CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- In Tucker County for centuries there grew a white oak. Its girth reached whatever it takes to encompass a diameter of 13 feet. In 1913 this miracle of nature, more wonderful than a cathedral or a trade tower, was felled by lean mountaineers with axes and crosscut saws.
The tree produced enough lumber to fill a train. The oak lumber left the state and became the floors and doors of some palatial residence far away from Tucker County. Those lean mountaineers received for their labor only enough wages to keep their skinny bodies alive. And all this state had left of the tree was the stump and brush piles and the absence of a forest giant that would take half a millennium to replace. The profits left the state with the lumber.
And the story is similar for coal and coal miners, except that after years of unconscionable exploitation of miners by northern capitalists, miners organized a union; and with John L. Lewis' leadership and FDR's blessing, the union forced capital to pay a decent wage and generally give miners benefits that decency demanded.
There is not and never has been such an economy.
All competition to acquire resources is based on and determined by the needs of the ever increasing population within a particular economy.
Curb and/or decrease said population and said competition decreases accordingly.
Why can’t the Leftists admit from the very beginning that they are the PRIMARY exacerbators of said problem ….. instead of waiting until they can no longer defend their untruths, false accusations, piffle and tripe before they admit they “also played a role”.
One, that would have likely remained a recession were it not for Smoot Hawley.
The unregulated market is a failure.
How can you say that? We've not had an unregulated market in over 100 years and it's taken serious hits since the 30's when Hoover turned a recession into a depression and FDR turned a depression into The Great Depression.
I think we should return to what our founding fathers desired, allegiance with none, free trade with all.
Captain-I’m not saying that corporations don’t manipulate the free market as I know they do. But that’s not the fault of capitalism, that’s the fault of the government.
Truth be told, big government needs big business and the quickest way to reign in big business is to eliminate corporate donations to political candidates and allow private citizens to exercise their 1st amendment rights with their money.
The capitalists are conducting financial genocide against the people of our world. We are paid worthless money and are manipulated into borrowing to make up for our lowered standard of living. We are poisoned by their pollution. This is economic slavery. Currency reform now.Corporate death penalty now.
AaronS, You keep referring to the Left being the problem. Can't you admitt that the right also played a role in this. You'll find Capitalists in both the Republican and Democratic parties. Again, "Take them out of the governments business" and let Capitalism, Government and the free market system work the way it was envisioned.
The non-productive “troughfeeders”now have, via their extortion practices, far better and greater wages and entitlements with far less responsibilities and actual work hours than the producers that are providing said for them. Their unfunded liabilities now far exceeds the producers ability to pay for them. Economic collapse is thus inevitable.
One good thing, we have new laws on the books dealing with corruption. Illegal transactions are becoming very simple to track. Hopefully this will drive the price of doing illegal business much higher. These higher financial requirements are easier to track. Just starting to see some of the results.
And that started about a hundred years ago with Teddy Roosevelt, was kicked into overdrive by FDR and has increased steadily over the past 70 years at a pretty consistent rate by the socialist right.
Hummmmmmmmm, So if I have private ownership of the means of production and have many ways to influence our elected officials your saying I can't make more money and pay less taxes to boot? Who then picks up the tab? Plus I can drop health insurance and retirement for my employees with the govermnments help.
If you had a truly free market system and no government manipulation by these Capitalists we would not be having these problems.
Your right about this, Capitalism shouldn't have anything to do with
elected officials, but they do, and its to our detriment.
Economists usually put emphasis on the market mechanism, degree of government control over markets (laissez faire), and property rights[4][5], while most political economists emphasize private property, power relations, wage labor, and class.[6] There is a general agreement that capitalism encourages economic growth.[7] The extent to which different markets are "free", as well as the rules determining what may and may not be private property, is a matter of politics and policy and many states have what are termed "mixed economies."[6]
Now if you want to discuss campaign finance reform, that's an entirely different subject altogether. Personally, I favor a return to the 1st amendment in which people can do with their money as they please but that's just me.
