That's not capitalism & the death of the American Dream

From a wonderful piece by bank analyst Mike Mayo from the WSJ on Saturday (11/5/11) discussing his history of negative advisory positions regarding the Banking industry:

To fix the banking sector, should we rely more on government regulation and oversight or let the market figure it out? Tougher rules or more capitalism? Right now, we have the worst of both worlds. We have a purportedly capitalistic system with a lot of rules that are not strictly enforced, and when things go wrong, the government steps in to protect banks from the market consequences of their own worst decisions. To me, that's not capitalism.

There are 2 key phrases here; “we have the worst of both worlds” and “that’s not capitalism,” so that leaves the question is what the hell it is, this foul symbiotic relationship between politics and big business that leaves this class, the power elite, literally living above the law and too big to fail. 

Of these facts there is really no dispute, the larger question is how much this corrupting crony capitalism that has overtaken our government has impacted our current economic environment.  Has a government focused primarily on the needs of its corporate masters led to the current stagnation of our middle class, the ever growing gap between rich and poor, our failing educational system and most importantly the decline of upward mobility?   

America has always had notable inequality, but it also had the upward mobility that is the hallmark of real free market capitalism. That was critically important, I may be down now but with hard work and a little luck I could better myself and my children could/would have a better and more prosperous life then I had, I think that is really the core of what we call the American dream.  According to a recent, excellent article in Time magazine that seems to be vanishing (“Opportunity Nation Highlights a Lack of Upward Mobility” By Kayla Webley 11/4/2011).  That leaves me to ask once again, in light of knowing that major Wall Street financial firms are too big to fail, I wonder if America is.