Do you think the United States' form of Capitalism is working or failing?

I don't think United States is fully Capitalism now. As because of the crisis, the Government had to interfere in the market. Capitalism if allowed to act freely it can distort the market. As their are different section in the society and to take care of all is the responsibility of the Government. Government can not play the role of entrepreneur but they can play the role of a manager. Let the market forces to act freely but keep eye on them and whenever required interfere in the market.

Capitalism is a great idea in theory, and there is a reason why NO country has ever fully moved to it. There is no right or wrong answer here, our economy is run much like our politics are, which is run by the wealthy. Did you know that there is a delay in stock purchases that allows traders on the floor to trade a stock knowing it will go up, and by how much? Even though there are very few that have the chance to take advantage of this, it still goes on, and no one cares. This is how our country is run, and the problem is that the people that make the most off of our system are the ones who control the system. Thus, things won't change very easily. The problem is that socialism needs the capital created by capitalism, and capitalism needs the safty net of socialism. They don't work without each other.

Right now we have limited capitalism. There are several socialist programs, like the USPS, Amtrak; and several pseudo monopolies that the government allows--like health insurance (you can't buy it across state-lines). The government interferes with and runs certain sections of the economy, and the government runs it poorly. The USPS and Amtrak haven't made a profit in living memory. If you're not constrained by self-solvency, there's no possibility of legitimate competition by private entrepreneurs. It's come up in the healthcare debate with the government's proposed plan: "We don't have to make a profit, so we can offer a cheaper plan." Those companies that do make a profit can't compete with those that can't. Imagine: It costs Sony $150 to make a Playstation 3, counting raw materials, employee pay, and shipping to the store. (These numbers are all pulled out of thin air, but they work for the analogy.) Sony sells it for $199, and makes 49 dollars of profit. They can reinvest this profit in R & D, and they'll try to increase the profit margin by lowering the cost of raw materials, or employee time required to fabricate the machines. Advances will be made, and they can trim the cost down do $117. The cost for the consumer stays the same. Sony makes more profit, does more research, then they find a way to cut costs to $95. Sony drops the retail price to $125, and the consoles fly off the shelf. The margin is lower, (30 bucks versus 50) but Sony is selling more consoles, so while the margin is lower, they're making more money. Now throw in a government video console maker. The government sells it for $50. They lose $100 for every console they sell, but it doesn't matter because profit is not an issue. They just raid the tax pantry when they run low. Nobody buys Sony Playstations anymore because they cost thrice as much as Government Issued Playstations. Soon, Sony goes out of business, because nobody buys their product. Meanwhile, the national deficit grows, because every $50 dollar console that gets sold costs the taxpayer $100. No R&D to lower costs, because there's no profit. No chance of efficiency, because there's no reason to lower costs, and there's no reason to raise prices. That's the future if we continue the way we're going now. Full out capitalism works, but it creates definite winners and losers. In this nation of self-esteem, the notion of losing is unconscionable. That's why we had the bailouts. GM and Chrysler were losing the battle, and that wasn't acceptable. If the government had let them fail, millions/billions of taxpayer dollars would have been saved, the market would have moved to Ford vs the World, and Ford would have fought to regain market share. There's a lot going on with economics and free market capitalism--too much to list here, but needless to say, ALL government involvement with the market is bad. It does self-regulate, and it self-regulates a lot faster by itself than with government help.

The government needs to leave economics alone and let the invisible hand fix it. Bailouts clearly arent working. The only reason the stock market is coming back is that it is being propped up by the world market as countries like Brazil and India have rapidly increasing GDP while the US flatlines.