[Sam the Sham]

Yes, Mase, the redistribution of wealth.

The West won the Cold War because it promised workers security and prosperity such that they rejected Marxism. The West addressed the grievances of disaffected classes and minorities to head off any kind of mass base for radical social upheaval.

[Mase]

Yes, Mase, the redistribution of wealth.

Maybe we should define our terms. Taking assets from those who earned them and giving them to those who didn't is how I define the redistribution of wealth.

Capitalism is not about the redistribution of wealth. It's about the creation of wealth. I guess I'm just not aware of all the social programs Americans depended on prior to FDR. I thought it was all about the protection of rights, private ownership of property and production and providing the opportunity to build a better life by pursuing ones self interest etc.

American's rejected Marxism for these reasons. The West, simply by offering opportunity for all, addressed the grievances of the disaffected.

I know you two love Ayn Rand - A. Pole even asked earlier what children could possibly learn from her. The answer is, a lot. I like these quotes:

Capitalism has been called a system of greed – yet it is the system that raised the standard of living of its poorest citizens to heights no collectivist system has ever begun to equal, and no tribal gang can conceive of.

Capitalism did not create poverty – it inherited it. Compared to the centuries of precapitalist starvation, the living conditions of the poor in the early years of capitalism were the first chance the poor had ever had to survive. As proof – the enormous growth of the European population during the nineteenth century, a growth of over 300 percent, as compared to the previous growth of something like 3 percent per century.

Observe the paradoxes built up about capitalism. It has been called a system of selfishness – yet it is the only system that drew men to unite on a large scale into great countries, and peacefully to cooperate across national boundaries, while all the collectivist, internationalist, One-World systems are splitting the world into Balkanized tribes.

It's your cherished socialistic policies of wealth redistribution that threaten the survival of the West. Dependence on government is certainly not what made us great.