You must have capitalism confused with socialism, communism, mercantilism, anarchism, monarchism and any host of other isms that have little to do with capitalism.
Nope, I'm thinking of capitalism. I study history, or have you forgotten?
The tract record of capitalism is humanity reaching the greatest hieghts any our civilization has ever known in every category. Are you discussing this on the interet right now? +1 Capitalism.
Do you work less than 60 hours a week, and with enough pay to support yourself and a family? Were you educated at a public school? Did the steak you had for dinner tonight get inspected for quality and pathogen safety? + 4 Socialists.
The shell socialism you attribute to that to is nothing more than a leach on the capitalism that provides the means for it to happen. There is nothing involved in modern living that is not built on the resources provided by capitalism.
No, the forces he mentioned are a direct result of workers expressing their desire for a better life, and standing up to the powers of big business and the moneyed. And that, more than anything, is what socialism is.
There is nothing authoritarian in a capitalist society.
The very nature of the capitalist system of private ownership of businesses is directly analogous to despotism in the political sphere. Just as we fought for the right for every citizen of a country to have an equal say in the running of the country they live in, so should every employee have an equal say in the running of the company they dedicate themselves to. Its democracy versus despotism. Why do you stand on the side of the corporate tyrants? You are not of them, it is not in your interest to do so.
And, of course, capitalism absolutely requires a strong central government capable of protecting the rich and their private property "rights," which is where all their power derives from. This is why corporate and government big wigs cooperate. If you removed the government from the capitalist equation, it would almost immediately collapse under the pressure from below. Such is not the case with socialism, because socialism answers the needs of the vast majority of people, and prejudices no one but the idle.
At least in a sense of human onto human. You are free to live your own life, as you choose, work for the wage that you want, start your own business, charge whatever you want for your goods, pay your employees whatever you want (should they accept it)
None of those inhibitions exist in socialism, either. They have only existed in planned economies, which have come about as a direct result of the inappropriate and incomplete application of socialism to undeveloped or underdeveloped societies. Fortunately for us, however, the US is one of the few nations on the planet which has reached a stage where capitalism can really be said to have run its course, and which is economically ripe for true socialism.
The only limiting factors within a capitalist society are due to the nature of markets.
And the fact that the poor have zero say in the economic sphere, which is arguably more important to their daily lives than the political sphere is,
Maslow's Heirarchy and all that.
But there is no overarching limiting factor when compared to socialism.
Don't confuse capitalism with the free market, now.
