Posted by John Q. Public on January 26, 2008 at 10:10:36:
"If this can be accomplished by true living wage, and policies which provide programs for health care and education, and those who make more would pay more taxes, what would be wrong with capitalism?"
First, it cannot be done under capitalism. Capitalism is a system based on individuals (usually those who are a bit greedier and a bit more ruthless) controlling the economy and using that power to control politics, social relations, culture etc.
The rich control both political parties. Decisions are made that benefit both their short term and long term interests. At times they make concessions to workers but then try to take them back when they feel more powerful (neoliberalism).
Socialism means a profound change such that individual capitalists no longer have the power that they have in this society. Decisions then can be made that benefit the majority. It cannot happen as long as economic power resides in the same hands. See for example, Chile in the 1970s, France in the 1980s.
There clearly are differences between different brands of capitalism. Workers in Sweden get a better deal than those in Indonesia. Nevertheless, as long as capitalists retain economic power, hard-won gains by workers can always be taken away. See for example the attacks on workers' benefits in Scandinavia during the 1990s, Germany and France in the last decade or China under a nominal communist party which has given back power to individual capitalists during the last 20 years.
Even during times when workers can retain things like social security, capitalists still run amok in other areas. For example, killing 5 million Vietnamese, 2 million Iraqis, pissing away a trillion dollars a year on the military, polluting to the point that the whole planet's viability is in danger, etc.
Each of these anti-human activities manages to produce profits for some and that's what capitalism is all about. Control over the production of culture: news, TV entertainment, music lyrics, movies, books, magazines, advertising displays, and religion means that the values associated with this exploitation tend to dominate over human centered values. The goal is to try to make sure that humans simply cannot imagine any other way of living.