There is no such thing as pure capitalism or pure socialism.
Raymond
There is no such thing as pure capitalism or pure socialism. Even
within the United States , socialism is alive and well, and necessary
to prevent complete social chaos.
America is a plutocracy
The term "plutocracy" is formally defined as government by the
wealthy, and is also sometimes used to refer to a wealthy class that
controls a government, often from behind the scenes.
More generally, a plutocracy is any form of government in which the
wealthy exercise the preponderance of political power, whether
directly or indirectly.
America is a plutocracy and is not a benefit to the majority of the
human American community. But, that is not common knowledge to
Americans who are more interested in " The Days of Our Lives" and a
visit to Disneyland.
We must open more public libraries and schools close to the
thousands of trailer parks in America so the tenants
can learn more about why they,especially, need socialism. ....
"The greatest ignorance is to reject something you know nothing
about"
America IS a Plutocracy, like it or not.
Why Socialism?
By Albert Einstein
Einstein's socialism was distinctly democratic.Most Americans don't
realize that they are surrounded by socialism and use it every day in
their own lives. Thank G-d for Socialism in America
"Socialism is directed toward a social-ethical end. Science, however,
cannot create ends and, even less, instill them in human beings;
science, at most, can supply the means by which to attain certain
ends. But the ends themselves are conceived by personalities with
lofty ethical ideals and -- if these ends are not stillborn, but
vital and vigorous -- are adopted and carried forward
by those many human beings who, half-unconsciously, determine
the slow evolution of society.
"The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in
my opinion, the real source of the evil. We see before us a huge
community of producers the members of which are unceasingly striving
to deprive each other of the fruits of their collective labor -- not
by force, but on the whole in faithful compliance with legally
established rules. In this respect, it is important to realize that
the means of production -- that is to say, the entire productive
capacity that is needed for producing consumer goods as well as
additional capital goods -- may legally be, and for the most part
are, the private property of individuals.."
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/Einstein.htm
There is no such thing as pure capitalism or pure socialism. Even
within the United States , socialism is alive and well, and necessary
to prevent complete social chaos.
Socialism is alive and well in America.....Socialism in America is
alive, well, and growing. Aided by such influential Congressmen as
John Conyers, Ranking Member of the House Judicial Committee, ...
http://www.sovereignty.net/center/socialists.htm
Socialism is alive and well in America.
Socialism is not only alive and well in America, but our lives would
be far less productive and enjoyable without it. ...
Public highways are one of the finest examples of Socialism in
America. So are public schools, public parks and public libraries.
Not to mention Social Security and Medicare. And police
departments and town garbage collections and
public health care and so on and so on.
Even benefits provided for Congress Members
are a form of Socialism.
If money is taken from private enterprise, and used for the public
good, that fits my definition of Socialism. Obviously, it also fits
the definition of Ronnie Reagan, Imperial NeoCONs, and most all
Republicans since Reagan. Why would Reagan argue for privatizing all
Government functions (except the Military) if they were not clear and
present definitions of Socialism?
http://www.eons.com/blogs/entry/1334959-Facing-Socialism-in-America
Republicans Bring Socialism to America
Robert Scheer
Let the record show that it was George W. Bush, the rich Texas
Republican, who brought socialism to America, so don't blame it on
that African-American Chicago Democrat community organizer who made
it into the White House. The government takeover of the banking and
automobile industries not only happened on President Bush's watch, it
was also the deregulatory mania of this president's family, beginning
with his father, which took this country into such starkly unfamiliar
territory.
What a betrayal of free-market capitalism. And who would have thought
that it would be the candidates backed by conservative pundits Bill
O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh who made it possible? You actually could
trace the destruction of corporate capitalism to the much-ballyhooed
"Reagan Revolution" of the movie actor who got his main training for
the presidency as a huckster for General Electric, where he honed the
message of "getting government off our backs." The revolution of
unfettered corporate capitalism led to an era of unfettered corporate
greed, which sowed the seeds of its own destruction.
True, the Democrats deserve much blame. The Wall Street runaway
wouldn't have happened if President Bill Clinton hadn't cheered it
on. The Great Triangulator provided seamless continuity between the
administrations of the two Bushes in systematically dismantling the
proven regulatory system, introduced by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, that saved capitalism from itself during the Great
Depression. The danger with the incoming Democratic president is that
Barack Obama has turned to some of the Clinton alums, most
prominently former Clinton Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers,
to get us out of the mess that the Clinton administration worked
mightily to create.
