Capitalism-Has it failed its most recent test?

The Republican party has pushed Capitalism ever since I was a kid barely old enough to read newspapers my Dad brought home each day. The idea of capitalism was to let the free market rule. It has been advocated that when in doubt, leave it alone and let it work its will. And so we expected that some would do well and others wouldn't because that was the free markets working. No bail outs if you made bad choices. There had to be some accountability and what better place for that accountability to show itself than the publicity of successes and failures by the media. Healthcare not working? Let the Free markets come up with a solution to the problem. We don't need the government. Government needs to be small and to stay out of our affairs. Sound familiar?

Well today, those same people advocating the free markets and less government involvement, are having the Congress and the President pass a bailout of Financial Institutions, such as Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and Lehman, as well as those Financial Institutions which made bad choices by Sub-Prime Mortgage lending practices.

My friends, you can't have it both ways. Either we have a Capitalistic society which doesn't interfere with success or failures or we have a society which recognizes the limits of capitalism and has the government involved to solve problems like Healthcare where we have a Healthcare system for all, where Profit is not the motive but "health" and "caring" of people. You can't have it both ways! Remember that when we have these discussions during the election between McCain and Obama.

A close friend of mine who before retiring was the CEO of a large non-profit Healthcare company, told me this, "The biggest mistake I ever made was to allow the company to become a For-Profit Healthcare company. It promoted greed by Executives instead of better healthcare!" No that is an enlightened man. God Bless his honesty.

UPDATE:
The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation designed to shore up confidence in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and stem the record surge in mortgage foreclosures, sending the bill to the Senate.

House members voted 272-152 in favor of the measure, which lawmakers and administration officials expect will be passed in the Senate and signed into law by President George W. Bush. The bill gives Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson power to inject capital into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and provides for a federal agency to insure refinanced home loans. (For the complete story from Bloomberg News click here.