| Author | Post |
|---|
Manatee
Member
| Joined: | Thu Feb 12th, 2009 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 44 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
|
Posted: Wed Jun 10th, 2009 06:41 am |
|
Socialism works until you run out of other peoples money.
|
rfolland
Member
| Joined: | Wed Mar 25th, 2009 |
| Location: | SCW |
| Posts: | 162 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
|
Posted: Tue Jun 9th, 2009 07:05 pm |
|
Most countries exhibit a balance between "Capitalism" and "Socialism" since each system has its' own particular problems.
The writer's description of how Capitalism works is an idealized scenario where everyone "plays fair" and pursues his business in an ethical manner. One only has to look to the late 19th century to see the down side of unfettered Capitalism. It was the time of the "Robber Barons", industrialists who dominated their industries, made massive amounts of money, and drove their competitors out of business generally through anti-competitive and unfair business practices in attempts to corner markets and set prices. In some areas, they basically controlled state governments. Employees were treated as chattel, to be used and disposed of as needed. An old comment was that an employer was considered "enlightened" if, when an employee was killed on the job, they paid for the box he was sent home in. An extreme form of Capitalism that was flirted with in this country was the "company town", where the company owned everything in the town except the employee's furniture and the clothes on their backs. They controlled law enforcement, the schools, and even paid the preacher's salarys. The structure was very much like Marxism-Leninism as practiced in the former Soviet Union, it being an example of the "Corporate State". Marxism-Leninism has been described as a capitalist heresy that was rejected by capitalism just as Christianity can be described as a Jewish heresy that was rejected by Judaism.
The abuses of early capiialism were brought to bay by anti-trust legislation and numerous other pieces of legislation which attempt to encourage "fair play". The hated trade unions and the Populist movement which were somewhat of a response to the abuses of early capitalism, brought about such things as Workman's Compensation, overtime pay, the 40 hour week, "The Weekend", and other benefits to employees. Our experiments with "Socialism" brought us Social Security, Medicare, Medicaide and other programs which benefit people.
Pure Socialism is a system where business and society are managed by "experts". Policy and procedures are generally controlled from a central office staffed by "experts" in the field. This was in part how the Russians managed, early on, to ruin their agriculture industry... "experts" in Moscow overriding the knowledge of the farmers. The laws of supply and demand were thrown out by bureaucrats setting production quotas. In this country back in the 1960s, the National Education Association (NEA) had as a part of its' agenda, the centralized control of education from Washington. It would have not only controlled what was taught, but how it was taught.... it didn't happen. In the early days of the national welfare and poverty programs in this country, only people who were "issue sensitive" were hired to staff the programs.
Society, therefore, has to strike a balance. Entrepreneurship is basically a good idea, but there must be some method of limiting the effects of abuse and unbridled greed, such as happened recently in our financial markets. "Experts" are needed to influence national agendas. The late Eric Hoeffer, known as the "Longshoreman Philosopher", wrote that intellectuals are needed for their ideas and should be given everything needed to develop those ideas, except the power to implement them, that being a job for the "common man".
Last edited on Tue Jun 9th, 2009 07:09 pm by rfolland
|
RustyBradshaw
Member
| Joined: | Fri Jan 4th, 2008 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 489 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
|
Posted: Mon Jun 8th, 2009 06:47 pm |
|
Editor’s note: Copied below is a letter to the editor submitted to the Sun City West Independent. You can post your opinions by clicking on "Reply."
Lesson in philosophies
The problems our country is in at this time I hope will teach us all a lesson, and that is to be able to distinguish between capitalism and socialism.
In socialism, with its high government involvement in the private sector, company success is dependent on its success in obtaining government funding or favor. The company no longer needs to run itself with sound principles, only to curry favor with the politicians and government officials.
Under capitalism, people and companies make money by providing better goods or services to their customers. This is the essence of the free market. Government lobbying is to protect against unjust laws or unreasonable taxation. It is not to plunder the taxpayer or oppress the competition. If the company officials are successful at this they deserve a reasonable bonus.
Bonuses are not the problem. Government intrusion into the marketplace is the nightmare. Government intrusion is unconstitutional according to the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. We must elect leaders who will honor their oath to support and defend our Constitution.
I feel that much of our government problems now are due to the fact that for the past eight years the GOP looked very much like the Democrat Party and at times they looked very much worse. The only thing we can do is to vote these people out of office and to vote people in that will try to bring our country back to where we want it.
John Sam Campana
Sun City West
|
Current time is 06:22 am | |
|
|
|