(December 14, 2012) — Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about social systems and how they work. One thing that I’ve noticed is that they all seem to be perfect on paper. Capitalism, in particular, seems like a splendid method of managing the economy and businesses, as shown by America’s history. However, in point of fact, is the U.S. truly a pure capitalist country? For those who don’t know, capitalism, in a nutshell, is a form of government in which businesses manage themselves with little or no government interference. Socialism, on the other hand, is a system where all people receive the same pay and the class system (low class, middle class, high class) is abolished in favor of equality. After reading about each one, I saw that they all had their own problems. Capitalism, for example, could lead to monopolies and bad working conditions for workers. One thing I find odd, however, is that the U.S., in all its years of being a capitalist country, has been eluding many of the problems of capitalism. How? It’s quite simple; with aid from the government. Whenever a company has tried to monopolize their competition, the government has always stepped in and set boundaries. AT&T, for example, tried to purchase their competitor T-Mobile in an attempt to monopolize their competition, but were stopped by the U.S. government on suspicion of monopoly. This is not necessarily a bad thing, though. Creating this unique blend of socialism and capitalism gets the best of both systems while solving most of the problems of both systems. Another example is much more recent: factory workers at Hostess tried to get reforms for better working conditions and more pay, but the managers wouldn’t comply. When a compromise could not be made, Hostess workers went on strike. In response, Hostess executives filed for bankruptcy and gave themselves 300% raises. A federal judge stopped the liquidation process, though, and proposed a meditation period for both sides to work things out. In both of these situations, an economic problem was solved by socialistic ideas. Does that mean that capitalism is bad and socialism is good? Of course not. This merely means that the capitalistic system in the U.S. has been sprinkled with small socialistic ideas. America has created a hybrid system that arguably works better than just capitalism or socialism alone. Companies are able to create competition and diversity in products while the government steps in if these companies step their boundaries. It’s a very good system of checks and balances: companies a lot control, but are regulated by the government and vice versa. This system may have some unique flaws that will cause problems in the future, but for now, it seems to work well enough.