( – promoted by buhdydharma )
One of the funniest things about being an international socialist in the USA is how people act like we don’t have socialism here. I can hear it now, America is based on capitalism and free trade! It is the marketplace that decides! We are a nation where the rule of law is only secondary to the rule of the marketplace!
Bull and/or shit. America has been a socialist country since Ronald Reagan. While most people remember him as the great leader of modern conservatism, he was nothing more than a big fat socialist. A socialist from the right mind you, but still a socialist.
America only seems to have a problem with socialism coming from the left.
What am I getting on about? Socialism in my view is to use the government, that is of and by the people, to protect the greater good and help those who cannot help themselves. It would require people to think of the government as we, not a they. Not that socialism can’t work with a “they”, but that’s more of an authoritarian flavor, much like we have today.
Never you forget that the greatest trick the Republican Party has ever played on the American people is that they are for small government and free marketplace solutions. This is how they get votes, this is not how they rule.
From Ronald Reagan’s trickle down economics to Bush’s welfare checks for the rich, the USA has been operating under a socialistic system meant to benefit the ruling elite instead of the general welfare of all citizens.
Never mind the reallocation of wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich, or the two tier justice system they have created for themselves, it is always about the rule of law and money with these people. At the basis of any modern western power is the rule of law and who controls it. Right now the Republican Socialist Party does.
One of the ways they use rule of law is to protect themselves from the free marketplace they so often promote. Using systems like the Federal Serve and obscure laws, they protect themselves from market forces they create. When the rich get into trouble, say with Saving&Loans or credit crunches, the government always comes in to save them. Every single time.
That is socialism. Except the government does not enjoy the benefits of when these “private” enterprise are doing well. During these periods, the ruling elite make sure to harvest all the gains, and usually funnel them out of the country in off-shore accounts. It is only when they are failing do they expect the government to intervene. Their version of capitalism does not allow for their own ventures to fail.
Without financial failure in the marketplace, that is socialism for the rich, not capitalism.
So don’t deride the socialist dream, you are living under one, but one not geared for the greater good of all citizens, but a far-right socialism meant only for the ruling rich elite.
Bonus:
A brief description of the coming generational war in the Americas as told by post-ironic Nippon.
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I don’t get the vid at all….but then, I am old!
I don’t know if it is POST ironic, but I do like that the boomers are being threatened with generational war by you punk kids, since they/we were the greatest generational rebels in modern history.
All I can say is….Don’t get a haircut! Listen to your elders! Conform! and of course….Get Off My Goddam Lawn!
(especially like he one in the vid! Kidds today!0!)
But…..good essay! Describes the sitch just about perfectly.
and privatize the gain.
Carl Pohlad, who is worth something like $3 billion, is also owner of the MN Twins. For years now, he’s wanted a new stadium for the Twins in the worst way. He threw temper tantrums, threated to sell the team, threatened to have it eliminated, and on and on in order to try to wrestle public financing for the stadium.
In the midst of this, I remember hearing him interviewed on the radio about it all. He was asked, if a new stadium is such a good idea, why don’t you pay for it? His response was “It would not be a good business decision.”
But he wanted us to pay for it. And pay for it we will. His tantrums finally worked last year.
we have Nike owner Phil Knight tantrums he pumps a lot of money into athletic programs at U of O. When boycotts or demonstrations occur due to his sweatshops, he threatens to take Nike elsewhere. What I don’t get is how these corps can keep there leverage, protection and tax breaks and yet out source both the jobs and money, that supposedly make it good for local economies. Free market my ass.
As for the bonus, Looks to be a fun war this time around! Where’s the line? Over 30? don’t trust them.
…for the rich and the poor?
Reagan – not a great President. We shouldn’t be proud to continue and expand his legacy.
Well isn’t that why rich talking head/business leader types scream so emphatically about socialism and not becoming the “nanny state” and all that other nonsense?
My good they don’t want the other people to get their nasty hands on a perfectly wonderful gravy train. What will they ask for next. Democracy or some other dangerous concept best left to the feudal lords. Perish the thought.
and positively confirmed by my boss, a Russian!
“Now I have lived in two socialist countries”.