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Yet another example how collectivism and socialism works. In decade or so, they will start killing farmers for "hiding" and "price gauging" food.
by Thoeu388 3y ago
Yet another example how collectivism and socialism works. In decade or so, they will start killing farmers for "hiding" and "price gauging" food.
- rejectfinite 3y agoThis is corruption, not socialism.
- AnotherGoodName 3y agoMeh I'm from a nation way more socialist than the USA and we have 3x the median wealth per capita (Australia). We have a much lower mean wealth though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_per_adult https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_pe... If you're one of the top 1% in America life is great. But the 99% should not be going around saying socialism sucks. That to me indicates you're gullibility and mindless support of the 1% who have waaaay too large a share of the wealth. The 99% have a lot of room to increase their wealth in America at the expense of the average by leaning a little more into socialism honestly.
- LegitShady 3y ago>Meh I'm from a nation way more socialist than the USA Australia is not socialist, period. Its a market economy.
- timbit42 3y agoAustralia is a social democracy, not socialist.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- midasuni 3y agoFrom reading that article (until the paywall hits) it sounds like South Africa is a libertarian paradise - private security, private road repair, private fire brigade.
- churchill 3y agoWhenever folks like you denigrate 'lawless' libertarian shitholes, it always ends up that the reason such territories are so terrible is because of a government using its monopoly of violence to extract rent from business, either through outright taxation or currency inflation. Yet, every single time, people can't get the irony.
- inglor_cz 3y agoSA still collects significant taxes and distributes them to cronies instead of using them for public goods. Not exactly a libertarian tenet.
- midasuni 3y agoYou’re not wrong, but I’d hardly wave Australia round as being a progressive social democracy!
- dotancohen 3y agoThe correlation that you draw between progressive social democracy and a good place to live for the average citizen, might not be the correlation that promotes your cause.
- AnotherGoodName 3y agoI just see it as a scale. Both extremes are terrible and the middle is the answer. So Australia is more to the middle but that still makes a good comparison. Op said that he's from a socialist extreme but that's just more to the point. There's a balance to be found and criticism of socialism isn't that meaningful compared to criticism of extremes.
- badrequest 3y agoOP didn't suggest it was any of those terms.
- Thoeu388 3y ago>99% should not be going around saying socialism sucks. LOL, love the tone policing. Do you realise some people actually lived under socialism? I am from East Europe.
- gadflyinyoureye 3y agoThen you know first hand how truly wonderful it was. I've heard nothing but good things.
- sgt101 3y agoVisit Norway.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- gadflyinyoureye 3y agoThey say they are not socialist. https://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/denmark-tells-bernie-sanders-to-stop-calling-it-socialist/ https://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/denmark-tells-...
- timbit42 3y agoNorway isn't socialist. It's a social democracy like most other European countries. You're undoubtedly confusing it with democratic socialism.
- causality0 3y agoHighly misleading. Australian superannuation savings are counted but American social security entitlements are not.
- AnotherGoodName 3y agoThe USA has 401k which is the same as super in Australia. Social security is another thing altogether comparable to the dole but you have to first pay something in to ever get a pittance out. I'm not sure you should count it.
- causality0 3y agoSuperannuation savings are mandatory like social security, to the best of my knowledge.
- inglor_cz 3y agoI was born in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and it took decades to get rid of its awful legacy. Socialism sucks. The idea of "means of production owned collectively" tends to suck even in capitalism (too many shareholders), but if the owner is the state, it sucks massively. Any alignment of interests goes out of the window, massive white elephant projects get built in the name of ideology, "superfluous concerns" such as environmental damage are ignored, incompetent people get promoted to directors because their uncle is a Party bigwig. Nothing acts as a check on rampant corruption.
- nathell 3y agoI was born in the People’s Republic of Poland, and I think most of the suckage you’ve described are due to oppressive authoritarianism of the former Eastern Bloc countries, and have little if anything to do with collective ownership of means of production.
- oneshtein 3y agoANd oppressive authoritarianism is because «all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others».
- slowmovintarget 3y agoThey have to do with the mechanisms of the commune being used to produce a dictatorship or a bureaucratic upper class, which has happened in ever circumstance where communism has been implemented. We should know by now that communism as a form of government appears to be better than average at enabling corruption, because the underlying mechanism of removing personal choice is so well aligned.
- nathell 3y ago> which has happened in ever circumstance where communism has been implemented. Not so; I’m not aware of this happening on a large scale in the Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities in Mexico, for example (please point me to sources if I’m wrong).
- GolfPopper 3y agoNot an actual quote, but rather a later-paraphrased summary of John Steinbeck, "Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”
- jimbob45 3y agoSteinbeck was a hack. There aren’t enough calories in breastmilk to sustain life for an adult male. Also, equal opportunities for your whole population is a noble goal. Twisting that into, “Americans are delusional to think they could ever succeed”, just makes it seem like you hate America. You could twist socialism into, “You were afraid that not everyone could win so now nobody wins”, and be equally wrong.
- AlbertCory 3y agoYou lost me at the first sentence. Steinbeck was one of our great writers and the Nobel Committee, which is hardly American-controlled, awarded him the prize in literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception."
- FooBarBizBazz 3y ago> There aren’t enough calories in breastmilk to sustain life for an adult male. It's just a question of how much, right? It's more than one woman can make, but I reckon it's less than one cow can.
- akira2501 3y agoI see socialism like unions. Instead of addressing the underlying problem they seek to build a permanent detente with it. To that extent, people are much better off seeing themselves as "temporarily embarrassed millionaires" otherwise they risk becoming the "permanently politically exploited underclass."