(#5563) Capitalism without regulation will undo democracy

      We all should know how greed is. It is an addictive influence on us. Instead of moderating like we should we splurge and splurge until we are inundated with a sense of entitlement. We think we are special, much more than anyone else because we have so much more than most all others. Greed is like an ego, supersized to the point of relegating other human beings to an inconsequential state. Greed occurs when capitalism has no safeguards to keep it from expanding beyond the structures of the society that created it. Where the obscenely wealthy look upon democracy as a curse that keeps them from all facets of control like they think their wealth demands.
     Our democracy created the parameters of capitalism so that it could be a means for the gifted and extraordinarily hard working to receive due merit. What capitalism does not do is provide a structured society with boundaries. Unless capitalism has rules governing growth and abundance, capitalism will through its obsessiveness overwhelm common sense and equality of opportunity, hallmarks of democracy, with its self serving greed. We in the democracies of the world need to make sure that our gifted and extraordinarily hard working that are rewarded with merit do not receive that merit in unlimited amounts. There are finite resources as it is so giving merit without limits is not only bad for the many who are not gifted nor extraordinarily hard working but it creates a class of people more affected by greed than by common good.
     We civilized people who see society as a contract to exist together in order to have a life that is closer to safe and secure than tumultuous and chaotic, realize that democracy is the gold standard for rules to exist by. Capitalism is an economic model within democracy, that may be structured properly to include all of us citizens within our society. So democracy may well support capitalism if capitalism is regulated enough to keep it from crating greed and undermining the values of democracy. We can do this through the proper regulation of merit. Having too much is obscene while not having enough is criminal. There is a middle ground and finding that is not as hard as a fellow human being of good intent can easily imagine.