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Thread: Socialism Sucks

  1. #171
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    MisterVeritis's Avatar Senior Member
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    Wrong.
    Quote Originally Posted by AZ Jim View Post
    Well THAT settles that, V has spoken!
    Imagine that. See, on occasion we can agree.
    Call your state legislators and insist they approve the Article V convention of States to propose amendments.


    I pledge allegiance to the Constitution as written and understood by this nation's founders, and to the Republic it created, an indivisible union of sovereign States, with liberty and justice for all.

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    Quote Originally Posted by MisterVeritis View Post
    You behave as if individuals do not associate. It is a goofy idea.
    Do you mean those hierarchies of associations that stand between the mass of individuals and the State that I keep talking about?
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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    "Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining"----Fletcher in The Outlaw Josey Wales

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    Since I have nothing to do today while I await the Mother of All Indictments.. I felt it was time to think about how bad Socialism really does suck.

    I found some photos from www.toursocialism.com

    breadline.jpg

    cultural-revolution-NYT.jpg

    food-prices-surge-as-panicked-russians-empty-their-bank-machines-of-cash.jpg

    socialist housing.jpg
    "Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining"----Fletcher in The Outlaw Josey Wales

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    More insight into why Socialism Sucks

    Free Markets Are Moral, Not the 'Lesser of Two Evils'

    A system that lets us make our own decisions about our own lives is more moral than one that transfers them to powerful strangers.

    Steven Greenhut | March 22, 2019


    The past two weeks, this column has been obsessed with "socialism" because the concept has suddenly become fashionable again on the left. I brought up the devastation of various socialistic experiments, but was met with a variety of rebuttals. Some critics view socialism as something warm and fuzzy (free health care, like in Sweden!), while others drip with hostility at the inequality of market-based economic systems. There was widespread agreement, however, that U.S.-style capitalism has somehow failed.


    There's even a strain of conservatism—including some thinkers who have bolstered the Trump presidency—that is dismissive of capitalism. In January, this column focused on Fox News' commentator Tucker Carlson, who argued that "Any economic system that weakens and destroys families is not worth having." Many social conservatives dislike capitalism because it undermines their cultural values by promoting materialism, vulgarity and hedonism.
    Even those in the political center, who might be expected to boisterously defend the market, have some doubts. They seem to view capitalism as a "lesser of two evils" and not a good in itself. New York Times columnist David Brooks in January defended capitalism, but described the way it has turned society into "an atomized collection of individual economic units pursuing self-interest." He called for embedding it with "moral norms" to serve a "larger social good."


    In the words of my Russian grandmother, who was driven off her property by a government unconstrained by property rights or limits on its power, "Feh." That's a Yiddish term of disgust. Before you start penning your email, let's get this out of the way: Obviously, the American system is no more a pure capitalist system than the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a pure socialistic system. Even those vaunted Nordic countries aren't exactly what people think. They are more capitalistic than America in some ways, although they have higher levels of social spending.
    We're talking generalities. Socialism puts the government in control of the economic system and redistributes wealth as the political authorities see fit. Some socialistic countries allowed the ownership of tightly regulated businesses and private property, while others didn't. Market capitalism lets individuals and companies make society's key economic decisions as they pursue—gasp!—profit. Every modern "capitalistic" system has extensive government regulation of the private sector. They all tax people and provide redistributionist programs.
    Nothing is pure, but people like me—that is, libertarians—believe there should be lower taxes, fewer programs and less government control of the economy. Whatever their ultimate societal vision, self-described socialists believe there should be more government control, more programs and more redistribution. They are winning the day because our side keeps making excuses for markets and the flaws in our society. Yet market capitalism truly is moral, even though it cannot provide what some moralists seek, which is something approaching Nirvana.
    Markets simply are the sum total of all the individual decisions that people make on their own. I want to buy a car. I value certain features. Companies offer products at different prices and try to sweeten the deal. I negotiate, then buy what I want. Everyone profits, including the tax collector. Wealthier people buy nicer cars than poorer people. So what? In capitalist societies, there are ways to get poorer people a decent ride as they work their way up the economic ladder. In socialistic countries, almost everyone (except the political elite) queues up to take the bus.
    Are there shady car dealers? Of course. Bad people are part of life. There needs to be some regulation (e.g., against fraud, theft, violence). But those who complain about the behavior of some private actors gladly give immense power to equally flawed government officials. Markets are about cooperation. Individuals negotiate with others to get what they want. Government is about force, about other people deciding (through edicts or votes) how you must behave and punishing you if you resist. Which seems moral to you?
    "Far from being an amoral arena for the clash of interests, as capitalism often is portrayed by those who seek to undermine or destroy it, capitalist interaction is highly structured by ethical norms and rules," wrote libertarian scholar Tom Palmer, in an introduction to the book, The Morality of Capitalism. "Indeed, capitalism rests on a rejection of the ethics of loot and grab, the means by which most wealth enjoyed by the wealthy has been acquired in other economic and political systems."
    A system that lets us make our own decisions about our own lives is more moral than one that transfers them to powerful strangers. Freedom is better than coercion. Prosperity is more uplifting than poverty. "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries," Winston Churchill said in 1945. Let's not cede the moral high ground to people who tout utopian ideas that usually result in misery.
    This column was first published in the Orange County Register.
    Steven Greenhut is Western region director for the R Street Institute. He was a Register editorial writer from 1998-2009. Write to him at sgreenhut@rstreet.org.



    http://reason.com/archives/2019/03/2...-the-lesser-of
    "Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining"----Fletcher in The Outlaw Josey Wales

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    One of the many ways Socialism Sucks is that in that system, people are prosecuted for political differences. Investigations and reports are done on all aspects of your life if you go against he orthodoxy.

    Sound familiar? It should later on this afternoon.


    God Bless America, God Bless Donald Trump and...

    Always remember

    SOCIALISM SUCKS
    "Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining"----Fletcher in The Outlaw Josey Wales

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    MisterVeritis (03-24-2019)

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    Quote Originally Posted by DGUtley View Post
    If by socialism is meant centralization of planning in the government, it likely will. There's nothing to stop it.

    If by socialism you mean an economic system or reorganization of sociaty, no, that always fails and succumbs to centralization of pow
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris View Post
    If by socialism is meant centralization of planning in the government, it likely will. There's nothing to stop it.

    If by socialism you mean an economic system or reorganization of sociaty, no, that always fails and succumbs to centralization of pow
    I think the issues is heavy centralized government planning leads to the reorganization of society and that in turn leads to the gulag and guillotine.

    This is why Socialism Sucks
    "Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining"----Fletcher in The Outlaw Josey Wales

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    Quote Originally Posted by Admiral Ackbar View Post
    I think the issues is heavy centralized government planning leads to the reorganization of society and that in turn leads to the gulag and guillotine.

    This is why Socialism Sucks

    Yes, it does as well lead to reorganization of society, from a society composed of a hierarchy of associations--family, church, trade, university, etc--to one with a ruling class over a mass of undifferentiated and isolated man.

    It's happening to us under liberal democracy and economic liberalism, i.e., capitalism.

    It stems from an overarching attachment to individualism that leaves us to face centralized power on our own.
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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