What say you?
As for manipulating the law, you’ll have to explain how that has anything to do with capitalism but for the record, no I don’t favor situations where criminals manipulate the law by suing homeowners because they got hurt in some manner while committing a crime. I think that’s wrong and should be stopped.
Can you not see that if one helps another attain a governmental position that they aren't expecting favors in return?
Currently lobbiests and political contributors are not against the law. Therefore they can legally have elected officials change verbage in laws to their benefit.
Thats why I stated "Rulings and laws, do not, by any means, imply they are just. Especially when they are being manipulated by "the few".
By the way you, did not answer the question "Do you think its ok for the few, to manipulate our laws?"
Smaller government is good and can be a reality, especially if they do not see lobbiests and are not beholden to political contributors. That way they could vote, on what they feel is the, right thing to do. Thats what our forefathers had in mind when they formed this Republic as they were afraid of a "Pure Democracy".
And to think, there are those on the right who want to give MORE control to these very politicians because they believe capitalism is destroying this country.
It seems to me the best thing for our politicians to do would be to reduce the size and scope of government to what our forefathers desired and to limit their role in our economy to the enumerated oversight role they are granted in the Constitution and allow capitalism to guide our economy.
Don't you agree!!!!!
1. Elected officials need to work together, meet in the middle, and solve the problems.
2. No more lobbiests.
3. Need to get a handle on the political contributions. Todays Elections are more about who can raise the most money, than who, is best qualified.
4. Term limits for all elected officials.
5. ?
Otherwise capitalism will destroy itself. Normally a family just wants to be left alone as long as it is getting along and doesn't ask anything at all from its government.. Start taking away from them, and eventually, you'll end up with an uprising.
SamCogar, Yes you seemed to have interpreted what I wrote correctly. Some, cannot see the forrest for the trees, or, to put it a different way, some get into the details before understanding the overall outline on where we would like to end up, or, they just like to argue.
The ones that like to argue, home in on a word or two in a statement, answer a question with a question, or, change the subject entirely. I like to call that Lawyer speak. :) Thats the easy way out, although in the end the family evntually starves to death.
We all should be helping to build workable solution?
So, Whats for supper?
But I’m sure they will fall on blind eyes and deaf ears.
“One blames the extreme polarization of the public on ……”
I blame it on ignorance, apathy, rivalry, personal short-term greed, fear, etc. ….. which all of the aforementioned have fostered a complete disassociation between voting for a Politician and the reason Elections are held.
I mean like, why else, after 80+ years of absolute control of the WV Legislature by the Democrat Party, would so many people keep voting for said Democrats at each Election while at the same time blaming another Party or Corporations for all the things they don’t like about how the State is managed?
CAPTAINJOE, me thinks you are referring to dishonest and crooked Politicians accepting per say “bribes” …….. and clueless, ignorant and/or gullible voters who vote for said devious intentioned “front men” Politicians ……. but you failed to highlight those two facts.
No. You'll have to specify what laws you're talking about.
AaronS," Sorry Joe, we're not a Democracy, I have nothing against equality so long as you're talking rights and opportunities and not the fruit of my money and you're going to have to explain how capitalism has denied justice and to whom did it deny said justice."
The only question I see in your statement above, is about denied justice.
I answered it. If YOU work for a living, You, are picking up the slack for someone else, that had the money or influence to tilt the laws in his/her favor or one that doesn't work at all. Hows that for equality?
Rulings and laws, do not, by any means, imply they are just. Especially when they are being manipulated by "the few".
Do you think its ok for the few, to manipulate our laws?
Was I clear enough?
If you want to clear your head and try to come back with some sort of clear statement, perhaps we can get somewhere. But if you’re just going to continue to ramble, I don’t see any good coming out of it.
