[fifeboy]

Prof_Chomsky Prof_Chomsky:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Prof_Chomsky Prof_Chomsky:

For Bart: Life is a game of Monopoly. Only when you finally get your chance to play and roll the dice, the game has already been going on for a few thousand years. Every space in the game has a hotel and is owned by 1 or 2 dynasties. Good luck.

When I got married I was making a whopping $900 a month and dealing with a disability that was service related and the friggin' VA refused to help with

You do understand that your generation was the beneficiary of the very best socialist policies the USA has ever had, and they've since been largely dismantled? You were born into the strongest, wealthiest middle class the planet has ever seen, and it was fueled by 95% tax rates on the top 1%.

And don't think you're the only one here who is successful. I think we know enough about most people on here to know they aren't poor by a long shot. I live in a very upper class community, and I'm at least 10 years younger than anyone else there, and we weren't given anything from our families unlike just about all the rest of them. We scrimped, worked, saved, were frugal, and did very well for ourselves. But, the only reason we were able to do that was I was given a student loan to attend University. My wife, who has 2 degrees and was an executive at the age of 27 when she was diagnosed with a crippling auto-immune disease has state covered healthcare (and private medical benefits from her job). Take away my ability to go to University, and her health care and we go from top 3% of earners in Canada, to homeless in the USA.

No one is saying you have restart the Monopoly game so it's "perfectly fair for everyone". Socialists just believe that unfettered capitalism makes it impossible for anyone to do anything on that already wholly owned monopoly board but be a slave to one of the existing big players. So they say, everyone needs to be given a legitimate chance to succeed. Education. Fair minimum wage. Benefits so a random illness doesn't ruin an entire family. Worker protection. Well funded and operational national infrastructure. These are ALL socialist doings.

And

[N_Fiddledog]

Well...seeing as there seems to be some confusion as to the incremental "Progress" (as in 'progressive') of Socialism and the ultimate goal of Communism...

[N_Fiddledog]

But yeah, as we "Progress" down the 'Road to Serfdom' Capitalism will finance the odd social program.

Sometimes it can go too far and seem a little like buying the rope they want to hang you with, if you ask me.

[BartSimpson]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Just like what Jeff Daniels a fictional character was talking about in the preview to "The Newsroom" a fictional event.

FTFY.

Memo: This wasn't real.

[DrCaleb]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Just like what Jeff Daniels a fictional character was talking about in the preview to "The Newsroom" a fictional event.

FTFY.

Memo: This wasn't real.

Doesn't mean he was wrong.

[CharlesAnthony]

Have some dignity, guys.

People are starving.

[DrCaleb]

$1:

Have some dignity, guys.

People are starving.

How are we degrading ourselves?

[Prof_Chomsky]

N_Fiddledog N_Fiddledog:

Well...seeing as there seems to be some confusion as to the incremental "Progress" (as in 'progressive') of Socialism and the ultimate goal of Communism...

Ayn Rand doesn't get to redefine what a word means to suit her (and your) personal beliefs. Facts are facts. If you need to redefine a fact so you aren't wrong, well, you're clearly wrong.

1. Socialism is an economic system while communism is both an economic and political system.
2. In socialism, the resources of the economy are managed and controlled by the people themselves through communes or councils while in communism, management and control rest on a few people in a single authoritarian party.
3. Socialists distribute wealth to the people based on an individual’s productive efforts while communists farm out wealth based on an individual’s needs.
4. Socialists can own personal properties while communists can not.
5. Socialism allows capitalism to exist in its midst while communism seeks to get rid of capitalism.

[BartSimpson]

I no longer refer to leftists as "progressives".

I call them "Destructives" because that's what they are and that's what they do.

[Prof_Chomsky]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

I no longer refer to leftists as "progressives".

I call them "Destructives" because that's what they are and that's what they do.

Well if we get to rename parties, I vote that we rename the Progressive (Destructive?) Conservatives to a more accurate name. The "let rich people do whatever they want and fuck everyone else because they're clearly lazy and don't deserve what we were given by our rich parents" party.

[BartSimpson]

Prof_Chomsky Prof_Chomsky:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

I no longer refer to leftists as "progressives".

I call them "Destructives" because that's what they are and that's what they do.

Well if we get to rename parties, I vote that we rename the Progressive (Destructive?) Conservatives to a more accurate name. The "let rich people do whatever they want and fuck everyone else because they're clearly lazy and don't deserve what we were given by our rich parents" party.

The Progressive Conservatives should have the party logo of

[Zipperfish]

I don't think socialism is that bad. First off, countries that balance socialism with market capitalism consistently rate as the happiest countries.

[Thanos]

What happened in Venezuela is probably much less a failure of carefully-managed socialism and much more a catastrophic failure of dictator-centric populism, where a haphazard giveaway to the mob that supported Chavez and then Maduro essentially gutted the country. If it was a failure of socialism then every modern European social democracy would have long ago collapsed into a Venezuela-like ruin.

Hell, it's less the system anywhere that fails on it's own as much as it is the malice and greed of those in control of the system that cause it's failure.

[xerxes]

Moreover, what Chavez did was essentially replace a corrupt regime with his own. It’s like a real to life Animal Farm. The pigs overthrow the rich farmers promising revolution, and in the end putting on the fancy suits of the farmers and take their place.