At least in the auto bailout there is some talk from the Democrats
that the failed corporate leaders must be fired as a condition of
salvaging their corporate entities--and stock options. Both political
parties are tougher in the auto bailout than they were in the Wall
Street rescue, but what do you expect when leadership on this issue
is coming from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson? Like Robert Rubin,
Clinton's first treasury secretary and now Obama confident, Paulson
came to government service immediately after heading up Goldman
Sachs, the Wall Street powerhouse at the epicenter of the
banking collapse.
For the key practitioners of America's brave new game of corporate
socialism, failure has its own lush reward.
It's enough to drive one back to the invisible hand of Adam Smith.
Personally, I would rather we took our chances these days with
letting the corporations sink or swim on their own
without government interference. If tough love was good
enough for troubled families cut off the public dole by Clinton's
welfare reform, which summarily ended the federal
poverty program, why have a poverty program for
troubled corporations?
Forget saving the auto companies; let them become Japanese- or South
Korean-owned, but sweeten the deal with U.S. government guarantees of
extended unemployment insurance, health care, retirement plan
protection and job retraining for laid-off autoworkers. Be generous
on the worker end, and figure out ways to reclaim the big bucks from
the banking and auto moguls who ripped off the American
dream. The only reason the moguls are not going to jail
for their shenanigans is that they got their supplicants in
Congress from both parties to rewrite the laws to legalize
activities that should have been judged as crimes.
If we are to have an expansion of government on this scale, we should
start with extending health coverage to all Americans rather than
with government bureaucrats micromanaging auto companies.
Government- insured health care works. All the doctors I see
want me to be on Medicare, and not one of them is eager
to deal with the medical insurance provided to me as a retiree after
30 years of employment by the Los Angeles Times--insurance
now threatened by my once-proud capitalist employer seeking
bankruptcy protection. A protection, incidentally, that a bipartisan
congressional majority made much more difficult for individuals
to use when we get in personal financial trouble.
With the exception of my years as an undergraduate, when I sorted
mail late into the night at the post office near Manhattan's Grand
Central Terminal, I have never been on the public payroll. Thanks
to the Reagan Revolution, and its endgame of socialism for
the rich, we all may end up on the public dole, scrambling
for droppings from a too heavily laden nationalized table.
Socialism for the rich is not the way to go.
Robert Scheer is author of a new book, "The Pornography of Power: How
Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America."
Economy
The Bailouts
Financial Crisis
Robert Scheer is the editor of Truthdig, where this article
originally appeared.
The word "socialism" scares most Americans at the same time that they
are making use of it every day of their lives.
(America needs more iconoclasts).
Capitalism and socialism are not forms of government as suggested by
some. They are economic arrangements practiced within democracies,
monarchies and even dictatorships. The difference is, to what degree
each economic system is conducted within the country or nation under
discussion. For example most democracies own the natural resources
and transportation systems within their borders. Even President Bush
acknowledges this. He says that the oil in Iraq is the people's oil
and the revenues from it should be returned to the people in the form
of services. [socialism] Not the case in the US. Natural
resources and transportation systems are privately
owned, and very often subsidized by taxpayers.
Depending on where on the earth one lives and what their
understanding of such words as capitalism an
socialism mean to him or her, each word
can generate either praise or disgust and anger.
Most Americans, for example, associate socialism with
totalitarian governments with failed nightmarish economic
experiments. Yet, at the same time, and as much
of the rest of the world moves more and more toward private ownership
of the means of production, the Americans are rushing to embrace
socialist ideals. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily. It is no
more dangerous or troublesome than countries like England, Russia,
or China moving toward some privatization.
Hopefully, what will eventually happen will be a universal adjustment
to an economic center, where socialism and capitalism will meet to
provide an agreeable understanding of what "benefits" are rightfully
due the people and what should remain as "free enterprise".
Americans will never abandon free enterprise and capitalism, nor
should they; nor will they ever be able to abandon the socialism that
has always been part of the human development that
has inspired Americans and has acted as a model for
the rest of the world to copy.
"...Americans have been taught that if American businessmen support
a government enterprise, then it must be free enterprise. After all,
haven't we all learned in our government schools that American
businessmen favor free enterprise? The unfortunate truth, however, is
that the American businessman of today, unlike his counterpart of the
19th. century, is all too ready to run government for his own
welfare. He wants nothing to do with such notions as self-reliance,
private ownership, unhampered markets, and private
capital investment. He wants partnerships with the
politicians to ensure that his potential losses
will be covered by the citizenry whether they like it or not."
We presently have a plutocracy in America whether you agree or not.
The term plutocracy indicates a form of government where all the
state's decisions are centralized in an affluent wealthy class of
citizenry, and the degree of economic inequality is high while the
level of social mobility is low. This can apply to a multitude of
government systems, as the key elements of plutocracy transcend and
often occur concomitantly with the features of those systems. The
word "plutocracy" itself is derived from the ancient Greek root
ploutos, meaning wealth.