AaronS,
Denied justice, hummmmmmmm... If I, Being a rich man, don't abide by the rules, because I have had verbage written into law that excludes me, well then, someone else has to pick up the slack now don't they? Is that justice to you? Not that all rich are bad, would be better to use extreme capitalist.
Democracy, hummmmmmmm... Technically we are a Republic, By popular usage, however, the word "democracy" has come to mean a form of government in which the government derives its power from the people and is accountable to them for the use of that power. In this sense the United States might accurately be called a democracy
Yes. This is a Democracy. Whats wrong with equality and justice for ALL?
Sorry Joe, we're not a Democracy, I have nothing against equality so long as you're talking rights and opportunities and not the fruit of my money and you're going to have to explain how capitalism has denied justice and to whom did it deny said justice.
Think you can handle that?
too much socialism.. very bad (see Stalin and Marx)
too much unchecked capitalism... very bad (see Wall Street)
Now I get to beat my dead horse on the polarization of our country...
The extreme left and extreme right in this country is what is going to be its demise. Its always the same on any political topic. Entrenched lefties and righties. We are paralyzed politically because of rigid viewpoints.
Yes. This is a Democracy. Whats wrong with equality and justice for ALL?
Rational, Your saying its ok for the rich to change our laws to their advantage and purchase our lawmakers as long as the majority gets some "trickles". I don't think thats what our forefathers had in mind when they exited England so many years ago.
Does that mean you're outraged by labor and unions part in purchasing the White House and continued donations to the Democratic party and the apparent paybacks by the current administration CAPTIANJOE???
Not if "trickle-down economics" works, which I believe it does, when unencumbered by legislation intended to "help" the majority.
Industry creates jobs - taxation, wealth redistribution, and excessive regulation destroy them.
However, Capitalism taken to the extreme: (the rich paying our lawmakers to change laws by inserting/deleting verbage to their favor), Hurts the majority! Paying for someone to run for office so they can do your bidding also Hurts the majority!
Only an extremeist would think this if fair and that in a nutshell is one reason we are in the shape we are.
too much socialism.. very bad (see Stalin and Marx)
too much unchecked capitalism... very bad (see Wall Street)
Now I get to beat my dead horse on the polarization of our country...
The extreme left and extreme right in this country is what is going to be its demise. I visit postings in quite a few larger papers. Its always the same on any political topic. Entrenched lefties and righties. We are paralyzed politically because of rigid viewpoints.
Thank You
Socialism unchecked will destroy millions of people.
Stalin and Mao proved that.
MU4WVU2, does your spouse do all the shopping and bill paying …… or what?
Have you noticed the price of gold lately? Its around $1,100 per 1 oz.
The simple answer: Fear. Despite the huge recent increases in the M1 Money Supply, the process by which such results in inflation is not instantaneous. It may take years before inflation hits with a vengeance. With so many fearful of an uncertain economic future, individuals are now holding on to more and more of their cash in lieu of making discretionary purchases. Another factor is that the government's "stimulus" spending and "rescuing" of banks is delaying the process for now. But both the actions of individuals and those of government will undoubtedly be short-lived phenomena. When currency begins to lose its value--as is already occurring as evidenced by the rising price of gasoline despite its abundant supply--and when the government can "stimulate" and/or "rescue" no further, WATCH OUT! For it is then when things will get truly interesting. When will this happen? Probably around the end of 2012, which would coincide with the dire Mayan predictions.
The economic concept of cause is not hard to comprehend. What is causing the event to not take place is confusing to me.
When it happens how can 10, 15 or 20% interest rates be good for job growth? Which problem does the govt fight - inflation or unemployment? Either will create havoc for the country and maybe more. Are there worse things than GWB recovery w/o equality in pay? I suspect we are going to find out.
