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This whole thread is just so laughable, you would think the OP was making a joke.
Back in the 50s, there was an actual reason to be concerned about communism. But even then, Joe McCarthy and Co went way overboard, seeing a commie around every corner.
Since then, the Soviet Union collapsed, the Iron Curtain came down, the Communist Party is finished everywhere except China, where it only survived by embracing capitalism. Clearly we have more to fear from right wing authoritarianism than from communism.
The U.S. is still further right then a large portion of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.
& that's largely because the strain of uber-libertarianism, or ultra-right capitalism, or anarcho-capitalism does not exist in those countries.
If allowed to purely function here as described, society would collapse into total tyranny.
There'd be a tyranny of unaccountable private institutions, along with a private concentration of capital (also unaccountable).
The only thing that protects the public from predatory capitalism is some degree of state intervention. So while true that state intervention does support capitalist institutions, it also protects the society from total tyranny.
A predatory capitalist system simply would not survive, for one thing, it wouldn't care about externalities - its effect on others, or its effect on the environment, or by any other measure except the profit motive.
I am not worried. This country was dead a long time ago.
What you got wrong was you were gauging the country by using the ideal definition of communism, the communists’ end goal. Of course, America doesn’t fit that definition. It takes time to get there and it has been racing towards the end goal as fast as it can.
At this point, shifting completely to communism is inevitable - we are already a communist country for most parts.
& that's largely because the strain of uber-libertarianism, or ultra-right capitalism, or anarcho-capitalism does not exist in those countries.
If allowed to purely function here as described, society would collapse into total tyranny.
There'd be a tyranny of unaccountable private institutions, along with a private concentration of capital (also unaccountable).
The only thing that protects the public from predatory capitalism is some degree of state intervention. So while true that state intervention does support capitalist institutions, it also protects the society from total tyranny.
A predatory capitalist system simply would not survive, for one thing, it wouldn't care about externalities - its effect on others, or its effect on the environment, or by any other measure except the profit motive.
A predatory capitalist system? What the hell is that? Fig of your imagination?
This whole thread is just so laughable, you would think the OP was making a joke.
Back in the 50s, there was an actual reason to be concerned about communism. But even then, Joe McCarthy and Co went way overboard, seeing a commie around every corner.
Since then, the Soviet Union collapsed, the Iron Curtain came down, the Communist Party is finished everywhere except China, where it only survived by embracing capitalism. Clearly we have more to fear from right wing authoritarianism than from communism.
I remain unsurprised you cannot understand what is meant by a predatory capitalist system, all while you blissfully defend, & disingenuously signal the Ayn Randian 'virtue of selfishness':
Why There Are No Libertarian Countries
Does everyone have the same values? Yes, but libertarianism isn’t one of them.
It might seem like humanity disagrees over basic values, but the data is in: we actually don't.
Quote:
The knee-jerk response for any student of history would be 'no', but the data tells a different story. Psychologist and author Steven Pinker offers proof in the form of Wagner's law: "One development that people both on the Left and the Right are unaware of is almost an inexorable force that leads affluent societies to devote increasing amounts of their wealth to social spending, to redistribution to children, to education, to healthcare, to supporting the poor, to supporting the aged."
Until the 20th century, most societies devoted about 1.5% of their GDP to social spending, and generally much less than that. In the last 100 years, that's changed: today the current global median of social spending is 22% of GDP.
One group will groan most audibly at that data: Libertarians.
However, Pinker says it's no coincidence that there are zero libertarian countries on Earth; social spending is a shared value, even if the truest libertarians protest it, as the free market has no way to provide for poor children, the elderly, and other members of society who cannot contribute to the marketplace. As countries develop, they naturally initiate social spending programs. That's why libertarianism is a marginal idea, rather than a universal value—and it's likely to stay that way.
Steven Pinker is the author of Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.
I remain unsurprised you cannot understand what is meant by a predatory capitalist system, all while you blissfully defend, & disingenuously signal the Ayn Randian 'virtue of selfishness':
Why There Are No Libertarian Countries
Does everyone have the same values? Yes, but libertarianism isn’t one of them.
It might seem like humanity disagrees over basic values, but the data is in: we actually don't.
Steven Pinker is the author of Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.
You unknowingly just made an argument for libertarianism. If it's natural for people to want to help others and contribute to social causes, they don't need an authoritarian state coercing them into it.
Side note... anyone who equates voluntary social spending with selfishness or "every man for himself" is ignorant or dishonest, and I'm pretty sure you're not ignorant, since you've been told this many times in the past.
Libertarian = Voluntary, by choice. Authoritarian = Involuntary, coerced by an authority.
Extremely easy to understand the difference.
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