Capitalism or Socialism?

When we bail out banks, Wall Street, and states, are we embracing socialism as a way to solve our economic crisis? The words "socialism" and "socialists" have been bandied about by the press, but is this the way we are really headed? Do we want to depend on government to always come to the rescue when we get ourselves in financial trouble or do we want to pull ourselves up by our own entrepreneurship or "bootstraps" if you will?

Apparently we want both.

A business will succeed or fail on its own, but often needs a boost in the early years to keep afloat. There is nothing wrong with that. But what about a business that has gotten ahead by cheating or lying about its assets. Are we supposed to try to keep these afloat as well? What if the business made lots of profit for the owners, only to drain the business itself and its workers dry? Sound familiar? Where do we draw the line in saving a business, especially when the business impacts a lot of people. President Obama has tried to address this by requiring salaries of top executives to be capped if they request federal bailout money. This is a good start, but falls short. Many of these executives are criminals. They should be in jail instead of being rewarded for bad business practices and shady deals. I wonder how these people sleep at night knowing how many people are suffering due to their misdeeds.

How do we decide which businesses truly deserve help and which ones should be weeded out...I don't know the answer, but I believe that capitalism will do the weeding out eventually. Only the strong and well run company will last in the long haul. In the meantime, socialist-type bailouts will be acceptable until we get back on our feet.