Mechanization is bad. Right, I'll just hurl my laptop in the pond and break out the old quill and pen. No, wait, I think Injun smoke signals would be better. Maybe the entire Native Amercian way of life will work. Living in portable tents moving from place to place with my squaw by my side. Hopefully some "foriegn white men" will show up with a horse, so I can ride instead of walk. Squaw still walk though. A lawyer from Hinton, now there is a braniac.
There is no such thing as unencumbered capitalism. Taxes, regulations, licenses exist for every business on a city, county, state and national level. Do even the libtards buy this drool? Only in the Gazette does this nonsense appear.
BTW the "poor" in the US have not gotten poorer. Look around you. Now, one thing that the socialists have managed to create is poverty that DEPENDS on government handouts and that my friends is very different from just poverty. That is permanent.
By that logic, the current unemployment rate is approaching 20%.
Some were considered "under employed" because they did not have the job they felt they were qualified for. That presents false numbers since everyone cannot be the president of the corporation. You want to introduce assumptions rather than hard numbers. There are some that simply cannot be accounted for: welfare; between jobs; taking time off and other catagories who are not working because of choice.
In todays bad economy, you have those who are just mentioned and there is no allowance for them. Those underemployed who took anything to survive. Those who cannot find gainful employment. Those whose hour have been cut. All of these groups are out there and not identified in a particular catagory.
And Freddie Mac was "created in 1970 to expand the secondary market for mortgages in the US. Freddie Mac buys mortgages on the secondary market, pools them, and sells them as mortgage-backed securities to investors on the open market. This secondary mortgage market increases the supply of money available for mortgage lending and increases the money available for new home purchases".
They are not banks. Period.
See that last part about "increases the money available for new home purchases"? That's where the 2 links about credit swap defaults and/or OTC derivatives I provided kicks in. And the institutions detailed in the 2 stories ARE banks.
As for the financial crisis, if you’re looking for a cause for the meltdown, start with Jimmy Carter's signature on the Community Reinvestment Act and was made worse by Bill Clinton reducing down payments to 3% (along with down payment assistance) and GWB allowing zero down payments.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not banks and do not constitute "the banking industry".
Last year's financial crisis came from credit-default swaps/over the counter derivatives and the deregulation that led to commercial banks and financial banks to merge again.
Fannie/Freddie needed more oversight, but they were not the cause of the market meltdown.
Your statement, AaronS, is untrue.
Litigation Release No. 19710 / May 23, 2006
Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Release No. 2433 / May 23, 2006
SEC v. Federal National Mortgage Association, Case No. 06-00959 (RBW) (U.S.D.C., D.D.C)
Fannie Mae to Pay $400 Million Penalty for Accounting Fraud
SEC and OFHEO Settle Action Against Fannie Mae
On May 23, 2006, the Commission filed a settled enforcement proceeding charging the Federal National Mortgage Association ("Fannie Mae"), a shareholder-owned government-sponsored enterprise, with fraudulent accounting in violation of the anti-fraud, books and records, internal controls and reporting provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 …………., Fannie Mae will pay a total civil penalty of $400 million to the U.S. government.
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2006/lr19710.htm
Capatalism helped get us to where we are today. Why are we not trying to avoid the known pitfalls of the past.
"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
George Santayana
Google: Life Expectancy of Democracy
'The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years'
'During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. from bondage to spiritual faith;
2. from spiritual faith to great courage;
3. from courage to liberty;
4. from liberty to abundance;
5. from abundance to complacency;
6. from complacency to apathy;
7. from apathy to dependence;
8. from dependence back into bondage'
Read it and weep, Harry K, ….. to wit:
Cabrini-Green – "During the worst years of Cabrini-Green's problems, vandalism increased substantially. Gang members and miscreants covered interior walls with graffiti and damaged doors, windows, and elevators. Rat and cockroach infestations were commonplace, rotting garbage stacked up in clogged trash chutes (it once piled up to the 15th floor), and basic utilities (water, electricity, etc.) often malfunctioned and were left unrepaired. On the exterior, boarded-up windows, burned-out areas of the façade, and pavement instead of green space—all in the name of economizing on maintenance—created an atmosphere of neglect and decay. The high "open galleries" were enclosed with steel fencing the entire height of ..." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabrini-Green
MU here is the unemployment rate history. Actually since 2001 we have not had a year below 4.5%. Take into account those working part time, that want to work full time, you can about double the rate. This does not include those that gave up trying to find a job. Seems like we are currently going in the wrong direction. Another good link below about trying to find a job.
