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Just curious--
Is it possible for someone to realize that large wealth disparity kills an economy without being jealous?
Wealth disparity actually isn't a bad thing. it's only "bad" when it's coupled with "income immobility". This is something you see in far left, socialist states.
Wealth disparity with income mobility is not bad. Bill Gates has many more billions than I do. Yet I, a simple multi-millionaire am still able to enjoy life at pretty much 99% of the level Bill Gates does. He has a bigger house, more expensive toys, but not at such a level that it has a negative effect upon my lifestyle. Also, I can continuously provide services or products that increase my wealth as long as the government does not get in my way, or allow other parties to get in my way. That's the beauty of a pie that gets bigger instead of an economy/system that believes the pie is limited and zero-sum.
Standard of living or quality of life is measured in part by productivity which is Output / Input (i.e., output divided by input).
In a socialist country which is riddled with corruption and crime, input is a lot larger than output. Hence, standard of living is very low.
Most socialists discount the factors going into output like motivation to want to improve, and know how (i.e. knowledge base) and competency to provide the best and most output (i.e., quality). Venezuela is learning this the hard way as gasoline is well below $3 a gallon, and there is less outside money (i.e., China, USA, Europe, etc.) being transferred into Venezuela to support its socialist government.
That's the beauty of a pie that gets bigger instead of an economy/system that believes the pie is limited and zero-sum.
Most of your post is pure trolling so I will ignore it, but this statement is believed by many on here--notably Strategist--so it's worth addressing.
The "pie" grows at basically the rate of productivity improvements. In the US that's running under 2% a year right now. That's how fast the pie is growing.
So, when the top 1% has income growing at 10%, that absolutely means that the bottom 99% is losing ground.
Quite right, yet isn't this always the complaint? That Socialism could work, if not for Pol Pot, Joseph Stalin, etc....
Not really. At least not in my case. If you read what I wrote earlier, I think that an entirely centralized economy cannot function well for logistic reasons. However, the success of NEP illustrates that some balance between centralized planning and private ownership of capital can function well. China is another example.
It seems to me that where you and I disagree (please correct me if I am wrong) is that you equate socialist economic policies with the communist ideology from the first half of last century. I think the primary source of evil is the totalitarian ideology, or just ideological indoctrination, which does not necessarily require socialism.
Throughout history there are many examples where ideologic indoctrination has been used to keep the population in fear and subordination. In the middle ages that was religion - inconvenient people were labelled heretics or witches. In the soviet union decedents were enemy of the people and the decisions of the communist party were not to be questioned. In our current society, we have PC (of course I am not equating it to the terror in the soviet union from the 30's). We also have the fear of communism used to scare people from supporting social programs that are to their benefit.
Socialism is a range of economic and social systems characterized by social ownership and democratic control of the means of production.
You can view socialism within the USA such as with public schools. The government (i.e. school board, etc.) controls the means of producing public education (K-12).
The question, how far do you want your society to allow the government to control production. Do you want that to extend to health care ? Do you want that to extend to other industries the produces goods and services ?
Can socialism exist in a very heterogeneous society as it does in a very homogeneous society like the Scandinavian countries ? Keep in mind the USA spends about 3.5% of its GDP on defense, whereas the northern European countries barely spend 1% of GDP on defense. If the USA would reduce defense from 3.5% to 1% of GDP, then the $500 billion savings from defense cuts (i.e., 2.5% of GDP) could go to social welfare services. Providing a $6,000 a year voucher per person per year for health care insurance would provide coverage for 83,333,333 million American citizens.
Right now health care accounts for about 12% of the $20 trillion economy, or about $2.4 trillion.
That subsidy would just increase healthcare costs by 6,000 a year.
Socialism is a range of economic and social systems characterized by social ownership and democratic control of the means of production.
You can view socialism within the USA such as with public schools. The government (i.e. school board, etc.) controls the means of producing public education (K-12).
The question, how far do you want your society to allow the government to control production. Do you want that to extend to health care ? Do you want that to extend to other industries the produces goods and services ?
Can socialism exist in a very heterogeneous society as it does in a very homogeneous society like the Scandinavian countries ? Keep in mind the USA spends about 3.5% of its GDP on defense, whereas the northern European countries barely spend 1% of GDP on defense. If the USA would reduce defense from 3.5% to 1% of GDP, then the $500 billion savings from defense cuts (i.e., 2.5% of GDP) could go to social welfare services. Providing a $6,000 ...
Venezuela rewards soldiers with toilet paper
Things have been a little tense in Venezuela lately, and repression soldiers have had to deploy tear gas on citizens chanting for food. As a morale boost, it seems, some of those repression solders were rewarded with toilet paper and other personal items, and the award presentations were captured on film for posterity.
Venezuela rewards soldiers with toilet paper
That's awesome. It's what every asshole desires.
A list of socialist nations and their utter fury at how horrible their socialist health care is performing.
I'm all for using their health care system up to a certain point. Our system is fully fucked.
I would also use their education system.
By they way , they are capitalist countries.
Gentle Reader,
Venezuela's problems have nothing to do with socialism, communism, democracy, capitalism, or sadism in tight latex. Well, maybe that last one. What this has to do is an economy and nation dependent on oil. I live in Louisiana, I know about oil and the problems associated with depending on the tax revenue and jobs of an oil extraction economy. We've suffered from oil.
Regards,
Roidy
P.S. Fuck you President Pouty Poo.
I live in Louisiana, I know about oil and the problems associated with depending on the tax revenue and jobs of an oil extraction economy. We've suffered from oil.
You guys ran out of toilet paper too?
I live in Louisiana, I know about oil and the problems associated with depending on the tax revenue and jobs of an oil extraction economy. We've suffered from oil.
You guys ran out of toilet paper too?
Gentle Reader,
I'm not really sure what you mean by running out of toilet paper, but I can say with assurance that we WILL take matters in hand if we do.
Regards,
Roidy
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All is apparently not well in the socialist paradise!
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/05/10/venezuela-infant-mortality-rate-skyrockets/