All countries fall into a certain political scheme and economic policy. While the politics of the United States is clear, the economic realm is still debated. Liberal capitalism occurs in three stages, and America seems to be stuck in between two of them. Our lack of feudal past helped to erode our pre-capitalist status, while the legacy of slavery kept inequalities between blacks and whites. Housing discrimination continues unintentional racial segregation. The current economic policy adopted in the United States does not readily close the inequality gap either. These factors keep America in the second stage of liberal capitalism, but do not close the door for change. Although the United States may desire to move towards mature liberalism, social and economic inequalities prevent the upward mobility needed to shift America from a stage of early liberalism. .
Larry Siedentop argues that the United States was the first country to achieve mature liberalism defining it, "Mature liberalism. In the third stage, increased social mobility and a greater sense of opportunity significantly erode pre-capitalist status differences and reduce (although by no means eliminating) the advantages deriving from inherited wealth" (Siedentop, 155). He claims that the lack of a feudal past is what allowed mature liberalism to occur in the United States so easily (Siedentop, 155). Aspects of Siedentop's argument are true. Yes, the lack of a feudal past helped to erode pre-capitalist status. However, the United States did have an even more oppressive system than feudalism, slavery. Although not feudal in the basic sense, slave ownership is reminiscent of ruling of lords over serfs. In slavery, plantation owners did not provide protection for their slaves, as lords often did for their serfs. The inequality left between slaves and masters was just as appalling, if not worse, as that left between serfs and lords.
