Definitely. And I'd go further and say that any pure -ism, whether it is capitalism, socialism, communism, libertarianism etc is a bad idea. The strength of the US system is that it uses bits and pieces of each ideology/governmental system/philosophy rather than follow one ideologically pure plan for better or worse.wturber said:Agreed. But frequently they are not the best solution and they over-reach in their influence and effect. But that will be the ongoing debate in a probably necessary mixed system. People will tend to disagree on what the best mix is based on their own personal biases.
For example, we say we are a democracy. But not many of our laws are decided via a purely democratic vote; our government is much closer to a republic, and the will of the people cannot override our Constitution as it could in a pure democracy (at least, not without a very large amount of effort and time, and close to 100% consensus.) And that's a good thing.
People talk about how we have a capitalist society here, but it's closer to a Keynesian economy where the government plays an active role in regulating the economy. In addition, we have significant segments of the economy that are purely socialist, like the public road system, the airspace system, the military and the like. We even have communism; our national parks are considered to be owned by everyone and merely administered by the government (communal ownership.)
All these compromises, IMO, tend to blunt the worst parts of each philosophy. We take the best parts of democracy and blunt the worst parts (mob rule, loss of rights for minorities.) We take the best parts of capitalism while trying to avoid the worst parts (poor regulation of economic output in a free market, anti-competitive practices by large companies.) And that, overall, is a good thing.
To circle back around to the original topic, the success of the electric car so far has had a lot to do with government intervention (funding of research, purchase incentives, driving incentives.) But as subsidies run out and HOV lanes get crowded those interventions die out, and the industry must stand on its own as a profitable endeavor - and that is starting to happen as well. That seems like a good compromise.