http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?data_tool=latest_numbers&series_id=LNS14000000
http://gawker.com/5157945/unemployment-rate-is-70-for-ex+bush-administration-officials
It's not your contention that GWB is alone responsible for the housing meltdown, the bailouts and the current economic conditions, is it Red Dragon.
Before the tax break for the wealthy becomes an issue, the Clinton tax increases on everyone were removed when Bush tax cuts became law. Bush years did not have revenue problems as it continued to increase. The problem was that expenditures were greater than revenue.
You want to lay the blame on GWB but what you're neglecting is the simple fact that oversight is a constutional repsonsibility given to Congress.
You want to put equal blame on Congressional Republicans as they held the majority from 1994 until 2006, thats fine so so long as you understand that it wasn't only Republicans. Democrats, as the chart shows, share equal blame.
http://www.audacityofhypocrisy.com/2008/09/18/all-recipients-of-fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac-campaign-contributions-1989-2008/
An SEC investigation of Freddie had been going on for a long time. They tell Freddie exec’s that civil charges are going to be brought against them.
The statement:
An SEC lawsuit would come at a tumultuous time for Freddie Mac, which faces criticism from Congress, the White House and private industry that it and its larger rival, Fannie Mae, have grown so big they pose a threat to the nation's economic stability.
Notice the White House in the above statement. Executive guidance not to pursue.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13512-2004Aug18.html
Correction came in 2007 after legal derivation was brought into light.
http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2007/2007-219.htm
bush could and should have pursued any time after 2002. He opted not to. Enforcement through a new agency was never his plan. Control was desired to funnel money . He just funneled through HUD instead.
Aaron, give it up. Absolutely nothing good came from bush.
The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.
Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.
The new agency would have the authority, which now rests with Congress, to set one of the two capital-reserve requirements for the companies.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/11/business/new-agency-proposed-to-oversee-freddie-mac-and-fannie-mae.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
There's plenty of information out there on the cause and effects of poverty in inner cities and much of it links entitlement programs and the government will take care of me mentality they create. If you want to read up on it, start here.
http://www.huduser.org/Periodicals/CITYSCPE/VOL3NUM3/article3.pdf
As for the javascript, all you have to do is put in in the URL on the tags part of the post. It's not hard.
Quickly the debate became: mine v yours; Repub v Dem; etc., and we defend our position strongly.
Can the nation stand for long the way we are going? There have always been the haves and have nots like Mellons, Fords, etc. They produced or sold something. Today we ar in a "service industry" and the secondary people are making $10s-100s millions. More people getting the big bucks and not producing a secondary market.
Ford required other industries of steel, glass, rubber, petrolum, sales, finance, building. Everyone was working and could buy the product. Finance industry trades a memo and the rewards are extreme and there is no secondary industry.
Now we come on here and defend what is happening and blame dems, repubs, CEOs, pols, etc., and country is bust.
Can we not agree that capitalists deserve a reasonable return and there is no free lunch libs?
Both links work. You have to cut and paste them into the address block. I try to keep the javascripts to a minimum. Sorry. Check 'em out, though, and you'll learn why the conservative spin that Fannie/Freddie were ground zero is wrong.
I see you can't explain it, huh.
As for what they would look like if the residents actually worked and were held responsible for their actions? I imagine the citizens wouldn't put up with criminals terrorizing their neighborhoods, vandals destroying their buildings and if they were forced to repair and replace the destruction brought on by entitlement programs, it would be greatly reduced.
