Just because I despise Socialism doesn’t mean I want people to return to the “workhouses”.
Would you rather have the socialist/fascist state we are in now, in which the corporate oligarchs control everything, and small businesses are being destroyed? Or how about Communism, in which the State owns everything, and the poor truly are “effed”. A Dictatorship, but not of the “proletariat”.
If you think Democrats, or any other type of Socialists, are for the “working man” or small business owner, you have been sold a bill of goods.
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My social skills do, perhaps, need a little polishing.
I will try to do better.
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Capitalism naturally evolves into the social state we have now. It is entirely natural and expected that those who have gained wealth, power and influence, will seek to cement that position into permanent privilege.
I detest this, it is the opposite of freedom and liberty and the virtues that have, historically, made the US great.
The thing is that this trend can be easily defeated. I believe that if we just returned to our Constitutional principles of representation, the swamp and all it implies could be smashed. The Constitution says that each Representative district should have no more than 30,000 population. If we updated that to be no more than 100,000, which, given modern communications would surely be reasonable, then we would have a House of Representatives of about 3,500 members. Costs of election would be much less and local recognition more significant. The power of the established parties would be much diminished and local voices taken more notice of.
Each Representative of the US House now represents about 750,000 constituents. It costs millions to get elected, so big donors have a big say in what the candidate stands for.
Oh, and we should build a new House of Representatives, somewhere like Omaha, or Kansas City. An American house, for the American people, in the heartland of America.
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Some ideas there are worth pondering.
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Sounds like great ideas. While we’re at it, we need term limits, the separation of politics and “special interest” lobbying, end the FED, etc, etc…
But just because capitalism - free enterprise - devolved into what we have now, doesn’t mean it in itself is bad. Our enemies have always taken advantage of our freedoms to use them against us, and take away freedom under the guise of doing something “for the common good”.
But there is no better alternative to freedom, including free enterprise.
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Liz; no term limits. All that does is empower the bureaucracy. It takes years to master a brief, if we throw out, by mandate, our Reps, then the bureaucrats are hugely empowered. We already have a form of term limits, if they betray us, we vote them out.
What do you propose to replace the Fed with? JFK had a keen interest in this, he reasoned that, as the US Treasury could issue coins, it could also issue notes. We do not borrow to issue coins, and it is a long time since coins actually had the intrinsic equal of their face value. There is no reason why we should not issue $100.00, $1,000.00, or even $1,000,000.00 coins (or notes). JFK made many enemies, some he did not even know he had made. This incidentally is the basis of the MMT argument that is going on now. MMT proponents argue that there is no reason why govt. should not just create whatever amount of currency is required. The bankers are horrified at this suggestion, they currently are the ones creating currency, and a hugely profitable business it is, at society’s expense.
Modern monetary theory, like Keynsian economics, is socialist flim-flam. Ludwig Von Mises got it right.
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I have to pay through my taxes for the “welfare” of people who want to kill me for my beliefs (a certain militant minority is rapidly growing in the UK thanks in no small part to the weflare state). Nevertheless if I refuse to pay my taxes I will get sent to prison, so the welfare state is a form of tyranny; it’s time we started to recognize this tyranny for what it is.
If you want to help the poor then by all means do so, go ahead donate your own hard earned money to charity, but don’t force me to do likewise at the point of a gun (which is what you do when you vote for politicians who implement welfare policies supported by mandatory taxes).
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I have not, but people ask this all the time in different words, they demand handouts from the welfare state for example.
I can see now why people aren’t impressed by the quote as Liz pointed out though, coming from a socialist who implemented harmful welfare policies it’s rendered meaningless.
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It wasn’t capitalism that devolved I don’t think, it was socialist policies that have gradually stifled capitalism.
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MMT - the Modern Money Tree.
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Revised - that was a bit of a hasty comment, there are some of those listed in the link from Jillian that I think may be a good idea in principle (depending on the details of course):
a water pollution control act was passed to protect rivers and streams
Farming is a bit outside my knowledge sphere (to put it mildly), but these sound like a good idea:
expansion in rural electrification, soil conservation
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There’s nothing natural or inevitable about it. The social state came about because once everybody had the vote, the poor started to vote for forced wealth transfer. It’s possible that universal suffrage might work in a very well informed society, but that’s very far from what our society is today.
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That’s one of the arguments in favour of Central Bank Digital Currency, but unfortunately if we’re not careful we’ll end up with the ultimate tool of total control in the hands of the “nannying” authoritarian state.
Hasn’t Ron Paul made some arguments about what to do with the Fed?
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If by “my country” you mean the state, the government, then your point is made.
I assumed JFK meant America, not the (then) Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
Of course in the case of poor old Britain, the entire country long ago became one big agency for the dispensing of welfare, so a difference of understanding is understandable.
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That’s a great point - the welfare state IS a form of tyranny.
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Good point! Socialist policies and “cultural Marxism” have stifled, poisoned and crippled free enterprise and everything else that is good in Western society.
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Well I am late to this discussion. But on a different line of thought about JFK; If you know anything about Sociapathic Narcissists and their Co-Dependent partners, you would find that JFK was the former to Jackie’s later.
They can be most charming, are usually over-sexed and produce hot chemistry with any of their co-dependents.
So for what it is worth, they are produced by parents of the same. Kennedys…I could have done without them.
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Interesting observation! It definitely fits his behavior pattern. And we have no lack of sociopaths in our government.
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