Capitalism has a number of dangerous inherent flaws. It has no way to deal with externalities, leading to unstoppable depletion of natural resources and accumulation of waste (including things like carbon dioxide and even heat). It has no intrinsic mechanism for determining a "fair" division of surplus wealth (i.e. profits) between workers, management and owners, leading to incessant and often violent negotations over wealth sharing. It tends to create monopolies which are at odds with the basic concept of a free market. The actual way in which it functions is highly dependent on the societal and legal framework in which it operates. It probably isn't even possible at all without strong central governments, whereas it rejects the idea of external regulation and claims to be autonomously sufficient. These are not problems that can be resolved by "tweaking" the pure economics of capitalism, they are inherrent. Clearly only a modified form of regulated capitalism has any chance to function effectively in the long term (if that). This is basically the system that came out of world war II, and it worked fairly well until several things happened that may perhaps be linked. First and foremost, right wing ultraconservatives established a long term explicit plan to roll back as much as possible of the New Deal and post-war evolution, including things like high marginal tax rates, estate taxes, capital gains taxes, Social Security, minimum wages, and so on. This is clearly a case of pure class warfare. It is obviously not sustainable in the long term, as an impoverished population can't afford to purchase the products, thus reducing demand and ultimately making the capitalist system itself dysfunctional. Second, there is the component of pure costs of production, which must be presumed to have risen significantly with the end of cheap US oil in the mid 1970s. I remember myself when gasoline was less than 30 cents at the pump, and each penny increase was a newsworth. Nowadays prices in the US are at least 3-4 times that, and are even higher in Europe. Whether as a source material for chemical industry (as in plastics) or as a source of energy, a several fold increase in price must reduce profits if the price index does not rise equivalently. To me it is highly suspicious that the beginning of the triumph of the right wing neocon agenda began shortly after the mid-1970s. It could be coincidental, but could also be that the increase in oil prices and lack of control of those prices translated into greater energy put into subverting our political process. Further support for this idea comes from the relatively recent recovery of the US economy (in terms of GDP if not wages), also coincident with the use of new technologies to increase national oil production thereby reducing dependence on middle -eastern oil (reducing but not eliminating).

Story coming out of New Jersey, due to problems with budget negotiations many state services are shut down over this Fourth of July weekend. That includes various state parks and beaches. OK, except that the governor (C.C.) apparently took his family to one of those parks and there were various pix posted on the internet of them sunning on an otherwise empty expanse of sand. The sheer arrogance seems beyond belief, except that it's only too believable. We know well that some people lack all empathy, however we prefer that such people not be elected to manage our affairs. In this case, the governor is probably a lame duck, after a seriously failed presidential run plus being spurned by the administration. He may simply be thumbing his metaphoric nose at everyone. But he is still running the state, in theory. And yet, he probably does feel a sense of empowerment, given that America has been giving positive signals to politicians to behave with increasing meanness and haughtiness. In addition to the message that poor people and minorities should not share equal opportunity or even basic civil rights, this is being extended to practically everyone who is not wealthy. How self-avowed populists can reconcile such behavior with the basic idea of populism is difficult to understand. But clearly the republican party, for all its supposed patriotism, has actually little interest in understanding or functioning under the true values by which the US was founded. The founders espoused the values of the Enlightenment, which have nothing to do with the actions (as opposed to the rhetoric) of the conservatives these days.