wow, just discovered Joseph Schumpeter. Part of what he has to say is so clear. Creative destruction where one market or innovation destroys the old one, destroying old jobs and creating new ones. The role of the entrepreneur in creating new markets, that is how we move forward and innovate. Without Capitalism, we were just in a steady state, no one could move and wars were the only creative destructive force.
So, to me it is obvious that capitalism must survive. The right has it correct in that point. But for capitalism to survive, it must take care of the workers it depends on. We only need to look at history to see the consequences of not doing so. In the immediate aftermath of the industrial revolution, millions were displaced and lived horrible lives of squalor to support the new men with their new machines. England, France and Germany began to put in safety nets and to take care of those workers to lessen the blow of this displacement, chaos and creative destruction. The Russian Czar refused and revolution followed. The competing view of Socialism won.
Schumpeter thought that Capitalism would gradually fail (unlike Marx who predicted violent overthrow) because of the social unrest it caused. He posited that intellectuals would lead and crystallize the resentment for the people and spur increasingly social democracy in politics. He correctly noticed that democracies are not lead by 'the people' but lead by politicians who sway the populace. It is really competing politicians that come to an election and form political platforms, not grass roots movements.
Obviously, Schumpeter was unable to see the ultimate failure of Socialism in Eastern Europe and also failed to predict some of the positive results of greater and greater innovation of technology beginning in the 80s. I think the  European experiments in Social Democracy are up in the air. On the one hand, many of them have moved more to the right, privatizing industries again as in England and Sweden, yet the more recent global economic downturn has caused a lot of unrest.

So now the question faces us; how far right or left do we move forward to ensure the positive benefits of Capitalism continue? I think we must ensure that entrepreneurs can continue to innovate. So we have to do things like allow qualified immigrants who want to start businesses and new ideas can come into this country. We don't want to end up like Japan with a closed society, aging population and stagnating economy. Let the immigrants come. If they have a good education and have something to contribute, open the doors! Although seems like something that is only on the liberal agenda, it is ultimately a conservative one. Regulation is a sticky one. We have to have an atmosphere conducive to new business development and innovation, but when certain sectors of the economy take too many risks and create too much destruction, what is the point at which we have to help smooth out some of those lows? I think conservatives have to allow a certain amount of safety net for those who's jobs and industries have disappeared, but with an eye to getting them back into a changed workforce and market. That is government's role, to catch the ones who fall as the result of creative destruction and soften the blow even if temporarily. But I think that liberals have to concede that large sums of government money spent on things like affirmative action do not work as well as they did in the past partly because they have been so successful! There are no more (or far fewer) large, discrete segments of the population, as there once were, who could be quickly and easily assisted to improve their opportunities via education. Perhaps the private sector could pitch in for reeducation and retraining?

Anyway, I've rambled enough. Will have to give it some more thought and post more later.

I'm starting to think again. Interesting stimulus in my life from different directions. Wife, kids, martial arts, work, friends, church, community, economy, philosophers. Just looking for a place to put my thoughts down on paper. But since this is the 21st century, well, I'm putting it in the 'cloud'.