Should you be Libertarian? Conservative? Socialist? What?!

Yes, and none of the above. I am a Realist. That means any economic system must:

• Work within the ecology, meaning be sustainable. Attempting to operate the economy as if it were not part of nature results in pollution, drawdown of natural capital like topsoil and oil, and ultimately, collapse. The economy is part of the ecology, not the other way around.
• Humans are part of the ecology. There is no point designing idealistic systems that do not respect human nature; people will find ways around such rules.

I don’t know what such an economy is called, because it has some capitalist and some socialist aspects; I call it a green economy.

The two major economic systems tried in recent eras have failed. The communist empires of the U.S.S.R. and China, same as the capitalist empires of Great Britain and the U.S.A, created vastly polluted and degraded areas. Neither ideology respects Nature’s rules, and a price was paid – and will be paid.

Both capitalism and communism also disrespect human nature. Communism expected endless self-sacrifice for the greater good – in reality for the enrichment of those at the top – while capitalism expects endless consumption for the greater good – again, in reality, for the enrichment of the CEOs at the head of the gravy train.

Both systems are run by greedy men who care only for themselves. Libertarianism is unregulated capitalism, and is a disaster because humans require some regulation to live in a society. Left unregulated, the predators will naturally rise to the top, as we have seen in the United States. The CEOs care only for the size of their paycheque, and actively lobby to enhance their pay and prestige at the expense of their country. The government becomes corrupted and serves the corporate leaders rather than the citizens.

Excessive government combined with secrecy is also an excellent route to the top for those of predatory morality, and thus the disaster of the Soviet Union, and its ultimate collapse.

The best economic solution appears to have the following features:

• No mega-corporations; companies will always seek to grow, thus eliminating competition and controlling the government. This must be prevented; break them up long before they get “too big to fail”. Only with many small businesses will there be a competitive market.
• No mega-rich people; they will seek to pervert government for their own benefit. Set maximum wealth taxes.
• Strict government regulation on pollution, worker safety, and so forth
• Cooperative unions or no unions
• Significant employee ownership of their company
• Cooperatives rather than corporations for many current businesses, such as wind farms
• Open government – nothing is hidden

Some governments are close to this, such as the Scandinavian countries, and their standard of living reflects it. Further evidence comes from the great leaps forward in the 1950s and 1960s in the United States; millions of people achieved a secure, middle class lifestyle as corporations were held in check by government and unions. Most of that has been piddled away now, thanks to the actions of those listed in the first two bullets above. But during that time, taxes on the rich were up to 90%, economic growth was tremendous, and everyone was getting into the middle class. We should be learning from prior times when things went well.

Capitalism and Communism have both failed. What’s next? It must be the green economy: work within the ecology, including human nature.