Baraka_Guru

But even America is far from being purely capitalist. One merely has to look as far back as the 19th century of Robber Barons and Tycoons to see the difference. Even back then, it wasn't purely capitalist. Want to know why? There were severe tariffs preventing international competition in the U.S. That's right, the American government was protecting these few but very rich companies of the 19th century. That is not pure capitalism. That is a highly capitalistic economy governed by a socialist measure: government protectionism. It was all going so well until the public pressured the government to step in to fight exploitation of workers and unfair competition practices. The rest is history.

Even in America—the most capitalistic nation in the world—deals in worker unions, labour laws, economic protectionism, socialized benefits, regulation, etc, etc. America, even in its capitalistic glory, is a mixed economy. This is a technical fact.

That said, we deal with mixed economies because what you call "interferences" are much more deeply ingrained and complex than that. It is strict and far-reaching government control of aspects of production and ownership. These economies have socialist aspects to them. That's what they are in essence. It is this combination that makes them technically mixed economies. For them to be technically capitalist, they'd need to have no government intervention whatsoever (e.g. goodbye unions, labour laws, minimum wages, safety regulations, maximum work hours, statutory holidays, etc.). As we know, government intervention is well established pretty much everywhere.

Another question: If there has been no working model for communism, how do you know it's not flawed? Hasn't it been attempted? Does that not mean it's flawed?

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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot