8 ms·

The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.

SpaceCadetJones 10y ago
Great empty platitude there. Socialism is about economic democracy and worker self management + ownership, although the term has become increasingly nebulous in recent years. Classic socialism, as in what was spoken of by those like Marx and Kropotkin, had nothing to do about some redistribution of money. What is related is social democracy and conservatives using the label for any social spending they don't agree with.
abalone 10y ago
Same could be said for startups!
- brbsix 10y ago
  Only startups actually have to raise their capital in an entirely voluntary manner, with all the due diligence and stipulations that entails. Government just takes it. It's the difference between your wife shopping for groceries with your credit card and an armed gunman sticking you up the ATM telling you to comply or die.
  - abalone 10y ago
    Where are all these people buried who have been shot for not paying their taxes?
    - brbsix 10y ago
      It's the threat of violence. Like I said, you either comply or die. Just try resisting your eventual imprisonment and find out. Of course people are well aware of what the threat ultimately entails and as such choose to comply, but this makes it no less immoral.
      - abalone 10y ago
        You'd think, if that were the case, that at least one person would have been killed for not paying their taxes in U.S. history. Can you cite a single example? Otherwise you're employing empty rhetoric.
        brbsix 10y ago
        Eric Garner
        abalone 10y ago
        Given the couple hundred million people who are compelled to pay taxes every year, if they truly faced a "comply or die" ultimatum you would expect over the decades to see thousands (at a minimum) of killings. Eric Garner and quite a few others are terrible examples of police brutality that minorities face in the enforcement of what should normally be non-lethal actions under any circumstances, even total non-compliance. Lethality here is a method of racial and/or class suppression, not so much enforcement of specific laws (e.g. jaywalking, loitering, cigarette tax compliance).

Great empty platitude there. Socialism is about economic democracy and worker self management + ownership, although the term has become increasingly nebulous in recent years. Classic socialism, as in what was spoken of by those like Marx and Kropotkin, had nothing to do about some redistribution of money. What is related is social democracy and conservatives using the label for any social spending they don't agree with.

abalone 10y ago

Same could be said for startups!

brbsix 10y ago
Only startups actually have to raise their capital in an entirely voluntary manner, with all the due diligence and stipulations that entails. Government just takes it. It's the difference between your wife shopping for groceries with your credit card and an armed gunman sticking you up the ATM telling you to comply or die.
- abalone 10y ago
  Where are all these people buried who have been shot for not paying their taxes?
  - brbsix 10y ago
    It's the threat of violence. Like I said, you either comply or die. Just try resisting your eventual imprisonment and find out. Of course people are well aware of what the threat ultimately entails and as such choose to comply, but this makes it no less immoral.
    - abalone 10y ago
      You'd think, if that were the case, that at least one person would have been killed for not paying their taxes in U.S. history. Can you cite a single example? Otherwise you're employing empty rhetoric.
      - brbsix 10y ago
        Eric Garner
        abalone 10y ago
        Given the couple hundred million people who are compelled to pay taxes every year, if they truly faced a "comply or die" ultimatum you would expect over the decades to see thousands (at a minimum) of killings. Eric Garner and quite a few others are terrible examples of police brutality that minorities face in the enforcement of what should normally be non-lethal actions under any circumstances, even total non-compliance. Lethality here is a method of racial and/or class suppression, not so much enforcement of specific laws (e.g. jaywalking, loitering, cigarette tax compliance).