The United States (and most of the Western world) is a free market economy where production of goods is mostly or completely done privately. Some may disagree with this statement and there are some valid arguments (especially with our Keynesian-like system).
I have been reading Alan Greenspan's book and it has been extremely fascinating to see how a 'free market economy' works under the covers. As a conservative, I do strongly believe that less government is better; however, when it comes to our security abroad and our homeland security I think privatization could do more harm than good (i.e. Blackwater).
That said, I recently decided to phone some of my close liberal friends and ask them a simple question:
Do you prefer a capitalist economy or a socialist economy?
Most of them didn't want to give me a one-phrase answer. They wanted to explain themselves and that is totally understandable because the question is a big one. Then, I called them back and asked them to give me a Yes or No answer to the following question:
Would you prefer an economy that is a form of socialism versus our current capitalist economy?
4 of my 6 friends answered 'Yes' and to be honest I was sort of shocked. So, I decided to take my question to this great forum. Here goes: