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Show me the machine guns. It may be difficult to leave - mostly because of what you give up, and the disruption in your life - but nobody is going to shoot you
by kbutler 7y ago
Show me the machine guns. It may be difficult to leave - mostly because of what you give up, and the disruption in your life - but nobody is going to shoot you if you try.
Socialist regimes larger than a kibbutz have always been established and maintained by force.
Our current economic system is not perfect, but the results over decades are infinitely better than other systems - particularly socialism.
https://fee.org/articles/extreme-poverty-rates-plummet-under-capitalism/ https://fee.org/articles/extreme-poverty-rates-plummet-under... https://reason.com/2019/01/31/global-poverty-decline-denialism/ https://reason.com/2019/01/31/global-poverty-decline-deniali...
Contrast with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_killings_under_communist_regimes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_killings_under_communist_... 10s to 100s of millions killed under socialist governments, both direct and also as a result of failures of the central planning. This includes mass killings in Castro's Cuba, USSR, and Nicaragua, whose governments were each endorsed in the 80s by Bernie Sanders. Mischaracterizing non-socialist economies like Denmark is probably a better strategy.
- amanaplanacanal 7y agoThe thing is: you guys are talking about two different things but using the same word. One is talking about Scandinavia and one is talking about The Khmer Rouge.
- kbutler 7y agoWell, Bernie was also endorsing Castro's Cuba, the USSR, and the Sandinistas' Nicaragua. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhpVAkBDg5o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhpVAkBDg5o (He visited each of these countries in the mid-to late 80s, when the atrocities were already well-known). Not quite the Nordic model. He praises socialist governments, ignoring their murders and killings of people trying to escape, and when their economies inevitably tank, he shifts to different examples (1980s Bernie "Castro...totally transformed society" visited for the third time in 1989. The "special period" crisis began in 1991 with widespread famine. 2016 "The Cuban economy is a disaster" 2020 "Let's talk about...Denmark!"). The new strategy of endorsing non-socialist economies (Scandinavian countries with capitalist free market economies and strong social safety nets) is probably a better long-term model. Danish Prime Minister: "I would like to make one thing clear. Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy." https://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/denmark-tells-bernie-sanders-to-stop-calling-it-socialist/ https://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/denmark-tells-...
- kbutler 7y agoWhen I wrote this comment, I certainly wasn't expecting Bernie would start a new round of endorsing Castro as the front-runner for the Democratic Party nomination. If you have questions about Castro's contributions, you may consider https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-commentary/no-fidel-castro-did-not-deliver-a-better-cuba/article33071380/ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-comme... "Pre-Castro, Cuba was already better off than most Latin American countries on such indicators. Also, Mr. Castro's rule knocked Cubans to the near-economic bottom of all Latin American countries"