Thoughts on Socialism

[southernwind]

Heck, capitalism is working out pretty good lately too, don't you think?

One student gets an AAAAAA++++++++++++++++
And all the others get C's to F's.

but yet under capitalism the students with the c's and f's have the choice and chance to bring them up to the same A+ rank. Its always the loosers that want everyone to do it for them that cries to have the A+ brought DOWN to the looser F level because misery loves company.
hell look at Mass its a perfect example of the misery loving company, just take a look at Kerry and Kennedy talk about a couple of flunkies.

As would a pure free enterprise state with no regulation. How would you feel without a Food and Drug Administration? Almost all economies are on some continuum of mixed economy.

Holy CRAP!!!! how ever did we make it so long without government intervention....it must be the saving grace of government intervention and over regulation that makes this such a great place.

now if they could just over regulate a couple of more companies out of the country........................it would fix everything.

To their great surprise all failed. The professor told them socialism would ultimately fail because the harder people try to succeed the greater their reward (capitalism) but when a government takes all the reward away (socialism) no one will try or succeed
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the best example is when chavez took over the oil companies in Venezuela trying to make the production go up it had the reverse effect and production went down......

Profit is the biggest motivator in the world. Take away the monetary motivation and productivity bottoms out. How many here in this forum would do the job they do every day for free...........not for free if you had other income...without income at all would you do your job. EVERYONE I have ever asked regardless of the party they wanna belong to or economic status without question everyone said they would not work for free. wow i tell them you just admitted that your taking your first step back towards the right....careful its a strange journey filled with lots of common sense....and fantastic liars (but most work for CNN).

[erps]

I'm revealling my ignorance, but what's the Animal Farm analogy?

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by PBzeer

The point of it, actual or invented, is that it graphically illustrates human nature much like Animal Farm did.

Your views of human nature.....

John Locke believed that we are born a blank slate and learn "our nature"

Rousseau believed that we are born naturally good and corrupted by the institution of private property.

You will not find a consensus on "human nature."

[PBzeer]

George Orwell's 1945 novel was an illustration of how human nature corrupts the utopian underpinnings of socialism.

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by southernwind

Holy CRAP!!!! how ever did we make it so long without government intervention....it must be the saving grace of government intervention and over regulation that makes this such a great place.

Free enterprise capitalism is a relatively new "invention" Prior to the Adam Smith and the Physiocrats, mercantilism was the predominate system.

[PBzeer]

It is the very rare human being who does not put self-interest at the head of their list of priorities. And even those few, it could be argued, merely have a different concept of self-interest.

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by PBzeer

It is the very rare human being who does not put self-interest at the head of their list of priorities. And even those few, it could be argued, merely have a different concept of self-interest.

They are called soldiers.

[PBzeer]

No, I wouldn't include soldiers in the very few. I was referring to those who give of themselves without any apparent or material reward.

[sailaway21]

Originally Posted by craigimass

Logic and reason are tough things.

Apparently so.

Now I happen to personally despise Donald Trump and I'll throw in Ted Turner to the equation out of deference to the forum we find ourselves within. I would have neither of them at my dinner table despite their great success. My mother did not raise me to associate with such degenerate people.

Having said that, the above poster continues in his seemingly endless confusion about the nature of such things as capitalism and democracy, not unimportant subjects about which to have a glimmer of understanding on.

Mr. Trump's role as a capitalist is to make money. That's it. Whether he is ethical, admirable, and socially conscious in that pursuit is largely beside the point. And what does society derive from this rapacious and hedonistic individual? Well. We get the benefits from an individual who will not sleep nights in pursuit of economic efforts that benefit us all. Efforts that produce buildings and industries where none thought could be built. Efforts where the impossible is just something that takes a bit longer to accomplish.

Along the way, Mr. Trump employs massive numbers of individuals, enriching them as well, adds to the infrastructure of the USA, and generates massive amounts of revenue to a confiscatory government. He typifies the greedy and rapacious capitalist that built the trans-continental railway, the Panama Canal, developed the supercomputer, turned a useless tract of land into Manhattan, and most of the other great economic accomplishments of the US capitalist system. He does what the government or the timid will never do. And he enriches not only those around him but society as a whole because, at root, that is what capitalism does. By comparison, the carpenter is a selfish, lazy, non-contributor of limited productivity at best who'll leave little of economic consequence in his path. To the extent that the carpenter is successful economically it is out of the same selfish imperative that animates Mr. Trump; enlightened self interest.

That I would choose to have one for friend and not the other has nothing to do with capitalism, the growth of overall societal wealth, and the benefit of the free enterprise system to provide the best standard of living to the greatest number of people overall.

...and that's all I've got to say about that.

[sailaway21]

Originally Posted by jackdale

You will not find a consensus on "human nature."

Hogwash.

Liberals believe in the perfectibility of man.
Conservatives believe in the fallen state nature of man and the power of enlightened self-interest.
Within both philosophies there is consensus on the matter.