Posted on 01/08/2014 2:43:48 AM PST by markomalley
It’s because capitalism is the natural state of man - that is, something that he produces goes to benefit him, while at the same time benefitting the community around him, and he defends his territory or property and uses it in the production of his goods. As social organization moved away from its tribal form and, with the advent of currency and a money based system, became more individually controllable and also more flexible (making capital more easily transferable and resulting in the rise of a moneyed class rather than merely an hereditary property owning class), it did so naturally and with little pre-planning. Property rights are based on the fact that ownership is natural to man. But because it’s a natural and therefore somewhat amorphous, unstructured thing, it’s harder to enunciate.
Socialism, on the other hand, is an artificial system that must be developed by an originator (Marx, for example) and imposed by force, since it is unnatural. However, precisely because it’s artificial, it’s easier to enunciate and, while it has never worked in practice, it’s easier to defend because one can always claim that it’s not being implemented properly.
The only people who benefit from socialism are those in charge of enforcing it, that is, those in government. This is something pro-capitalist thinkers need to point out unceasingly. Socialism is repression and never benefits the poor, even when it’s “soft” socialism such as in England, where socialism has created a huge, festering, going -nowhere class of the native-born poor, who have enough to live on and miserable government health care, but absolutely no prospects. Still, the government and everybody who is associated with it thrives. And in a more harsh socialist system, everyone who is not in the government or favored by it is absolutely crushed into the ground and deprived of freedom and even life. That’s a pretty good argument against it.
Conservatives believe that that something is freedom and basic human respect, and nothing more.
The world is a cruel and unfair place. Socialism is what happens when you think you can fix it. All you actually do is become the instrument of the cruelty and unfairness.
The left uses every economic downturn, every crisis to convince the people that private enterprise is the problem, and to put more and more restrictions on it, with the ultimate goal of totally controlling it as under communism.
Every successive month, I find myself thankful I am old enough that I likely won’t have to suffer the inevitable final consequences of all this stupidity.
The interim results are bad enough.
As various products become scarce and as quality declines even further in the remaining products, the State will simply employ its flacks to deride the need for whatever can no longer be produced and the inculcated will make going without or utilization of poor substitutes desirable. Eventually, there will be a population that never knew anything different.
an honest answer to our question?
Libertarians are too wrapped up in themselves to have time or energy to care about anything else around them.
Republicans are in it with the Democrats as power grabbing regulators to keep their positions of power. There are a few exceptions, but far too few.
That is the reality we live in right now and only a total reset will solve the problem. Neither one is an answer, get over it.
So what are all the Occupy Wall Street types going to do about the elite socialist class. Every socialist society has an elite class, the ruling class. So they have no problem with elites, they just don’t want to be free and have their own opportunity.
Maybe it’s easier to deal with the fact that your a loser and can’t make it on your own if 99 percent are in the same boat with you.
...its easier to deal with the fact that your a loser and cant make it on your own if 99 percent are in the same boat with you.
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Exactly.
I think the main issue is that the mechanisms that motivate and animate capitalism are not immediately evident to people. The "Invisible Hand" of supply and demand, of capitalist water finding its own level is so foreign to liberals because it cannot be seen unless you understand it, then it becomes nearly obvious.
Liberals, however, can see the workings of man in a socialist-leaning environment, which is God to them.
They see people being elected, setting up meetings at 9:00 AM in government buildings with oddly named conference rooms where there are agendas and minutes and serious things to be discussed. To liberals, it is solid, just, and wise, the effort at making decisions. What liberals don't get, though, is...the decisions are more often wrong than they are right. But because they are made by tangible men, they are de facto superior to any kind of invisible mechanism (such as supply and demand)
Individual men making decisions about how to allocate scarce resources with alternative uses are not match for the combined intellect and experience of millions of men and women whose "demand" with money drives the "supply".
To liberals, depending on that is like worshiping God, putting your eggs in a basket you cannot see!
And to the people who depend on other men to tell them what to do because they can't think for themselves, this is an easy proposition for liberals. Capitalism is easy to demonize for them, to sabotage it. And the sheeple take their cues.
bump
Exactly, and well said.
This would be true if ALL the people were in the same boat. However, this will never be. There will always be the politico elite, those in charge of the government. And, the peasants will only take so much of admiring excess from afar. It invariably leads to revolt, or an utter breakdown of the system (e.g., Tsarist Russia first, Soviet Union following 70 years later).
We see some signs of how the 'peons' of today, the entitlement crowd, are accepting of Obama's opulent excess in vacations, trips, parties, et al partly because of the racial 'he getting up on whitey' thing, and largely because the combined discretionary income they have access to is comfortable (i.e., not believing what the MSM and Obama say about our 'poor'.)
This will change when they (entitled) become the overwhelming majority and they slowly exhaust the wealth of this country. Then they all be come really poor - the kind that Obama likes to say they are now. The entitled of today WILL NOT succumb and exist like the Dustbowl Okies, or the poor populace of the depression who really would work if there was work. They will riot and revolt, and they cycle will begin anew, as always.
The Rolling Stone should make their magazine available for FREE to everyone for the good of mankind.
Right, capitalism came about spontaneously through the natural flow of things whereas socialism was posited by intellectuals. Because socialism is a creation, all of its details can be known by its creators. On the other hand, we may never fully understand all of the organic subtleties of capitalism. The difference in socialsm and capitalism is sort of like the difference in a cartoon character and an actual person.
Good analogy!
Wait until the Fall of New York—wait til its bankrupt, crime ridden, corrupt and a blight upon the nation. Time is their enemy and the truth will show Socialism for what it is.
You got it. Can you David Dinkins?
Interesting discussion.
Well, I for one am glad that whatever the outcome in my lifetime, that I have been one of the hardworking ones, the one to not need to take from others for my living. I am proud of my life and the fact that I “produce.”
The “takers” lead miserable lives — nothing can convince me of anything to the contrary. I’m glad I’m not one of them.
It’s interesting that the children, including my own, who were taught the values of self reliance embrace capitalism and its principles. They are our future, despite govt schools.
They or perhaps some, say Chicago is next.
By the time New York needs to be bailed out, there will be no America to do the bailing. All the others will have drained the till dry.
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