by Tristan Taylor

Created on: October 28, 2009   Last Updated: October 29, 2009

If there had to be one answer to this complicated problem then it would be "yes". All of us who have witnessed the way our current economy is sliding into a deeper and deeper pit have good reason to question the economic system that got us where we are today.

However, it is important to note that things are not always what they seem. Most Americans assume that we have had a capitalist model in this country since its humble beginnings over 200 years ago. Sure, it is generally accepted that our nation has become a little more socialist over time, especially with the reign of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

However, most Americans are still under the impression that, with the exception of recent bailouts of some sizable United States businesses under the Obama administration, this country has historically been a capitalist one, whatever that means.

Let us consider a definition of capitalism:

An economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market. (Merriam-Webster)

Okay, swell, we've got a nice, tidy little definition of capitalism, but is that really the kind of economy we have had? To one extreme is pure free market capitalism where everything can be bought and sold with absolutely no restrictions and where there is no government ownership of the means of production.

At the other end of the spectrum is communism which includes public control of all the means of production and total control over what can be bought and sold. Somewhere in between is socialism which has a little bit of both. It is generally accepted that the American economy has historically been pretty close to capitalism, and that, it has only been very recently that the United States has drawn anywhere near socialism.

Well, even before Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal brought us a deluge of new government spending and programs, state governments and, eventually the federal government, decided to make one very important part of our economy follow a socialist model; they created public schools.

We've been taught to believe that public schools are a necessary part of our American lifestyle. Without it, it is assumed that nary a soul in the country would receive a decent education. We would all be walking around semi-literate, with no real future, no job, and its quite possible that most of us would

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