US politics general thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
konfab said:

The US is a lot of things, but I am going to bet it will continue to have higher living standards than South Africa once this place is a socialist utopia.
Click to expand...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Index

Wow, such insight....:rolleyes: The US currently sits at rank 10 on the human development index, SA sits at rank 119- short of the US being hit by a zombie apocalypse that will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future.. What exactly does that prove?
 
cerebus said:
Wake me up when Norwegians and Brits start losing their land to the government, k?
Click to expand...
Britain is a monarchy and the Queen own most of it in anyway. With some leniency so that people don't have a revolution, Britain is also extremely capitalistic that's why they have such a big economy for a small island.
Norway is mixed market capitalism, and very reliant on gas/oil to fund some of their charity programs also because of their geological location they don't really have land to be an issue. They are more reliant on the sea. So they are unique and a bad comparison.
 
rietrot said:
Britain is a monarchy and the Queen own most of it in anyway. With some leniency so that people don't have a revolution, Britain is also extremely capitalistic that's why they have such a big economy for a small island.
Norway is mixed market capitalism, and very reliant on gas/oil to fund some of their charity programs also because of their geological location they don't really have land to be an issue. They are more reliant on the sea. So they are unique and a bad comparison.
Click to expand...

It's nice how you're suddenly able to evaluate each country on its own merits instead of trying to homogenize them under one label.

konfab said:
Funny how the same sort of things happened in the following utopia of the world:
USSR
China
Cuba
Somalia
Mozambique
Angola
Tanzania
Vietnam
Myanmar
Cambodia
Laos
Zimbabwe
Click to expand...

Also, and it might be a shocker to learn this, but democratic socialism IS capitalistic.
 
cerebus said:
Also, and it might be a shocker to learn this, but democratic socialism IS capitalistic.
Click to expand...

Source for that? Democratic socialism is socialism. In the beginning you might need the capitalist to pay for everything, but soon enough you will chase them away, run out of other people's money and just have normal socialism/communism.
 
cerebus said:
Land expropriation? No I don't support dispossessing people of their property rights without compensation.
Click to expand...

Right, so why is land different from any other body of wealth? Taking large amounts of money from rich people in the form of taxes for redistribution of wealth is doing exactly the same thing.
 
That is hilarious. Now Democratic Socialism IS, like in really IS IS IS capitalistic. I guess they had to name it that to get all the socialist fools to support it. Bernie bros won't fall for democratic capitalism:crylaugh:
 
cerebus said:
It's nice how you're suddenly able to evaluate each country on its own merits instead of trying to homogenize them under one label.



Also, and it might be a shocker to learn this, but democratic socialism IS capitalistic.
Click to expand...

Actually you're incorrect here. You're thinking of Social Democracy which promotes capitalism. Democratic Socialism is inherently anti-capitalist

Edit: Bernie Sanders apparently calls himself a democratic socialist but according to the 'textbook' definitions he is actually a social democrat
 
Last edited:
C4Cat said:
Actually you're incorrect here. You're thinking of Social Democracy which promotes capitalism. Democratic Socialism is inherently anti-capitalist
Click to expand...

Democratic socialism isn't inherently anti-capitalistic, although like all things it's a spectrum of varying intensities.

What exactly is democratic socialism?
It depends on whom you ask. Sanders has said his brand of socialism differs from Marxism, which calls for government ownership and management of all private industry. He wants the U.S. to adopt the social democracy of Scandinavian countries like Denmark and Norway, where a robust social safety net operates in a regulated free-market economy. To pay for a similar safety net in the U.S., including free medical care and college education for all, Sanders would raise more than $1 trillion a year through higher taxes on most individuals and corporations. But the new guard of democratic socialists, organized under the banner of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), would go much further. Ocasio-Cortez, for example, has said she believes capitalism "will not always exist in the world."
Click to expand...
 
konfab said:
Right, so why is land different from any other body of wealth? Taking large amounts of money from rich people in the form of taxes for redistribution of wealth is doing exactly the same thing.
Click to expand...

You're anti-taxation?
 
konfab said:
No, that would make me an anarchist.

I am against taxation for wealth redistribution, on the grounds that it simply doesn't work.
Click to expand...

Sorry but what the hell do you think taxes do? Schools - wealth distribution so children can get a free education. Hospitals - wealth distribution so people can get free/subsidized healthcare. Wealth redistribution is the goal of all taxation.
 
Last edited:
cerebus said:
Sorry but what the hell do you think taxes do? Schools - wealth distribution so children can get a free education. Hospitals - wealth distribution so people can get free/subsidized healthcare. Wealth redistribution is the goal of all taxation.
Click to expand...

What are you smoking?

Tell that to the firefighter who one day pulls you out of a burning building. Or the legal process letting you go for defending yourself.

Wealth redistribution... :crylaugh:
 
cerebus said:
Sorry but what the hell do you think taxes do?
Click to expand...
They should fund the services that cannot be performed by the market, the only one being the service of making sure the laws of the country apply to everyone fairly. This is the philosophical core of what a state is meant to do. (Read up on Locke). Governments like South Africa and to an extent US fail at this very basic core because they are completely focussed on providing things that the market is capable of providing more efficently. As a result nothing around it works.

cerebus said:
Schools - wealth distribution so children can get a free education. Hospitals - wealth distribution so people can get free/subsidized healthcare. Wealth redistribution is the goal of all taxation.
Click to expand...
Wealth redistribution is the goal of taxation because:
1) it does perilously little to solve the problems that you mentioned.
2) It necessitates the need to have a gigantic state though which people can be controlled.
 
Moosedrool said:
What are you smoking?

Tell that to the firefighter who one day pulls you out of a burning building. Or the legal process letting you go for defending yourself.

Wealth redistribution... :crylaugh:
Click to expand...

You mean my hard earned income was taken so that someone else could be pulled out of a burning building or receive legal counsel even though they were probably guilty? Socialism!
 
cerebus said:
You mean my hard earned income was taken so that someone else could be pulled out of a burning building or receive legal counsel even though they were probably guilty? Socialism!
Click to expand...

And you.

if you ignore that these services are for you as well you can take any business in modern day life and paint it with that brush.
 
konfab said:
They should fund the services that cannot be performed by the market, the only one being the service of making sure the laws of the country apply to everyone fairly. This is the philosophical core of what a state is meant to do. (Read up on Locke). Governments like South Africa and to an extent US fail at this very basic core because they are completely focussed on providing things that the market is capable of providing more efficently. As a result nothing around it works.
Click to expand...

So, public schooling shouldn't be tax-funded? No public healthcare services?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X