It's a mixed economy; mostly capitalist w/ socialized roads, schools, and medicine.
Somehow, a lot of laissez faire capitalist's calling card is Adam Smith, yet they forget that Adam Smith was very cautious about too little government oversight. He believed in government intervention, to keep too much power out of people like Morgan's and Melon's hands, to keep greed, monopolies, oligopolies, and collusion in check.
Inuzuka: in one of your posts you said something like - 'money makes you happier, maybe' That's ridiculous: money gives you access to better food, better schools, better health care. Are these not advantages?
Also, some of you talk about handouts. People want to work. Have you ever pulled up to a stoplight in some city, and seen a guy with a rag and a few teeth jump up and run to your car, with the chance that he might make .50 cents or so? Do you think that pays better than your average 9-5? Do you not think it's humiliating for this person to be sneered at, to be completely ignored by half the people driving by, when all he wants to do is make a little cash.
People want to work, and everyone ought to be given the chance to work making at least $10 per/hr. with benefits, with the option to unionize. A strong middle class is what built up our economy. Under FDR all the way up until Carter we had that because the highest tax bracket paid over 70% beyond $3 mil./yr. Also, corporations had to pay an extremely high rate on profits, either that or they had to reinvest that money back into the company. That equalled more machines, and more factories, and more jobs. That's before Reagan came in and dismantled everything. During his administration, we were only able to keep the illusion of a strong economy, by him bilking S.S. $ and putting it into debt, which he was growing at an alarming rate. He rounded up 4x as much debt in his 8 years, as the country had ever accumulated in it's entire 200 previous years of existence. This is your conservatives' free market hero?
Stem cell research, and public option health care would go a great deal towards helping some of these heavier people lose weight through surgery, or reversing genetic dispositions. You don't think these people who are so overweight that they can barely move around their house are ashamed? You think they like living like that? You think they're just too godd*amn lazy? What arrogance.