Is President Obama running as a Socialist candidate in 2012?

Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, is slamming the country again. This time the way that Capitalism and American principles (Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness) have never worked.

Speaking in Osawatomie, Kansas (on Tuesday, December 6, 2011), where in 1910 an off-the-rails Teddy Roosevelt laid out a new socialist-inspired dream for America he entitled the “New Nationalism,” Obama had a few choice words for Capitalism and our American principles.

In his speech, Obama went for the gusto in class warfare rhetoric characterizing anyone that makes a few dollars as the evil rich that refuse to be “fair” to the poor. Obama told his audience that Capitalism doesn’t work and never did.

This is profound that an American President would state that Capitalism doesn’t work. Capitalism undergirds our Founding Fathers’ concept of an America economic system. The Founding Fathers rejected the model of a European Socialism economic system – rejecting the oppression of the past.

Comparative Economics 101: As background to the President’s statement, let’s look at what economic systems are available in the world. There are three basic economic systems in the world: Capitalism, Socialism, and Mixed.

Capitalism and Socialism are on the opposite ends of the continuum. Mixed economic systems are in the middle of the continuum.  Mixed economic systems are usually associated with developing nations. Developing nations in sub-Saharan Africa and former Communist countries in Eastern Europe are examples of developing economies. Mixed economies include both capitalist and socialist economic policies, and seek to balance a wide range of political and economic views. It is a balancing act until a stable economic system is formed.

Looking at the two primary economic systems of Capitalism and Socialism, we observe that Capitalism is a market system. Socialism is a planned system.

In a market economy, national and state governments play a minor role. Instead, consumers and their buying decisions drive the economy. Market economies aim to reduce or eliminate subsidies for a particular industry, the pre-determination of prices for different commodities, and the amount of regulation controlling different industrial sectors.

The absence of central planning is one of the major features of this economic system. Market decisions are mainly dominated by supply and demand. The role of the government in a market economy is to simply make sure that the market is stable enough to carry out its economic activities properly.

A planned economy is also sometimes called a command economy. The most important aspect of this type of economy is that all major decisions related to the production, distribution, commodity and service prices, are all made by the government. The planned economy is government directed, and market forces have very little say in such an economy. This type of economy lacks the kind of flexibility that is present a market economy, and because of this, the planned economy reacts slower to changes in consumer needs and fluctuating patterns of supply and demand.

Therefore, are we to presume from President Obama’s remark that “Capitalism doesn’t work” that he prefers a Socialism economic system – a government-planned economic system? What a total contrast to America’s founding principles. So, I ponder, is President Obama running as a Socialist candidate in 2012?