The term plutocracy is generally used to describe two unrelated
phenomena. In writings about history, plutocracy is the political
control of the state by an oligarchy of the wealthy. Examples of such
plutocracies include some city-states in Ancient Greece and the
Italian merchant republics of Venice, Florence, and Genoa.
Plutocracies typically emerge as one of the first governing systems
within a territory after a period of anomie. Plutocracy is closely
related to aristocracy as a form of government, since wealth and high
social status have been closely associated throughout history.
The second usage of plutocracy is a pejorative reference to the great
and undue influence the wealthy have on the political process in
contemporary society. This influence can be exerted positively (by
financial "contributions" or in some cases, bribes) or negatively by
refusing to financially support the government (refusing to pay
taxes, threatening to move profitable industries elsewhere, etc). It
can also be exerted by the owners and ad buyers
of media properties which can shape public
perception of political issues (e.g. Rupert Murdoch's
News Corp's alleged political agendas
in Australia, the UK and the United States or George Soros
efforts to back left-leaning political action committees).
Recently, there have been numerous cases of wealthy individuals
exerting financial pressure on governments to pass favorable
legislation. (see: Lobbying) Most western partisan democracies permit
the raising of funds by the partisan organisations, and it is
well-known that political parties frequently accept significant
donations from various individuals (either directly or through
corporate institutions). Ostensibly this should have no effect on the
legislative decisions of elected representatives; however it would be
unlikely that no politicians are influenced by these "contributions".
The more cynical might describe these donations as "bribes", although
legally they are not. In the United States, campaign finance reform
efforts seek to ameliorate this situation. However, campaign finance
reform has to successfully surmount challenge by officials who are
beneficiaries of the system which allows this dynamic in the first
place.
The social welfare programs of government have been for the most part
positive, if partial, responses to the genuine social needs of the
great majority of Americans. The dismantling of such programs by
conservative and corporate elites in the absence of any alternatives
will be disastrous. Abandoning schools, health care, and housing, for
example, to the control of an unregulated free market magnifies the
existing harsh realities of inequality and injustice."
Any subsidy is socialism at work in America. Should we privatize
everything?
Originally, a person had to have a contract with a fire department
company. If you did not have one., your house could burn down if you
lived next door to the fire house if you did not have a financial
agreement with them. Want to go back to that? Who built and paid for
your airports? Not the airlines. YOU did. Socialism at work. Who
built most of the athletic stadiums? Not the teams.
Tennesse Valley Authority ?
Socialism
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned corporation
in the United States created by congressional charter in May 1933
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Valley_Authority
Republicans want to privatize it.
Most Americans are without proper understanding of socialism. No
country is absolute socialistic or capitalistic
It's time for greatness -- not for greed. It's a time for idealism --
not ideology. It is a time not just for compassionate words, but
compassionate action.
-- Marian Wright Edelman:
Proponents of privatization believe that private market actors can
more efficiently deliver many goods or service than government due to
free market competition. In general, over time this will lead to
lower prices, improved quality, more choices, less corruption, less
red tape, and quicker delivery. Many proponents do not argue that
everything should be privatized; the existence of problems such as
market failures and natural monopolies may limit this. However, a
small minority thinks that everything can be privatized, including
the state itself.
Privatizing a non-profitable company which was state-owned may force
the company to raise prices in order to become profitable. However,
this would remove the need for the state to provide tax money in
order to cover the losses.
Corruption. A monopolized function is prone to corruption; decisions
are made primarily for political reasons, personal gain of the
decision-maker (i.e. "graft"), rather than economic ones. Corruption
(or principal-agent issues) during the privatization process -
however - can result in significant underpricing of the asset.
This allows for more immediate and efficient corrupt transfer
of value - not just from ongoing cash flow, but from the entire
lifetime of the asset stream. Often such transfers are difficult
to reverse.
SEE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privatization
http://www.tysknews.com/Depts/gov_philosophy/socialists.htm
Hard times: sacrifce profts, not people!
As the Freedom Socialist goes to press, banks and stocks are rallying
— at least for the moment. Why wouldn't Wall Street feel giddy after
receiving trillions in tax dollars?
On Main Street the mood is different. Prosperity is not around the
corner, and hope is nowhere in sight. Congress passed President
Obama's stimulus plan to create three million jobs — mostly
temporary,
in the private sector. But unemployment has swelled well beyond five
million people, and benefits for many expire soon. Career fairs are
packed with desperate job-seekers. Household net worth dropped nine
percent in one quarter. Home foreclosures mount.
These stats reflect a mere fraction of the hardship being felt.
Obama and the Democrats promised change. And after seven months in
power their version of "change" is clear — restore profits, no matter
the price.
