Proposed holiday: October 13th, “Capitalism is not a cure-all” day. (Open to naming suggestions! Capitalism ≠ a cure-all?)

It would be a day to celebrate Hank Paulson (former Goldsman Sachs CEO then Secretary of Treasury) temporarily buying $125 billion in “preferred stock” of the 9 largest banks in the United States in an attempt to stem a financial contagion that was disrupting the global financial system. We’re not saying capitalism is all bad, or that it doesn’t do great things (i.e. technological progress, global reductions in poverty). We’re just saying capitalism without well-design constraints can be really bad for everybody. (And without sufficient constraints can be bad for a large number of people.)

Socialism isn’t a cure-all either—in fact, nothing is a cure-all. Solutions to difficult problems should be designed on a case-by-case basis, informed by the specifics of the problem we aim to solve. Capitalism is fantastic at certain things (e.g. technological development), and terrible at others (healthcare costs).