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If Capitalists have most of the Wealth, it ain’t a “Mixed Economy”
The only people who say the US is a “mixed” economy are fans of capitalism who think socialism means providing a little help for people in the form of social services and having a few nationalized services—which describes Imperial Germany at the end of the 19th century.
A mixed economy is impossible because socialism and capitalism are incompatible—either a country’s wealth is controlled by the people or the rich. In a theoretical mixed economy, we would have a small group of capitalists and a large group of workers, and each group would have 50% of the wealth. The idea that describes the US today is hilarious—in 2021, the top 1% of Americans have about 16 times more wealth than the bottom 50%.
What defenders of a “mixed economy” seem to desire is an economy run by sane billionaires. You could call it philanthropic capitalism, noblesse oblige capitalism, or just sane capitalism, but if you insist it’s mixed, you should admit that what it’s mixed with is not socialism, but simply a little consideration for the rest of us.
P.S. If you want to say we have an economy run by a mix of sane and insane billionaires, I won’t argue with you.
