Sometimes I amuse myself, re: another discussion board topic

[Schema Thing]

I won't bore you with the details, but on another board I posted the following reply to a topic titled: Capitalism vs Socialism vs Communism vs Anarchism...


My reply:

There is no "vs" needed between socialism and capitalism, they are not competing concepts. In the big picture, a country is a business, a giant company. It needs to be run well and have productive, happy employees... but that analogy only goes so far, because in the bigger picture, the product of a country is it's people. Are they happy, well fed, healthy, secure, and engaged? These things can be measured. If you haven't read any of those measurements for countries as varied as the USA, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Cuba, Canada, you probably shouldn't be commenting in this topic, gentle reader.

The only successful societies are a healthy blend of both. As America worships at the alter of capitalism (what a fu**ing stupid god to worship), it weakens itself greatly. That trickle down has turned into a golden shower. Watch the stupid drink. Yes! that is milk in your cheerios, says the nice man, as you smile and gulp it down, confident you'll get a chance to piss on someone else someday. Well, you may or may not, but consider two facts: A)your chance to piss on the guy downstream is lessening every day with the current trends in the US, and B) wtf would you want to anyway, asshole?

[Schema Thing]

1. stray loungers?

anyone? anyone?

:-D

[Cleita]

2. Scientists have been studying the successful social democracies

of Scandanavia today and find that those who balance social programs with capitalism are more prosperous and successful than societies that are only capitalistic.

It's no wonder though since this is part of our human wiring. In tribal societies, every member of the band shares in the food brought by the hunters and gatherers into the band. Everyone means the children, the elderly and the incapacitated even though they may not have contributed.

When we practice what our humanity is wired for, it seems to work better than ignoring who we are for greed and gain.

[Schema Thing]

3. Thanks

That's an interesting take on it. I may share that thought on the original thread.

[Cleita]

4. Here's an article I posted back in October.

Here's a Scientific American article from October of last year:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=000AF3D5-6DC9-152E-A9F183414B7F0000&colID=31

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTS
November 2006 issue - The Scientific American
The Social Welfare State, beyond Ideology
Are higher taxes and strong social "safety nets" antagonistic to a prosperous market economy? The evidence is now in

By Jeffrey D. Sachs

One of the great challenges of sustainable development is to combine society's desires for economic prosperity and social security. For decades economists and politicians have debated how to reconcile the undoubted power of markets with the reassuring protections of social insurance. America's supply-siders claim that the best way to achieve well-being for America's poor is by spurring rapid economic growth and that the higher taxes needed to fund high levels of social insurance would cripple prosperity. Austrian-born free-market economist Friedrich August von Hayek suggested that high taxation would be a "road to serfdom," a threat to freedom itself.*

Most of the debate in the U.S. is clouded by vested interests and by ideology. Yet there is by now a rich empirical rec-ord to judge these issues scientifically. The evidence may be found by comparing a group of relatively free-market economies that have low to moderate rates of taxation and social outlays with a group of social-welfare states that have high rates of taxation and social outlays. more at link

Sorry, I thought I had lost it but was able to find it again.

[SoCalDem]

5. "...even though they may not have contributed..." is the key

Elderly people HAVE contributed..just maybe not "recently". To reduce people to "what have you done for me lately" mentality, is to DE-humanize them and to behave in a despicable manner.

the poor child passed by on the street, with help, COULD become a great leader in a future time, the elderly man pushing a shopping cart down the street MAY have saved lives of now-important people in a long-ago war..

People need to tend to all of the garden..not just to the blooming flowers:)

[Cleita]

6. Yes, a very good point. Everyone will at one time or the other

make the contributions to society to pay their way so to speak whether it will be in the future, or was in the past.