What you don't get is that socialism doesn't work because there is no incentive for the people to take responsibility for their actions. You imply that inner cities would be much worse off without those programs.
I believe the citizens would rise to the challenge and they would be better off but then I believe that when held accountable and given the incentive of ownership, the best comes out in all people.
I guess its how you look at things though.
First, none of your tiny url's worked. I'm not sure if you messed up posting those or if you're following the lead of our resident communist one citizen and placed the link knowing it wouldn't work as some sort of supposed proof to the tripe you post. Time will tell.
As for your comment above, who do you think was responsible for preventing the lockdown?
I know one person didn't do it all but the one name that keeps coming up in protecting FM/FM, including from the regulation GWB proposed is Barney Fwanks. Other then Chris Dodd, who do you think is responsible?
And Harry K, has Harlem and Bed-Stuy turned something around in the past 30 years that I haven’t heard about?
The last time I was in Harlem I was told ……. “Don’t stop the car even if you hit or run over someone or we will never make it through here”.
Harry K, and you think Obama’s proposed “free health care for all” isa gonna work better than, …. to wit:
“MASSACHUSETTS HAS been lauded for its healthcare reform, but the program is a failure. Created solely to achieve universal insurance coverage, the plan does not even begin to address the other essential components of a successful healthcare system.” http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/03/02/mass_healthcare_reform_is_failing_us/
Instead of just a “[/b]boney chicken in every pot[/b]” ….. they are now rallying for High Speed Internet for their PC’s, ….. wireless communications for their I-pods, Cell Phones and Blackberries ….. and free health care for “drug users” and the obese, both of which requires the afflicted to expend a lot of money to exacerbate said conditions.
No he didn't. He wanted a new bureaucracy to oversee Fannie/Freddie when he should've had the Fed and Treasury clamping down on derivatives: http://tinyurl.com/yfqzchb
And meet Brooksley Born who predicted it like Nostradamus and tried to stop it, but was marginalized and bullied. http://tinyurl.com/ylm8b2n
"African Americans survived 500 years of slavery only to be done in by government entitlement programs"
You're joking, right? They're "done in"? No success at all? No hope? How did Harlem and Bed-Stuy turn things around with the yoke of socialism dragging them down?
Again, what would those places look like with no options for feeding children or housing or clothing vouchers?
All it would take is one of the $60 billion lost to fraud to stop the vast majority of it, but private insurance cannot make a profit from insuring everyone.
And whose fault is that? GWB? I guess the fact that he requested stricter regulations for the banking industry on September 11, 2003 and Barney Frank saw no need for it has no bearing, right?
Have you been to parts of Brooklyn or Chicago? Over the Rhine in Cincinnati? West Philly, West Cleveland or East St. Louis?
Do you know anything about government welfare programs that punish single mothers who want to work by taking their check, health insurance, rent subsidy, utility subsidy and child care support?
Can you explain how African Americans survived 500 years of slavery only to be done in by government entitlement programs? There's nothing dogmatic about it. If you can't see it perhaps you should open your eyes.
As for Medicare, try taking a look at last weeks 60 minutes segment on Medicare. If you're not for privatization then, you're a Marxist plain and simple.
The rich get richer because they keep doing that which makes them rich; ditto for the poor. Both get what they deserve.
Use the power of government regulations and trade unionism to ensure that [businesses] pay a living wage . . . tax the few rich and spend, invest, redistribute and regulate for . . . the benefit of the rest of this nation's family.
Define "living wage". The "few rich" (top 1% of income earners) already pay 40.42% of all income tax collected. In sharp contrast, the bottom 50% of income earners pay just 2.89% of all income tax collected. tinyurl.com/5fyqqt
. . . [corporate capitalism] will exhaust the earth's resources . . .
