Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 11/3/09 Section: Opinion

Winston Churchill once remarked, "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."

I agree with him on this. Democracy is the only form of government that gives its citizens any kind of protection against a tyrant.

Democracy isn't perfect, but it's a lot better than any of the alternatives.

People are more equal in a democracy. Boiled down to its core, democracy is one vote for one person. It is the fairest form of government.

Capitalism and democracy have long been looked at as going hand in hand - freedom to vote, and freedom to work and spend.

Churchill had some thoughts on capitalism as well.

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."

Again, I agree with Churchill's assessment of the two different economies. The blessings of capitalism aren't 'equal,' unlike the miseries of socialism, but at least people have a chance to change their blessings.

If I work hard, I will get ahead in a capitalistic economy - at least that has been the train of thought for some time now.

But more and more, it seems as if this line of thinking is wrong. The gap between those "sharing the blessings" and everyone else seems to grow every year.

Economies ebb and flow, boom and bust, and the people hurt the most are the people at the bottom of the ladder.

Job losses and falling home prices mostly hurt those who are just getting by.

Our current bust is still being felt worldwide. Unemployment is around 10 percent right now.

Yet somehow, there is optimistic talk of the beginning stages of a recovery.

The same companies that threatened to send the world economy into a depression are tracking record profits.

Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase & Co. each posted profits of more than three billion dollars.

The fat cats on Wall Street get fatter, while the rest of us tighten our belts.

Those who controlled everyone else's currency lined their pockets by making bets with everyone else's money. When their bets turned out to be wrong, the market crashed.

People still don't have jobs.

But Wall Street is making money again.

Democracy and capitalism are supposed to go hand in hand. Democracy works, for the most part.

Capitalism is increasingly becoming a story of the haves and the have-nots.

I can't say for sure what Winston Churchill would say about capitalism today if he was alive, but I can take a pretty good guess that he wouldn't say anything at all.

He would be shocked to see what it had turned into.

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