The thing folks keep forgetting is that pure capitalism is a FASCIST doctrine.
The entire CONCEPT of democratic GOVERNMENT is socialism.
The government TAKES your taxes and decides HOW that money should be re-distributed to benefit the largest number of citizens.
That is its entire job.
The government giving Halliburton 20 billion is NOT capitalism- its Corporate socialism... re-distributing taxpayer money into the hands of corporations.
I.E. not matter WHAT the government does with tax money... it is a form of socialism...
the only question is, who benefits from the money?
Statistics show clearly that liberal initiatives benefit the working class, and even the wealthy, far more than the government giving your money to the rich. ( BTW- having the middle class PAY for government, and letting the rich go untaxed, is identical to the government GIVING the rich YOUR money.)
The reaosn liberal initiatives make for a better economy is that the natural flow of money in capitalist systems is UPWARD.
You take your paycheck and BUY things- transferring that money upward, towards those with greater wealth...
Sure, some of this money get re-directed downward thru employee payroll- but those empoyees simply take that money and BUY other things... pushing the money back up toward the wealthy...
At every step of the way... a portion is skimmed off for the folks who manage that layer of industry....
But with each cycle thru one corporation to another... a small percentage finds its way all the way to the top, where it actually STOPS...
This is why the rich continuously get richer... the gradual accrual of their cut, that doe NOT get spent because they make far more than they NEED to spend.
Left to itself... this process of capitalist transfer gradually concentrates ALL money at the very top and grinds to a halt or collapses...
Thus- government imposes Taxes on the top tier individual and corporations that apply preassure for those people to evade taxation by investing in business growth ( employing more people)
But the most effective thing government can do is to Recharge the system by re-infusing as much tax money as possible into the bottom of the cycle- essentially - re-distributing cash in the poor and middle class... what most folks think of as socialistic measures...
The reason this actually works better than unrestrained capitalism is that this money, pumped into the bottom, like ALL other money, flows UPward thru the economy as it get spent...
BECAUSE the wealthy make most of their money from commerce... from people buying the things the wealthy are selling, more money at the lower echelons of society means MORE purchasing...
IT still flows toward the top... but on its way up from the bottom, it does WORK.
So- the truth is that a functional capitalism is not TRICKLE DOWN... it is PUMPING UP.
Letting the wealthy KEEP money makes them richer, without any effort from them at all.
Taking taxation from the wealthy and infusing it into the poor and middle class means that the wealthy must get that money back thru economic activity.... they have to produce products the public wants, they have to employ people...
Thus... when the poor have more money, the rich become MORE industrious to get them to spend that money.
"socialistic" measures, in moderation... are what turns a one way flow of money into a CYCLE that turns like an engine.
That's why Liberal captialism ALWAYS works better and always results in better civilizations.