Nonsense! Thanks to those evil corporations, we have discovered more resources that will provide our needs for hundreds of years to come.
And both of our financial catastrophes since have been due to little and lax regulation.
"Where socialism is forced, we see death, destruction, despair and misery, of that there is no mistake"
You keep saying that but you don't prove it. Where, exactly, has all of this been happening? The inner-cities? What would they look like if not for entitlement programs? Why was a WV coal miner the first in the nation to receive food stamps in the early 60's if extractive industry and capitalism is the cure for all ills?
All you're doing is repeating dogma with no thought as to the details. For example: "Congress would be better off calling for a privatization of Medicare". How would that work? Would there be the private industry version of death panels known as "pre-existing condition" and rescission in privatized Medicare?
Details, not dogma.
Where capitalism is allowed to grow and flourish, we see tremendous growth and prosperity.
Where socialism is forced, we see death, destruction, despair and misery, of that there is no mistake.
The left touts programs like Medicare as successful but they fail to mention simple facts like that program loses as much as $60 Million dollars a year to graft, corruption, mismanagement, theft and fraud, has a $40plus trillion dollar unfunded liability and has a trust fund that will be exhausted in less then 10 years.
What’s more telling is that at the same time, health insurance companies are accused of being ‘greedy’ even though they maintain a mere 2.2% profit margin.
I agree with the Daily Mail short takes. Congress would be better off calling for a privatization of Medicare, aka Capitalism and eliminating the public option, aka Marxism.
and
"EVERYWHERE socialism/communism/Marxism has ever been tried; it has failed miserably including right her in the United States of America".
Wouldn't you agree that the socialist programs of the War on Poverty and Welfare and Food Stamps "caloric intake, access to information, number of showers per day, etc..."?
Conservatives love to proclaim the War on Poverty a failure, yet use our poor's higher standard of living as an example of the successes of capitalism.
I wouldn't have put it exactly as Mann did, but unregulated capitalism and pure communism end up at the exact same place.
If I was King of America, the following would be law:
-All CEO's base pay would be $100k/yr with incremental bonuses tied to overall profit.
-Political campaigns would be subject to libel laws.
-Congressional districts would follow existing county borders and be the shortest line possible.
-The CEO's and boards of directors of corporations that set up bogey p.o. boxes in places like Bermuda (I'm looking at you Stanley Tools) would have to move there and let those countries fight their wars, pave their roads, build their schools, etc...
-And last, but certainly not least, there would be a law that required anyone who calls themselves a Christian to be able to recite the Beatitudes before continuing on with what they were saying.
Rather than appreciating how far we've come, we focus on the disparity of the "haves" and the "have-nots." But that's the wrong comparison. Instead, compare the lives of the poor today to the poor of the previous generations. Our forefathers would be amazed.
In so many basic and fundamental ways - caloric intake, access to information, number of showers per day, etc. - the rich and the poor are becoming more equal. Rather than blaming capitalism for all the world's woes, the author should consider how America came to become the greatest economic superpower the earth has ever seen - property rights, economic freedom, and a strong, apolitical legal system.
Mr. Mann wants to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
What Comrade Mann doesn't tell the readers is that EVERYWHERE socialism/communism/Marxism has ever been tried; it has failed miserably including right her in the United States of America. All one has to do is go to any inner city to witness the destruction, dismay, and poverty that is brought on by Marxist policies.
YUP, and the capitalist bought “robotic” machinery that has superannuated labor and prevented labor's ranks from tripling or quadrupling. Those “robotic” machines on the assembly lines now help the 223,000+- auto workers produce 3 to 4 times the automobiles for sale to the public that can afford to buy them.
So, let the anti-Capitalists (Socialists) take the machinery out of the workplace and hire an additional 113,000 coal miners and an additional 800,000+- auto workers and then tell me how may people can afford to pay their electric bills or buy a new vehicle.
And Perry Mann has a Lawyering Degree???????????