"The short-sightedness and greed of capitalism is not just the criminal activity of a few ‘bad apples’, its the inevitable consequence of a system that incentivizes corruption and waste."

A completely unregulated capitalist system would incentivize corruption and fraud. But of course we have a mixed economy and regulations and laws about those things. They still happen, but people are punished if caught, at least sometimes. Trump gets away with his bullshit but Bernie Madoff didn't. Corruption also exists in a socialized system. And waste is a much bigger problem in top down socialism.

Bro, you have a life long belief system you cling to with clenched fists. You're like a fundamentalist religionist seeking anything you can find to verify your system of belief and ignoring anything that disproves it.

Let's get back to the origninal argument I made here. Honestly think about it: have you not heard your entire nearly 8 decade long life that America is on the brink of collapse? And still we have the richest economy and strongest military in the world. By far.

And before our time, think of the dark days of the Great Depression and WW2. For a decade and a half the world was collapsing. Do you think there were any Americans back then who had a bright vision of the future? Anyone who could have imagined the economic prosperity over the horizon?

What gives me some confidence in the future is the failure of the pessimists' predictions time after time after time. I've heard arguments like yours since I was old enough to understand them. The biggest problem America faces today is not our economic system, it's our political system. THAT is what worries me.