62 responses to “Socialism’s trail of tears, long time coming”

1. 

   George Rebane

   07 April 2012

   BenE 931am – Unfortunately, no nation follows what I consider to be ‘my ideology’. In reality I am but a student of the Austrian and Chicago schools which you and yours lambast as failures, and which I and mine hold to foster the pinnacles of salutary socio-economic thought.
   That we are irreconcilably different in our respective outlooks seems more and more a function of the different ways that we are wired. Please see an update on ‘The Liberal Mind – Yes Virginia …’ for the breadth of attention this proposition is beginning to draw since I started covering the issue a few years back.
   http://dornsife.usc.edu/usc-levan-institute-online-ethics-center/
   MichaelA 929am – your implication is that the SF area is making progress. The truth, I believe, points in the other direction – the Agenda21 promoters have not yet had enough time to destroy what has been built, and they cannot take credit for the area’s idyllic geography that still is a draw in spite of what California is doing to itself. More here –
   http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303302504577323353434618474.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion where we read, “It’s no secret that California’s regulatory and tax climate is driving business investment to other states. California’s high cost of living also is driving people away. Since 2000 more than 1.6 million people have fled,…”

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2. 

   Ben Emery

   07 April 2012

   George,
   I would beg to differ with you on that no nation following you ideology. They are generally considered third world nations. Virtually no government services except law enforcement/ military. My brother lives in one. No roads, no power, no water, no functional hospitals, no avenue to redress grievances, and so on. He laughs at the idiocity of those in the US who claim to want such lack of government services. The other thing that happens are the absolute corruption of government officials and dominance of those with great wealth to have no accountability to their fellow citizens.
   China has been dumping billions into this country to exploit their lower labor costs because China’s average $0.57 per hour(2006) or $114 a month(50 hour week is to costly. The going rate where he lives is roughly $0.15 an hour plus working in unsafe work conditions and with toxic chemicals. Ahh paradise if you belong to the producer not the parasite(Rand terminology) segment of the population. Virtual slave laborers making your wealth and having no fear of recourse. Due to your version of free markets only capital and goods are allowed to cross international borders not labor.
   George, I know you are an intelligent man who must have great work ethics but from the little I know about your history you would have been lucky to have climbed the SES ladder to that of a shop assistant or merchant at best. My brother lives and works in a culture where I guarantee you that a vast majority of the people work just as hard and even harder than you ever have in your life but feel blessed when their children pass the age of five years old because water born diseases take the lives of one out of every three children before the age of five. When the rules of society are set by those on top it makes for a very unequal society on multiple levels. Unfortunately in the US we have been moving more towards a plutocracy the last 30 plus years and inequality is the greatest in the US than it has been since the 1920’s.

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3. 

   George Rebane

   07 April 2012

   BenE 219pm – That is a weighty comment and again illuminates what divides us – thank you. Let me just answer one part, the rest has either already been answered or will have to wait for the sequel.
   You misrepresent, nay, misunderstand what free market capitalism is, and the boon it has been to mankind since the Low Countries became the first merchant nations during the Renaissance. No conservative of today calls for the kind of third world governments that corrupt their leadership and pauper their citizens in perpetuum. That is simply leftwing red herring hyperbole that must draw some pretty hefty cheering when dished to collective choirs. I don’t think it will get much traction with many voters in the US – I would love to see Obama venture out with one of these similes of what America will be like under conservative governance.

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4. 

   Paul Emery

   07 April 2012

   But George surely you must be able to provide us with at least one example of a reasonably modern country following your prescription. Your lack of detail tends to breed speculations such such as B Emery’s on what you refer to.

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5. 

   Scott Obermuller

   07 April 2012

   Well my goodness! I was out enjoying the fine weather all day and I come home and find I’ve been assigned to a bunker. Where in the world do the lefties that post here find that I’m in a bunker? It was Douglas that imagined I’d “joined the Zimmerman brigade” whatever that is. I doubt even he knows what the heck he’s jabbering on about. Sorry – I don’t even have a root cellar, let alone a bunker. I can only suppose that the lefties are embarrassed over the actual words of real socialists who threaten civil society with mal intent and now try to divert the conversation to simply calling me names via a fabricated association with a fabricated cabal. This is the best you can do? Sad.

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6. 

   Michael Anderson

   07 April 2012

   Scott, glad to see you have left the bunker. Welcome back!
   I doubt the socialists have any mal intent toward you, they are too busy adjusting their TV packages and making sure their ice cream is politically correct.
   George, here is another Jon Carroll column I think you will enjoy: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/03/DDEJ1NSL1P.DTL

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7. 

   Scott Obermuller

   07 April 2012

   re: Michael A’s post – “I doubt the socialists have any mal intent toward you”
   I take it you didn’t read the socialist screed above or pay attention to the news or read history Michael. Whenever the socialists get a wind behind their sails, they have always gone after the producers that won’t kowtow to them. As it is, they are already eating away at my finances and threatening me with ever increasing fees and taxation. They like to say it is for the poor, but they always seem to extract a handling fee first for them selves.

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8. 

   Douglas Keachie

   07 April 2012

   Scott, Since you choose to pick any words I type and rearrange them for purposes of malicious ridicule, let’s see what you can do with this batch. Your efforts sre almost as amusing as they are juvenile, and certainly as self-accusing as they are futile. Are you any good at poetry?

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9. 

   Scott Obermuller

   08 April 2012

   Douglas – since you claim I pick ANY word you type and rearrange it, can you actually provide any specific instance of what ever it is you are jabbering on about now? You still haven’t explained what or whom is the Zimmerman Brigade that you claim I have “joined”. You will please notice that I don’t claim you say anything, I am asking you. That is because it is hard to tell what it is you are going on about. I went back and read the posts and find that it is you, sir that is claiming something specific about me. It was obtuse, to say the least and and I only followed up with questions. I have proffered nothing concrete about you or your words. The original posting was about the continuing failure and tragedies of socialism. Can we stay on topic?

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10. 

    Douglas Keachie

    08 April 2012

    The Zimmerman connection.
    Take one part: “and threatening me with ever increasing fees and taxation.”
    and a few sentences later add:
    “That screed brings into sharp focus why we cherish the right to keep and bear arms. ”
    I bet conservatives will do their best to ban Skittles from the list of acceptable Food Stamp items. By the way, if I have Skittles in one hand and iced tea in the other, the logical attack would have been to throw the ice tea.

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11. 

    Scott Obermuller

    08 April 2012

    Thank you, Doug. You didn’t didn’t answer a single question I asked. Instead you took 2 different quotes from me and put them not only out of order, but completely out of context. You also state this is the “Zimmerman connection”. First, there is a Zimmerman Brigade that you won’t discuss, now there is a Zimmerman connection. All very hush-hush, I imagine. I would advise you to hold your ice tea until the men in white coats come and you can throw it at them. Good grief.

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12. 

    A Facebook User

    10 April 2012

    George,
    What is the difference between an undeveloped nation and a developed nation?
    The answer to this question is why “The Free Market” is nothing more than a theory and doesn’t exist.

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