Fannie Mae-No Politics (FNMA)

[Sogo]

Wait a minute please w/ the bad mouthing of capitalism. Capitalism has caused, created, and spread more wealth on this planet than any other system. What we should despise is "crony capitalism", which is exactly what Paulson and Bush were up to and Obama is the absolute king of crony capitalism in America. We will probably never get rid of all the inside dealing and the distortions of the free market that gvt involvement usually creates. But let's not forget that when buyers and sellers freely engage in buying and selling, BOTH parties win. When you buy at 1.00 you could be buying from someone who bought at .80, etc. Anyway, a very interesting distinction must be made when using the word "capitalism". In America, we understand capitalism to mean free market capitalism, where one can use his $ to build a business, or where one can work his way from being poor into being rich by means of work ethic alone. In much Europe, however, the word "capitalism" describes what we in America would call "crony capitalism". And THAT is why and where "capitalism" began to be hated by some. In England, for instance, a "capitalist" was often a factory owner who was GIVEN that factory by means of some connection to royalty! It was NOT someone who invested and risked his own hard earned money on a new venture as an American "capitalist" would (yes there are usually loans taken out, I know). European "capitalists" gave a bad name to capitalism, and to this day they have a worse opinion of capitalism generally than Americans do. But we ALL hate "crony capitalism" whether it's called that or simply "capitalism". On this the 4th of July, let's try to understand the distinction between the two meanings of the word "capitalism". In an American version of capitalism, where crony capitalism ideally wouldn't exist, there would be many more winners than losers, and even the losers would usually be winners too. What we've seen, sadly, is that our gvt has helped INCREASE crony capitalism a ton lately. So the word is getting a bad name again. Don't let that happen! Let's make sure we are distinguishing between "free market capitalism" and "crony capitalism".