Severin.
Bully Blowhard warning! Bully Blowhard warning!
Proof positive "empty (capitalist)vassals DO make the most foul noises". Your (Kar)ma can run over his (Dog)ma. ;-)

Typical

>>What you think computes does not concern me<<

Caught out in a blatant porkie, you are as graceless as ever, Stern.

You really do believe that you can just make stuff up, and not be called out on it, don't you.

Pathetic, really.

Stern I think we are at cross purposes. What do you mean "this time it will be different".

You keep bringing the debate back to Communism - I am not supporting a Communist state merely saying that the idea of the collective good exists within social democracies within capitalism. We pay tax as a collective for collective services such as health, education, infrastructure and emergency services etal.

If you think I am a Communist there is probably not much more I can say on the matter other than you would be better arguing with honesty rather than misrepresenting others' views.

Down with collectivist extremists!

....and down with the idealogues of the cult of the individual too.

If we're talking about social structure, we can easily see that both extreme separateness (anarchy) and extreme connectedness (totalitarianism) are bad. A society searching for the ideal democracy, however, will look for a situation whereby the cohesiveness of the society and the freedom of the individual actually support and nourish one another.

The same is true for economics whereby the positive aspects of competition and the positive aspects of cooperation can be brought together in a balance that is something more than simply a cobination of the two.

I am suspicious that you just argue for the sake of it Stern.

Pericles… no porkies… my commuting costs dropped by 70% following breaking of the commuter rail monopoly. PND 12 after what was PND 35 before. As you saw, I admit my errors when they do occur, as in mixing a return fare of 40 years ago with a one way fare of today. But beyond that you are completely off the mark.


Pelican “Stern I think we are at cross purposes. What do you mean "this time it will be different".

Pelican you wrote “social democracies and ways we can improve on capitalism and ensure less disparity and as much as you don't like it, regulation is the only way.”

That is what I was referring to as your presumption that “this time it will be different”

Greece was a “social democracy”, now going down the toilet.

It will end up medium term:

Bale-Out by neighbours with a vested interest in maintaining their own national security

Economic Stagnation (the benign side of collectivism)

Civil war (the less benign option and one Greece adopted before)

Ultimately, however, the options change, when neighbours tire of the drain of their taxes

Then options become

Civil war, leading to revolution and disaster

or

Economic rationalism aka capitalism.

Having followed the collapse of the previous soviet empire, it remains a mystery how anyone can possibly think that “social democracy” is a “solution” to anything.

“social democracy” is an oxymoron of the shoe-horn approach which allows the mechanisms of central state control to be constructed in the name of the "common good" until some Stalin comes along and it is suddenly all too late.

We see senator Conroy trying to implement his internet censorship, put on the back-burner to appease the election machine.

We will see more cherry-picking super-taxes of the profitable and vibrant sectors of the business community (lenin identified “The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation”).

Banks will be next – and like mining, to hell with the superannuation benefits of the individuals who have invested for their pensions for the past 20-30 years.

Pelican “you would be better arguing with honesty rather than misrepresenting others' views.”

I do not believe you to be a communist but I do see and try (my best) to project the consequences of what I see as the mistakes in your reasoning – as you do with me.

You at least challenge my view, which I value.

We might disagree but I respect your right to your view and we manage to disagree without mutual name-calling

People like Severin seem to come here simply to criticize and Examinator comes here for reasons I cannot fathom.

I note, despite me inviting him to express a view (re my comment “I do notice you lack the courage to present a view, merely criticizing what others are prepared to present”

my comment, initiated by examinator’s admission “..no interest in proselytizing any solution simply because of the level of defensive galloping inertia that abounds here.”

However, from the nature of their posts, the arrogance, pomposity and acrimony of the likes of Severin and Examinator is worthy of nothing but the contempt I hold them in and which, likely, conveys in my posts


GilbertHolmes “The same is true for economics whereby the positive aspects of competition and the positive aspects of cooperation can be brought together in a balance that is something more than simply a cobination of the two.”

You describe basic “capitalism”.

Individuals cooperating to market their individual products, and both going away "enriched" by replacing what they held in abundance with what was, to each, a scarcity.

The point is… they do not need a government inspector taking a cut (tax) off each to justify the merit of their trade.

Capitalism is not “Extremist” under any definition, monopolies are extremist but I note monopolies are the tool as much of centrally controlled government as they are of mega-corporations

However, as happened in USA around 1900, the difference between a “mega corporation” and a “government”:

Laws can be passed to curb the power of a mega-corporations (eg US Anti-Trust Act) but not so “government” (as in USSR)