When someone hears of a person’s death, the first reaction is usually denial. “No, that can’t be.” Then a turn to the past for hope. “I just saw them the other day and they were fine.” “I knew they were sick, but I heard they were getting better.” Similar things are being said about Capitalism.
“Capitalism dead? That’s absurd. It’s just a slump, a recession.” “This has happened before.” “It’s the business cycle.” “We have always recovered.” “We just need to kick start the economy.” “We just need to bail out the banks to get credit flowing again.” “The Stock Market has been going up. Oh, you say it just went down. That’s temporary. Wait until tomorrow, or next week, or a year or two. It will go back up.” “There will be pain and suffering for a while, but if we just tighten our belts, things will get better.” “Austerity will lead to prosperity.”
“Government is the problem. If we just get government out of the way, capitalism will recover.” “We just need to cut taxes and entitlements and regulations.” “Balance the government’s budget and Capitalism will recover.”
The clearest sign of denial is the call for more growth. “We need to grow the economy more.” “The rate of growth is too slow.” “People need to spend more.” “There is not enough demand.” “We can grow our way out of this slump.”
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