauruntee equal opportunities in a day to day sense of everyone gets the same call-backs for a job.  But it does gauruntee a minimum opportunity for success that is more than reasonable.  Namely that if you work hard, apply yourself, never give up, and stay focused you will be successful to the extent that your talents and abilities can be.