As capitalism flounders, the rich get lifeboats, while the working
class is relegated to a leaking steerage and told to "sacrifice."
Democrats and Republicans reject the tiniest tax hikes for
millionaires. U.S. troops remain at war. Obama vows to keep banks in
private hands, even though taxpayers have purchased almost all their
bad debt.
The public treasury bails out AIG, GM, etc. — setting the stage for
government bankruptcy, more public-sector layoffs, raids on social
security, new safety-net slashing and belt-tightening.
True, Bernard Madoff got jail time for bilking others of billions.
But
Madoff is only a product of the system that made him such a
powerhouse
financier. Capitalism is built on swindles, and for every Madoff in
jail, ten more are creating new Ponzi schemes. The whole system is
guilty!
In sum, Obama's change is not the makeover the working class needs.
At
this stage, there are two choices: sacrifice and go down with the
ship, or fight. It's time to wrest from private hands the immense
wealth that U.S. workers have created, so that it can be invested
back
into society where it belongs, for everyone's benefit.
The Freedom Socialist Party offers this 10-point program as a
starting
point for such a shift. It draws from the platforms of FSP election
campaigns, and demands that unions and social justice movements are
raising, or have called for in the past.
From the last Great Depression a labor movement was born when workers
tossed out the capitalists' rule book and wrote their own. It's time
to do that again, changing the whole system this time.
If you would like to discuss these demands or work with FSP on them,
give us a call or visit one of our branches.
A 10-point program for radical reform. By and large, they work quite
well.
No more bailouts for bankers & speculators. Open the books
Nationalize the banking and insurance industries, under the control
of
workers! • Make public the results of worker audits of allegedly
bankrupt and failing companies. • Send corporate crooks to jail,
including predatory lenders.
Redirect war spending into social services
Redirect the Pentagon's $500-plus billion budget into retraining
soldiers and workers for peacetime production, and to providing for
the public welfare. • Bring the troops home and close overseas
military bases. • U.S. troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan now. • End
U.S. military aid to Israel, Colombia, and other countries whose
governments violate human rights.
Tax the rich & make corporations pay
Replace unfair, regressive taxes (such as sales taxes) with a steeply
graduated tax on income and profits, putting the heaviest burden on
the rich. • Tax all corporate and investment income, including
capital
gains and dividends. • Close tax loopholes and eliminate taxpayer
subsidies for big business.
Guarantee the right to organize
Eliminate all bars to union organizing and the right to strike,
regardless of immigrant status and type of employer (private or
public). • Cancel anti-labor, racist and environment raping free
trade
agreements, including NAFTA and CAFTA.
Protect homes & create jobs
Put a moratorium on all home foreclosures. • Fund a mass public works
program to create public-sector jobs at union-scale wages. • Provide
training and apprenticeship programs for low-skilled workers,
especially teens and young adults.
Provide universal employment & retirement security
Reduce the standard work-week to thirty hours with no cut in pay to
instantly create more jobs. • Guarantee an annual minimum income for
people who are unable to work. • Raise the minimum wage to union
scale, with automatic COLA raises. • Raise Social Security benefits
to
cover actual living costs. • Create a federal, worker-controlled
pension system to supplement Social Security. • Ban contracting-out
of
public services to the private sector.
Make quality healthcare & housing available for all
Provide low-cost, quality medical care for all by nationalizing the
healthcare industry, including pharmaceuticals, medical supply
companies and hospitals, with control by healthcare workers in
collaboration with users/patients. • Dramatically expand public
housing and rent control to provide shelter for those in need.
Mandate an environmentally sustainable energy policy
Nationalize the energy industry, including oil and coal, under the
control of energy-industry workers, and create jobs in the
environmental sector. • Redirect auto bailout funds to re-open closed
auto factories, under the control of auto workers and retooled to
manufacture mass transit, including buses, subways, light rail and
trains. • Redirect subsidies to agribusiness and the biofuels
industry
into building an integrated mass public transit system with service
to
rural and underserved urban areas. • Increase the use of public
transit by making it free.
Improve women's & children's lives
Mandate employer-funded childcare. • Provide government-funded
family-
planning services, including abortion. • Ensure equal pay for equal
work. • Restore Aid to Families with Dependent Children and social
services for the elderly, disabled, sick and mentally ill. • Fund
free, universal, public education through college.
Uphold civil liberties
Dismantle for-profit detention centers and prisons as well as the
Department of Homeland Security. • Drastically reduce the prison
population by ending racial profiling and the phony war on drugs. •
Redirect funds into drug rehabilitation, job training, and after-
school and summer programs for youth. • End the ICE raids and Border
Patrol checkpoints.
http://www.socialism.com/fsarticles/vol30no2/hard_times.html