|
Author
|
Topic: Socialism Explained (by request)
|
katatonic
Knowflake Posts: 7401
From:
Registered: Apr 2009
|
posted October 05, 2011 02:23 PM
  
here are those "out of context" remarks by reagan. a little crowd participation invited and received...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgbJ-Fs1ikA&feature=player_embedded IP: Logged |
juniperb
Moderator Posts: 3136
From: Blue Star Kachina
Registered: Apr 2009
|
posted January 06, 2012 12:58 PM
 ------------------
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. ~Rumi~ IP: Logged |
jwhop
Knowflake Posts: 4658
From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009
|
posted January 08, 2012 08:52 AM
I Love Greed
by Walter E. Williams
01/04/2012
 What human motivation gets the most wonderful things done? It's really a silly question, because the answer is so simple. It turns out that it's human greed that gets the most wonderful things done. When I say greed, I am not talking about fraud, theft, dishonesty, lobbying for special privileges from government or other forms of despicable behavior. I'm talking about people trying to get as much as they can for themselves. Let's look at it.
This winter, Texas ranchers may have to fight the cold of night, perhaps blizzards, to run down, feed and care for stray cattle. They make the personal sacrifice of caring for their animals to ensure that New Yorkers can enjoy beef. Last summer, Idaho potato farmers toiled in blazing sun, in dust and dirt, and maybe being bitten by insects to ensure that New Yorkers had potatoes to go with their beef.
Here's my question: Do you think that Texas ranchers and Idaho potato farmers make these personal sacrifices because they love or care about the well-being of New Yorkers? The fact is whether they like New Yorkers or not, they make sure that New Yorkers are supplied with beef and potatoes every day of the week. Why? It's because ranchers and farmers want more for themselves. In a free market system, in order for one to get more for himself, he must serve his fellow man. This is precisely what Adam Smith, the father of economics, meant when he said in his classic "An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" (1776), "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest." By the way, how much beef and potatoes do you think New Yorkers would enjoy if it all depended upon the politically correct notions of human love and kindness? Personally, I'd grieve for New Yorkers. Some have suggested that instead of greed, I use "enlightened self-interest." That's OK, but I prefer greed.
Free market capitalism is relatively new in human history. Prior to the rise of capitalism, the way people amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man. Capitalism made it possible to become wealthy by serving one's fellow man. Capitalists seek to discover what people want and then produce it as efficiently as possible. Free market capitalism is ruthless in its profit and loss discipline. This explains much of the hostility toward free market capitalism; some of it is held by businessmen. Smith recognized this hostility when he said, "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices." He was hinting at government-backed crony capitalism, which has come to characterize much of today's businesses.
Free market capitalism has other enemies -- mostly among the intellectual elite and political tyrants. These are people who believe that they have superior wisdom to the masses and that God has ordained them to forcibly impose that wisdom on the rest of us. Of course, they have what they consider to be good reasons for restricting liberty, but every tyrant who has ever lived has had what he considered good reason for restricting liberty. A tyrant's agenda calls for the attenuation or the elimination of the market and what is implied by it -- voluntary exchange. Tyrants do not trust that people acting voluntarily will do what the tyrant thinks they should do. They want to replace the market with economic planning and regulation.
The Wall Street occupiers and their media and political allies are not against the principle of crony capitalism, bailouts and government special privileges and intervention. They share the same hostility to free market capitalism and peaceable voluntary exchange as tyrants. What they really want is congressional permission to share in the booty from looting their fellow man.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48553&keywords=capitalism IP: Logged |
jwhop
Knowflake Posts: 4658
From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009
|
posted January 15, 2012 04:52 PM
France loses AAA credit rating
socialism bombs out again
Rachel Marsden
01/15/2012Well, it’s finally happened. Once again, socialism has put a silver fork in itself. Standard & Poor’s has downgraded France’s AAA credit rating, giving the country side-eye on claims to have its debt under control. This means the country will now have to pay it all back at an even higher interest rate. Who are we kidding? No one’s paying back any debts right now. You need money to do that. When was the last time France had any extra cash lying around? It’s like raising the interest rate on the credit card of a smack addict whose pumping his capital into his veins faster than any German, Chinese, or Russian can slip him a tenner. No amount of hot air and spin could ultimately keep socialism afloat. It’s a good lesson for those in America and other parts of the world who think that Europe is in any way an exemplary, sustainable alternative to free-market limited government capitalism. If capitalism is perceived to not be working in America -- as the Occupy Wall Street movement has argued -- then it’s because the system isn’t capitalist enough. It’s because a lack of oversight has led to corporate welfare and an unlevel playing field -- socialist government-intervention in business, in other words. Similarly, if the U.S. health care system has problems, it’s because of private insurers’ heavy handed lobbying of government and government’s willingness, in turn, to meddle when its palm is adequately greased. That, too, is a problem for which more capitalism -- less government and a free-market -- is a cure. And now, again, we have proof that the system long considered the model for successful socialism has finally choked out. To be clear, this isn’t President Nicolas Sarkozy’s fault. He has spent the five years since he took office doing his best to move the country off the rail of socialism and onto one of personal independence, starting mainly with trying to change the rhetoric and the way the French think about such things. But how do you explain to a Labrador Retriever the exhilaration of being free like a wolf, despite not having someone place a full bowl in front of you at regular intervals? The French want less debt and they know the country is in crisis because of it, but they also want the same vacations and no government cutbacks in jobs or services -- mainly because those are precisely their jobs. They also expect their kids to all go to “management school,” after which they will never have to produce anything in the French workplace -- not even a signature, as there will be a stamp for that...made in China. Sarkozy just happens to be the guy sitting in the hot seat when all the socialist policies of every president since Charles De Gaulle have finally taken their toll. And unfortunately for Sarkozy, he’s facing re-election in May. The French can either re-elect Sarkozy, who they don’t personally like because they find him hyperactive, somewhat grotesque, and overly-involved in petty matters -- or they can do the same thing that’s led to France’s failure to date. That is, elect the friendly, aw shucks, funny Socialist Party candidate who only really has personal qualities going for him. Rather than get softer, Sarkozy needs to use the downgrading as an opportunity to take an even harder line now in favor of limited government. Stop talking, start swinging the axe like in a bad slasher film. Start by decimating a few levels of French government. Flatten that baby like a crepe. Set the example with the political class and make these so-called elites go out and start real businesses. Have people with kids take financial responsibility for them rather than supporting them from cradle-to-grave. Limit immigration to those who can contribute economically or professionally as ascertained by a points system like that which exists in Canada. Those who want to import their entire families from some foreign country can move back there if they’re that homesick. And the problem isn’t that businesses in France aren’t paying enough taxes -- it’s that their taxes aren’t sufficient to support the nanny state, so get rid of it. Start with these things and just pulverize it. Anyone who doesn’t like it can move to Scandinavia where apparently socialism still “works” for those who love paying exorbitant taxes. This is France’s big chance -- its Overton Window -- the moment referred to in public relations during which previously unforeseen possibilities suddenly become possible because of an unexpected, significant event. Don’t lose the opportunity.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48802 IP: Logged |
Ami Anne
Moderator Posts: 25978
From: Pluto/house next to NickiG
Registered: Sep 2010
|
posted January 15, 2012 07:48 PM
Great info Jwhop  ------------------
Passion, Lust, Desire. Check out my journal
http://www.mychristianpsychic.com/
IP: Logged | |
Lindaland
