As we've seen, rapacious capitalism has failed under it's own weight. Greed, the central, driving element of capitalism drove that economic system into the ground. Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Adelphia were all presages of the hedge fund - deriative machinations which has brought the US to it's knees on it's way down to the ground. Only a person so disconnected from reality they believe the US hasn't been torturing those folks in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Eastern Europe and the Middle east could deny that.

There is no sense trying once again to argue for protecting workers and the environment from unregulated capitalism. That economic model can't protect ITSELF from itself. And has had to turn to socialism to protect the people.

There are many projects the government could undertake. It could build factories which crank out solar panels and the accoutrements for solar systems. Said factories would be owned by the government and ultimately sold to the folks who work in them.

The government could be building hospitals and clinics designed to rapidly and efficiently provide care to all citizens by other people trained to work in health care.

The government could be building addiction treatment centers, attacking the narco-states through their markets. If the US didn't buy drugs many of the worlds production centers would close.

The US could build efficient and flexible mass transit, conceding to foreign companies the ability to build cheap cars. The focus could become getting from one place to another most of the time, with private vehicles available for the less-than-routine trips. One advantage - fewer killings by drunk drivers.

And the US could work to create a middle-class through building more schools and providing the challenged with a varied and intensive learning experience, not expecting everyone to learn the way some of us were forced. The American dream should not be to be a crew leader at McDonalds, always in debt to credit card and payday check lenders

There is a lot which can be done which is positively helpful to the Universe. A corporate dividend is only one of the considerations in an enlightened world.

Arf