The answer is: No.
It is a myth that a capitalist democracy has brought economic prosperity to the people of any country including the U.S. Any improvement in the welfare of the working class was fought against bitterly by the capitalists. The struggle made by the labor movement from the 1930's on to improve their standard of living is what made life bearable. It was no gift from the corporate capitalists. Organized labor leading often times violent class struggles brought improved living standards to the workers. The violence was perpetrated and paid for by the corporations through the use of goons and strikebreakers. And, of course, the main stream media always blamed labor for the violence.
Yes, there are those who prosper under corporate capitalism, for example, the upper 10% and the upper 1% who prosper shamelessly as we have seen. Obviously the plutocracy protects those at the top and ignores those at the bottom. At the same time that obscene fortunes amass at the top, millions of Americans are living below the poverty line and middle class family income in the last 20 years has decreased. Millions have lost their health care, their pensions and their homes.
Democracy and capitalism are actually in constant conflict. We really can't have both. When democracy really works, the people benefit. They are more prosperous and their standard of living goes up. Entitlements and social welfare are an accepted part of the economy. The corporations, on the other hand, prefer poverty for the masses. Why? Because the poor are powerless and are not a threat. Corporation profit increases enormously when the poor work for less. As a result, poverty is increasing world wide while the wealth of billionaires is increasing exponentially. So to prevent Democracy from working at its best, the main street media sabotages it with misinformation, ballyhoo and amusement.
The corporate capitalists utilize another wrinkle to protect and increase their profit. They transfer their production to the sweat shops of South East Asia where the poverty stricken population have no option but to work the for very low wages set by the contractors who are hired by the corporations. The corporations are thus freed from paying high wages and benefits and so again maximize their profit.
As we have seen corporate capitalism has a chronic problem of over production and under employment occurring periodically. A high percentage of unemployed and underemployed reduces the ability of the populace to buy the goods and services produced. At the same time there is a vast accumulation of capital looking for a place to invest. Since there weren't any, the power brokers made something up. They poured it into sub-prime mortgages, highly leveraged derivatives, hedge funds and whatever. In 2008 it all came crashing down and that's where we are today.
Now the U.S. Corporate Capitalists own Congress and “greed is good”. The Republicans show no interest in the unemployed but show intense interest in protecting tax cuts for the rich.
The “Karl Rove” of the 19th century was a man named Mark Hanna. He used his political and financial skills to buy the office of President for William McKinley, an essential non-entity. Hanna is remembered for the following statement:
“There are two things that are important in politics, the first is money and I can't remember what the second is”.
References:
Michael Parenti. Znet
Wikipedia
