Some of the successful countries considered “socialist” are simply free enterprise economies with a layer or degree of socialism. ~~ John Dewar Gleissner
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Free Enterprise is Better than Socialism or Capitalism
What everybody is revolting against is the capitalism of Trump where the rich and wealthy are treated differently than everybody else. But what we are embracing is the opposite terrible socialism. What we need is free enterprise where the laws treat everybody equally with equal opportunity with investment etc, etc. Free enterprise economy is what makes nations great. Not Capitalism or socialism.
We actually have a very good economy so this so called “revolt” is a hatred of Republicans going back to Nixon. Now the media is 24/7 and their business model is hate Trump/get ratings/more profit, so it’s non stop. It would be exactly the same in a free enterprise economy because the hatred is 99% emotional and akin to a religion and mostly media driven.
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The economy is only doing well because of free enterprise. It would do much better without Trumps Capitalism. Time will tell.
hollytree has still argued that most people (and I’d include nations praised as ‘socialist’) desire a version of a “free enterprise economy.” Responses that repeat the mantra that such opponents’ views only come from hatred, religious emotion, media, Lefitism, or the Socialism that erases free enterprise feels a bit ad hominem, rather than (more interestingly) evaluating the merits of competing systems.
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WELL SAID, OLIVER!
The BBC today, had an interesting article…regarding the electoral process in North Korea.
This zombie sums up, what’s needed by world leaders - including the USA!
My response is from listening to the words of Democratic Socialists when they give responses to questions about how to pay for their proposed programs like free medicare,free college, guaranteed jobs etc . I hear various responses from Democratic Socialists like the Treasury will issue more debt and the Federal Reserve will buy this newly issued Treasury debt. This will cause inflation followed by Hyper-Inflation as many countries have learned but the average person does not know much about economics, but they do understand the word “free.” This kind of response is typical and is emotional.
Where did i say all opposition to Trump is leftist? What i said is they (the left) use him as a Satan type figure to gin up their followers into a religious fervor. You say you are conservative but some of your specific positions like “open borders” don’t sound conservative?
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One man’s fact-based opinion:
Glenn Reynolds nails it: quote - "And as far as I can tell, although Never-Trumpers talk a lot about morality and principles, their actual beef seems to be a combination of aesthetic dislike of Trump’s messaging style, and resentment that he’s not hiring them, and never will hire them. I suppose a lot of people confuse their own social standing and economic prospects with morality, but color me unpersuaded.
Perhaps in 2016 you could imagine that Trump would be such an awful President that you had a moral duty to oppose him. But in 2019, it’s obvious that that’s not the case. In fact, he’s pretty darn successful. Instead of gay concentration camps, he’s trying to end discrimination against gays worldwide. Instead of being a warmonger he’s now ending wars — and getting grief about it from Never-Trumpers. The Russia-collusion thing was always twaddle, but nobody is even pretending otherwise anymore. And Trump’s background and personal life certainly don’t stand out as compared to many other occupants of the Oval Office whom the establishment deemed entirely acceptable. -end quote
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Steve, you now appear to complain that emotional socialism is advocating Medicare and state subsidized education. My impression under that definition is that most Americans have long supported ‘socialism.’
Complain?? Do you buy things you can’t come close to affording? Free medicare cost 30 trillion, free college cost trillions. Most Americans may very well support “free stuff” except it’s not really free, it’s a matter of who and how it gets paid for. But there are countries that already have free medicare,college,guaranteed jobs etc like Cuba,Venezuela, Bolivia,North Korea etc so is the trade off for “free stuff” worth it? We already have examples and there is a price to soaking the rich. Inevitably shortages of things people need to live because there is no incentive to produce things if the government grabs your assets and profits under the banner of wealth distribution.
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I think the important thing is not what socialism says it ‘is’, since there are many flavors of it - a wiki check will show you that is true.
I’d like to see a discussion not based on the word ‘socialism’ but on what self-proclaimed socialists are running on in this country, what are their programs, how to pay.
And with no rhetoric - 'Well we are for fairness, and social justice, and Green-ness and clean air and fair reparations blah blah blah - I say ‘blah’ because we ALL want fairness and justice, but not with the baggage that most socialists lay on those terms.
So - what do the current crop of sorta-like socialists want to actually DO? I might be in favor of some of that, but if all I hear is ‘we want fairness and social justice’ I will turn the channel. Tell me what your fairness and your social justice MEANS without using those terms, and how to implement it - and how to pay for it. And why it will make a difference to the givers and to those that benefit. I’ll listen.
Until Justin Trudeau put his foot in his mouth, I was wholly captivated by US politics. I still follow it, however, and will await with interest to read the pre-election manifesto of each of the too-many-to-be-counted Democratic candidates. They do have to tell American voters precisely what they want to achieve if elected and how their programs will be funded - don’t they?
I think not. I think much of the American public has been systematically dumbed down, and responds in a Pavlovian manner to empty slogans and misleading disingenuous claptrap words such as ‘social justice’ ‘fairness’ ‘racist’ ‘bigot’ ‘homophobe’ ‘privileged’ ‘depolorables’ ‘Green’ ‘intersectional’ ‘cisgendered’ ‘lbgtqq’ and a host of others. If a political party wants to use those words, we should hold them accountable (and HOW are we going to do that?) for explaining exactly what the h-e-double hockeysticks they mean.
The games both sides play - deplorable.
Of course. I don’t recall arguing that Medicare and education costs no money.