pWhy are some people so rich and some people so poor Why do some have so much and others have so little What, if anything can, or should, be done about it In many ways, these are the most important questions confronting us as a nation. Capitalism, Socialism, and the Promise of Democracy examines the different ways that advocates of Capitalism and advocates of Socialism answer these crucial questions. It begins by exploring the history of economic systems and how they developed into the Capitalist and Socialist systems. The history of Capitalism and Socialism are compared and the competition between the two systems is discussed. There is an emphasis on how Free Market Capitalism evolved into Oligarchic Captialism, how the Oligarchic Capitalist system collapased with the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the resulting Great Depression, and how the Democratic Capitalist developed out of the Great Depression through Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. The expansion of Democratic Capitalism during