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I remember my grandfather saying "We tried to protect them, we tried to improve their life beyond what we had. We thought we were doing what was best by making their lives easier than we had to go through. We didn't want our children having to suffer as we did, but it seems that by doing so, by sheltering them from the hardships we only severed any chance of them learning the lessons from those experiences and sent people on a path directly to which we tried to avoid."
It has been more than sad to live to see a population and a great country self-destruct by following this path.
Ya know Tex, it's hard for you to understand what the rest of the world is like since you are a Texan.
Texas - and midwestern America - are unlike most places in the world. Land prices are still cheap - a leftover from homesteading.
In Europe, the East Coast, and the West Coast, there at 10 - 25 people standing everywhere you would see 1 person standing in Dallas.
People in Texas lecture about "competition", but until you come to the part of the world where all the people are, you don't even understand the meaning of the word. Dallas is a sleepy little town where life is slow and easy compared to anywhere in the Northeast or Europe. You have no idea how much competition they deal with there every day. Just the driving - man I drive circles around these punks here in Dallas. I can out work them, whatever. It's easy to lecture about competition when you are in the little leagues.
So in the crowded parts of the world, socialism is instituted to moderate the rat race that does not exist in TX, or any of the "more capitalist" sections of the USA. It's important to slow things down in the urban centers.
The richest nations in the world are in Scandinavia and northern Europe. They all employ socialist policies so everyone has a fair share, not 111 million for Paulson and nothing for 100 million other people. It works, we know it does.
When the population density of Texas equals that of the Northeast, houses here will also average $400K.
That was rather condescending of you. I am from Texas but I am extremely well travelled. In three months my company is sending me to Nigeria for a couple of years. Socialized medicine is a joke… Europeans come to the U.S. when they want to get something important done or if they have the money because the waiting times are unbelievable!
Usually I can tell when people have not travelled extensively by their ‘uniformed’ comments! Socialism and Communism both take the incentives away to strive for greatness, to become better than we are, to improve the quality of life! If the U.S. had adopted a Socialist form of government during its inception then all of the inventions, technologies, and help that the U.S.A. has given to people all over the world would not have been there.
At one point in our history we used Communism and then later adopted Socialism as the forms of government; back when William Bradford led the Pilgrims to the new world. Now I’m about to educate you so pay attention… this was taken directly from Bradford’s own detailed handwritten journal.
When they arrived they found a cold, barren, wilderness and no one to greet them and no shelter. Their first winter, half the Pilgrims died including Bradford’s own wife (Either from exposure, starvation, or sickness). When spring finally came, Indians taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod, and skin beavers for coats. Life improved for the Pilgrims, but they did not yet prosper!
This is important to understand because this is where modern American history lessons often end. Thanksgiving is actually explained in some textbooks as a holiday for which the Pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians for saving their lives… Here is the part that was taken directly from the journals but has been omitted from text books: The original contract the Pilgrims had entered into with their merchant-sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store, and each member of the community was entitled to one common share. All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belong to the community as well. Bradford, who had become the new governor of the colony, recognized that this form of collectivism was as costly and destructive to the Pilgrims as that first harsh winter, which had taken so many lives.
So Bradford scrapped Communalism or Communism rather, and decided to experiment with what could only be described as socialism. Bradford assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage, thus turning loose the power of the marketplace. That's right. Long before Karl Marx was even born! I know how shocking! And what happened? It didn't work! Surprise, surprise, huh? What Bradford and his community found was that the most creative and industrious people had no incentive to work any harder than anyone else, unless they could utilize the power of personal motivation! But while most of the rest of the world has been experimenting with socialism for well over a hundred years – trying to refine it, perfect it, and re-invent it – the Pilgrims decided early on to scrap it permanently. What Bradford wrote about this social experiment should be in every schoolchild's history lesson if it were; we might prevent much needless suffering in the future.
If Obama will be the next president ...well he is for sure going to spread the wealth aroud....that is only good for the criminals who can't get a job and the lazy people...so other countries where the employees work harder will gain even more ground and the USA will loose more businesses which will go overseas.
