Link of the Day April 15, 2013 Younger Americans are thinking deeply about socialism --- is it a viable alternative to predatory capitalism?

capitalism (Photo credit: wallstalking.org)

SOCIALISM FOREVER (Photo credit: tonynetone)

 

Without any recognition from the mainstream media, it appears that alternative ideas to the prevailing economic system of capitalism are burgeoning in the United States.  The online site truthout.com today publishes a fascinating study by Gar Alperovitz of various ideas that have emerged, and seem to be competing for attention among thoughtful people. Sparkplug for this article is the discovery that  two polling institutions have recently reported that Americans under 30 years of age are almost equally divided as to whether capitalism or socialism is the better system, and by the report  from Merriam Webster dictionary that  in 2012 the words “capitalism” and“socialism” were the two most-looked-up words of the year. Perhaps this is clutching at straws, but the recent trauma through which the capitalist system  has passed inevitably seems to have given place to a more questioning public than one might suppose exists from simply following news reports.