The system of capitalism itself is getting closer and closer to an inevitable collapse. Dissatisfiaction with the way things are going in the U.S. is getting higher and higher every year - and right now, Bush, the chief capitalist who defines "pig," is getting ratings at his lowest point in his presidency. People just aren't going to put up with making minimum wage forever - hours upon hours slaving away for a system that concentrates its profits with a tiny percentage of the people. The wealth needs to be spread around, and unless we start thinking of ways to do that and change our system to be more humanizing, the revolution is going to be soon and it is going to be violent.

Total nonsense. Give me a break, our "capitalist pigs" have produced the most wealth of any country in history. The poorest people in our country are richer and better off than the middle class in most other ones. Who would you rather be - us, or France, who have adopted socialism and ended up with virtually 100% unemployment among the non-whites. It just created its own set of elites, and they don't even make that much. Why? Because year after year, the U.S. grows a couple of percent faster than they do. Compounding makes a big difference - 2% may not sound like much, but after 20 years we're talking about trillions of dollars in GDP that they don't have - because they did the stupid recommendations people like you make. We've already had plenty of your revolutions, and it damn sure has been violent - hundreds of millions of people dead for a utopian fantasy that has never happened and never will. Give it up already.

Then how come our system destroys and dehumanizes so many people, not to mention animals? We have entire companies dedicated to ripping apart the flesh of animals, a system that forces people to slave away in jobs they don't like, and you want to call it "progress" by measuring the amount of money people are making. For some people, that's not the end goal - we don't want our lives measured in dollars and sense. If we don't end up making as much money as somebody else, fine - I'd be perfectly happy to live like the French.

It's not about not making money, it's about getting to do what you want. The French can't - they are stuck in the hippie lifestyle that you think is a good idea, and no one gets a choice. That's why our country is infinitely better - we get to choose how we want to live. If I want to work 80 hours a week for my beemer, I can. Fine, leave me the hell alone and let me do it. You're still free to go be a teacher or hackysack maker or whatever and make 15k a year - you can do what you want. Nobody forces you to do anything, you just don't like it that someone else chooses to live a different way from how you do.

Well, I like my "hippie" lifestyle and your system tries its best to keep me from having it. Everything costs way more than it should, and for me to live, I have to participate in a system I don't like in all kinds of ways. And you're blindly focusing on the individual instead of our community. The way you live doesn't just affect you - it affects me in all kinds of ways. If you buy an SUV, you are sticking pollution out there that I have to deal with. Your expensive BMW is putting carbon out into the atmosphere that is warming our planet and making it impossible for me to keep living, period. I don't get a choice with your system, and I want one.

The way I live is my business. You can't just stop me from buying the kind of car I want because of some unproven theory about global warming. You're operating on scant evidence there, and even if it turns out to be true, banning all SUV's or even the most restrictive laws you can think of won't stop it. Why should you get to tell me what to do just because you make up some scare story about how it's going to hurt you so much? If I started talking about how gay marriage damages American society in general, which would be a consequence of letting individuals do what they want, you'd freak out and start telling me about how their rights are more important than the damage to society. So why should making up some environmental threat let you decide how I run my life?

i really like that last point mr. gop guy.

im not with you on the issue 100% but the idea of an individualist problem causing the decay and the way the left would deal with it.... nice.

it probably is the way we would deal with it

GOP guy what do yo know about the French? Thats bullshit that non whites have 100% unemployment. Their unemployement is less then ours. They are having one problem with muslim french feeling not part of the society and they are working on it!!! Our country ignores problems like these (we have the highest rate of violence and murder then we put them in prison. Our social problems crime, murder, rape, child molestation are the highest in the world. You know nothing about France except maybe an occasional dig from Oreilly. Its great to do well and live well just instead of making a million some people have to trash the enviorment break laws so they can m,ake multimillions. Pharmaceutical companies take the dependent and elderly and scam them so they can make billions while seniors do not have enough to live. That is wrong!!!!

Yeah I never got what the deal is with conservatives and the French. They just hate each other for some reason.

I think the whole debate is getting derailed. Firstly this is not about Conservatives and French,but rather the ills afflicting capitalist society.
Capitalism has numerous ills. Undoubtedly it is a misnomer to hold it has generated unprecedented wealth. It has done so only for a section of people. One of the greatest frauds in history is that some countries where a large number of people live in despicable conditions are now considered to be global economic players.I am referring to India and China.
With regard to countries such as Britain and the United States sections of society are really badly off, such as pensioners and the working class. In the United States I have heard pensioners have to pay through their noses for medical expenses and prefer crossing the border to Canada to buy medicines!
France has better system as it has a greater role for the state and has not left everything to laissez faire free market economics. Integration of minorities is not something unique to France.The same problem is found elsewhere as well.
The requirement of the times,in my opinion is Scientific Socialism,whereby socialism is combined with democratic characteristics and a limited private sector.