Those who do not understand history are condemned to repeat it!
It was only after the Pilgrims had adapted a Capitalistic free market system that the people were prosperous enough to share their food with the Indians. When they were allowed to grow it themselves and sell what they grew and had worked so hard for… that is what motivated them and why they had so much extra! That is the real story of Thanksgiving… America had rejected Communism, rejected Socialism, and adopted Capitalism! Which propelled us from being a cold, barren, wilderness to a major super-power!
zed - Your lecture is very popular and very wrong. What killed the pilgrims was starting in the New England winter without enough food or shelter. What destroyed their communalism were the unending demands for more profit from their old world backers. The original settlers were not even allowed to smelt their own iron for the first generation.
Socialism does work if you have adequate natural resources; disciplined investors that keep their money invested in industry, a well trained productive workforce and a real sense of community where individual greed is discouraged. We have the resources but have lost the trained workforce because we champion the individual economic ‘warrior’ over the disciplined investor. This led to unrestrained gambling that changed our market into a no limit casino.
Even if a socialistic economy frustrates the truly greedy (remember the greed obsessed will continue to strive no mater what the obstacle) it is a small price for the society to pay for the long term wealth of the nation. We need a more socialistic economy not less.
Yes, I do believe the United States in becoming a Socialistic nation
And it scares me
And, makes me very sad
see this is what kills me. everybody who says this doesn't make over 250,000 a year, becuase if you did and your taxes were raised, you would find a way to make more money, that's differentiates you from your fellow"workers"
those so-called Hard workers don't work as hard as the millionaires and deserve to stay where they are. I may catch flack for this, but it's the truth. Millionaires don't get their millions by working for somebody else. They obviously have that drive to make money and found the means in doing so.
wether this becomes a socialist state or not, millionaires will still make their money regardless, so charging them higher will not impose upon their lifestyle. they won't be brought down to the level of Middle America becuase they have the drive to go beyond that.
anybody who disagrees is obviously uninformed or doesn't think outside of their own bubble
zed - Your lecture is very popular and very wrong. What killed the pilgrims was starting in the New England winter without enough food or shelter. What destroyed their communalism were the unending demands for more profit from their old world backers. The original settlers were not even allowed to smelt their own iron for the first generation.
Socialism does work if you have adequate natural resources; disciplined investors that keep their money invested in industry, a well trained productive workforce and a real sense of community where individual greed is discouraged. We have the resources but have lost the trained workforce because we champion the individual economic ‘warrior’ over the disciplined investor. This led to unrestrained gambling that changed our market into a no limit casino.
Even if a socialistic economy frustrates the truly greedy (remember the greed obsessed will continue to strive no mater what the obstacle) it is a small price for the society to pay for the long term wealth of the nation. We need a more socialistic economy not less.
I looked it up myself... it his own words! Read his journals before you embarrass yourself any further!
Besides... you will have individual greed no matter where you are! I used to work security... if someone who worked harder came in, the rest of them slacked off or slept! It is the same in a Socialist society! There is no incentive! People are driven by incentive! The incentive to help! the incentive to create something or invent something! The incentive for riches!
I realize now that it is impossible to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person... so go to the library and do some research!
see this is what kills me. everybody who says this doesn't make over 250,000 a year, becuase if you did and your taxes were raised, you would find a way to make more money, that's differentiates you from your fellow"workers"
$250,000 is not rich! (Obama tax the rich anyone making $250k or more!) $250,000 is a small business or a decent paying job. But once you start making that your lifestyle changes and you start doing all of the things that you wanted to do before you made that much. That doesn't make you greedy it is your just rewards for working hard and taking risks!
If you have a small business and then you start getting your taxes raised... you are going to raise your prices because that is the cost of doing business! They are not going to operate at a loss! That means that the poor people, that have to shop for anything will actually be getting the tax raise... not the "RICH" people!
Besides... when "rich" people get their taxes raised they use the myriad of legal entities available to everyone to get them reduced, eliminated, and written off!
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