BILL MOYERS JOURNAL | David Simon Part 2 of 2 | PBS

I thought I knew all this stuff before I watched this interview, yet I'm feeling like I've learned more about politics & the system watching this interview than I have my whole life.

One of the biggest problems in this society today is that when it comes to socialism and capitalism, people have no idea what they're talking about. Capitalism and Socialism, operate on a scale. The fact of the matter is no other nation in the world practices the level of capitalism that we do, on a scale of 1 to 10 we are a 8.5. Most other Western Nations are about 6s and China is a 5.
Moving down the scale is what got us out of the great depression. Ignorance would have kept us in it.

i wish i could guve you more than one thumbs up

Great interview, especially on the drug war, but i think he's a bit confused about "capitalism", he claims "greed" caused the housing bubble, yet that is wrong, what caused the bubble was artificial interest rates being set too low encouraging lending to people who couldn't pay it back, also these banks took risks because they knew the government would bail them out ("too big to fail"), this is not capitalism, if REAL capitalism was allowed to function poor people would benefit hugely .

P.S granted the bankers were greedy, that goes without saying, but without the safety net of government bail out they would have been more prudent, so greed was not the cause of the housing bubble otherwise we'd be in a perpetual state of depression, which we're not.

The federal reserve monetary policy has a lot to answer for, if you want a reall good analysis of this crisis read "meltdown" by Thomas Woods.

no, no and no. there would still be a part of society that just isn't needed, and that's what The Wire is about, and that's what he is talking about

Well, it's just like my friends on hard left--the Marxist Leninists--would say in the face of the atrocities committed by the USSR, Red China, North Korea, the Eastern Bloc, East Germany, Cambodia, etc., etc., "If REAL communism was allowed to function poor people would benefit hugely."

Just because thats Ron Pauls opinion dosnt mean it's neccesarily correct

The greed was in the short term gains for the brokers and CEO's in commissions and bonuses.
Noone planned the bailouts. Greed outweighed ethics. It hasn't changed.

@HuxleyWasRight No, it was the securitization of debt, the packaging and selling of loans as investment vehicles, and what drove such foolhardy pursuits? GREED! A new profit mechanism discovered and exploited. How exactly does an investment driven society aid those with no capital to invest?