[Borges]

How does Postmodern Socialism differ from plain old Socialism?

[Liberty1970]

I figured this was inevitable once Spain declared human rights for apes. If their leaders can’t tell the difference between an ape and a human, I figured, they were in trouble.

[dfwgator]

"MISS ME YET?"

[flowerplough]

reckless government spending, combined with voter apathy?

“The America of my time line is a laboratory example of what can happen to democracies, what has eventually happened to all perfect democracies throughout all histories. A perfect democracy, a ‘warm body’ democracy in which every adult may vote and all votes count equally, has no internal feedback for self-correction. It depends solely on the wisdom and self-restraint of citizens… which is opposed by the folly and lack of self-restraint of other citizens. What is supposed to happen in a democracy is that each sovereign citizen will always vote in the public interest for the safety and welfare of all. But what does happen is that he votes his own self-interest as he sees it… which for the majority translates as ‘Bread and Circuses.’

‘Bread and Circuses’ is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader—the barbarians enter Rome.”
— Robert A. Heinlein

[Ozone34]

I personally think Rowland Atkinson would have done a much better job for Spain than Zapatero.

[Sir Napsalot]

No sympathies from me (for those EU countries in trouble). You can’t convince me that they didn’t know this would have been the outcome. They’ve made their own bed, so to speak.

The tragedy here is that with so many ample examples around, half of us, the Americans, are still pig-headed to ape those failed systems (either communism or socialism).

[BitWielder1]

Commies are not good at math. If they were, they would not be commies.

Even those who are capable of doing the calculations refuse to recognize a few simple answers:
There aren't enough rich people to milk to make everybody rich.
If you spend more than you can make, you'll go broke. It's as true for nations as it is for persons.
If you tax too much, you'll strangle the private economy to the point where you actually pull in less.
If you print too much money, prices inflate and no additional value is generated this way.

On the psychological side: If you constantly rob Peter to pay Paul, they will both ask "What's the point of working?".
And it goes downhill from here.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

Spanish Socialists, like many postmodern relativists, believe that all problems are by definition imaginary and can be wished away by avoiding negative thoughts. In an effort to downplay the scale of Spain’s economic troubles, the Socialist government has established a seven-year track record of using an arsenal of postmodern euphemisms to avoid unpleasantries and to create a virtual Spanish reality.

[Moose4]

Don’t forget that Zapatero was elected in the wake of the Madrid al-Qaeda bombings. Aznar (a relative conservative and Zapatero’s predecessor) initially pinned the bombings on Basque separatists; when it turned out to be al-Qaeda instead, the Spanish version of our MFM and Zapatero’s Socialists pounced and accused Aznar of “playing politics” with the bombing. The charge stuck, Zapatero won and began distancing himself from George W. Bush, and Spain effectively surrendered to al-Qaeda.

}:-)4

[Wuli]

ping

[MinorityRepublican]

Spain is a wonderful country to visit and I enjoyed my stay there. However, it is hell to live there.