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I can't think of any better way to put it than this:
"Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction, It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again. Knowing this, it is hard to explain those who even today would question the people's capacity for self-rule. Will they answer this: if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? Using the temporary authority granted by the people, an increasing number lately have sought to control the means of production, as if this could be done without eventually controlling those who produce. Always this is explained as necessary to the people's welfare. But, "The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principle upon which it was founded" [Montesquieu]. This is as true today as it was when it was written in 1748"
"In recent years we have been treated to a rash of noble-sounding phrases. Some of them sound good, but they don't hold up under close analysis. Take for instance the slogan so frequently uttered by the young senator from Massachusetts, “The greatest good for the greatest number"...My generation has paid a higher price and has fought harder for freedom that any generation that had ever lived. We have known four wars in a single lifetime. All were horrible, all could have been avoided if at a particular moment in time we had made it plain that we subscribed to the words of John Stuart Mill when he said that “war is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things.” The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing is worth a war is worse. The man who has nothing which he cares about more than his personal safety is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself...For the second time in this century, capitalism and the free enterprise are under assault. Privately owned business is blamed for spoiling the environment, exploiting the worker and seducing, if not outright raping, the customer. Those who make the charge have the solution, of course—government regulation and control. We may never get around to explaining how citizens who are so gullible that they can be suckered into buying cereal or soap that they don't need and would not be good for them, can at the same time be astute enough to choose representatives in government to which they would entrust the running of their lives. Unfortunately, the disciples of the new order have had a hand in determining too much policy in recent decades. Government has grown in size and power and cost through the New Deal, the Fair Deal, the New Frontier and the Great Society. It costs more for government today than a family pays for food, shelter and clothing combined. Not even the Office of Management and Budget knows how many boards, commissions, bureaus and agencies there are in the federal government, but the federal registry, listing their regulations, is just a few pages short of being as big as the Encyclopedia Britannica..."
Location: On the "Left Coast", somewhere in "the Land of Fruits & Nuts"
8,865 posts, read 10,403,983 times
Reputation: 6670
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigJon3475
Government is beholden of the people. Socialism gives to much power to the state.
Has our government done anything good once it steps in? It fails way more than it succeeds. It does have some things that help.
We earn all together as individuals around 5 trillion dollars. Split between everyone equally you would have around $16k a year. Of that tax must come out to pay for government run programs. Let's just say 33%. Now your looking at a little over $10k a year. In other words an entire working poor..... Any move towards it brings America that much closer to those dismal results. Sweden is fairly successful but is also extremely small. Could you imagine the government trying to implement a program like that here
OK, if a government that looks and operates like Sweden is "The Big Scary Monster Under the Bed", then hey, where do I sign up (and does the Swedish Bikini Team come with the deal...?)!
But seriously, I read your other posts, including that perennial fountain of wisdom, the great Reagan-meister (which the scholarly Mrs. Palin has also quoted) and agree or disagree aside, am honestly still not seeing the kind of threat that warrants the sort of hysteria ("Communism!", "Marxism!", "Totalitarian!", etc.) that's being tossed about lately by the Right, let alone the gentleman in the video of the McCain rally.
Am only guessing here, but are you equating any sort of government intervention, regulation, assistance, etc. with the loss of certain American ideals like self-sufficiency, ingenuity & resourcefulness, unlimited expansion, manifest destiny, etc.? Or in other words, are you saying that anything short of total Libertarianism amounts to Socialism (or Communism)?
OK, if a government that looks and operates like Sweden is "The Big Scary Monster Under the Bed", then hey, where do I sign up (and does the Swedish Bikini Team come with the deal...?)!
But seriously, I read your other posts, including that perennial fountain of wisdom, the great Reagan-meister (which the scholarly Mrs. Palin has also quoted) and agree or disagree aside, am honestly still not seeing the kind of threat that warrants the sort of hysteria ("Communism!", "Marxism!", "Totalitarian!", etc.) that's being tossed about lately by the Right, let alone the gentleman in the video of the McCain rally.
Am only guessing here, but are you equating any sort of government intervention, regulation, assistance, etc. with the loss of certain American ideals like self-sufficiency, ingenuity & resourcefulness, unlimited expansion, manifest destiny, etc.? Or in other words, are you saying that anything short of total Libertarianism amounts to Socialism (or Communism)?
They will tell you that it's a "slippery slope" that once we start going down that road, then it's wam bam thank you ma'am full blown socialism.
As I see it, our economic system is like a pendulum. We've never seen pure capitalism or pure socialism, or anything even close to either. Our pendulum has swung too far toward a free market society, combined with extreme deflation, that poured way too much excess into the markets. Now if we come back to some equilibrium, that's going to hurt those who benefit from bubble markets (that THRIVE in freer markets). So what do these players do? They start a whisper campaign that anyone proposing change (Obama) is a socialist.
Location: On the "Left Coast", somewhere in "the Land of Fruits & Nuts"
8,865 posts, read 10,403,983 times
Reputation: 6670
Quote:
Originally Posted by magellan
They will tell you that it's a "slippery slope" that once we start going down that road, then it's wam bam thank you ma'am full blown socialism.
As I see it, our economic system is like a pendulum. We've never seen pure capitalism or pure socialism, or anything even close to either. Our pendulum has swung too far toward a free market society, combined with extreme deflation, that poured way too much excess into the markets. Now if we come back to some equilibrium, that's going to hurt those who benefit from bubble markets (that THRIVE in freer markets). So what do these players do? They start a whisper campaign that anyone proposing change (Obama) is a socialist.
Excellent point... I keep forgetting that the easily incited "base" is just the "front line" and gets their marching orders, ideology, "spin" and "talking points" fed down to them via the food chain of billionnaire-financed "Think Tanks", media bloviators, and Right Wing blogs. Basically just sophisticated "rabble rousing".
I'll change that to the majority of the south. I spoke wrong.
Last time I go off topic.
FYI: there is no Hispanic race----------they run the gamut from Black to Nordic White.
Admittedly; most American Latinos are Mestizo (Indian/White mix) due in part to the White supremacy of Hispanic culture (they are treated better here in the USA). In Mexico 'brown' people are considered to be the working class with the White Mexicans ruling the roost.
At a rate of over 90 percent in a year with historic registrations and turn-out? Prove it.
Your argument is weak.
Historically Black folks have supported the Democrats in overwhelming numbers and they continue to do so.
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