Subject:
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Re: Preaching to the Choir
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 10 Aug 2004 00:49:30 GMT
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Viewed:
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2333 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Christopher L. Weeks wrote:
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Bruce Schlickbernd wrote:
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Communism. Essentially denies supply and demand. Interesting idea but it
didn’t seem to work, at least at some levels.
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To the best of my knowledge -- limited as it is, no system of equitable
socialism has been tried on this planet for 500 years since the peak of Hopi
civilization. All of the modern communisims that I have read about (and
talked to participants/victims of) were dictatorships propped up by a party
elite that soaked The People so that they could live lives of excess on the
backs of the rest. The USSR was an insult to Marx.
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The “some animals are more equal than others” perversion. But that still is
minor in relation to trying to enforce a taxi driver and brain surgeon making
the same amount (and of course, with tips, the taxt driver won out over years of
education). It ends up basically with a central government telling people what
they must do to make the system work and balance since you suddenly have a
nation of taxi cab drivers and no one willing to put forth the extra effort
because there is no reward for doing so. And of course, the central government,
in a fit of avoiding serfdom, starts offering “incentives”, and suddenly some
animals are more equal than others. Essentially, it’s a doomed proposition one
way or another.
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Further, (and I know that Larry will get wound up over this) Cuba is a
shining star of success. Those members of the populace who are willing to
abide the evil dictator in place and just live, experience a relatively high
level of comfort, work very short weeks, get pretty good education, etc.
Imagine how much easier and better those folks would have it if our
disgusting sanctions on free trade were lifted (not that I think our
government should recognize Castro...or China, for that matter).
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The benevolent dictator trap. Hey, it works as long as there somebody to
enforce serfdom and kill off malcontents. I would describe that as not working
(and favored atheletes are more equal than others, for example). When they can
pull it off with an elected democracy, I’ll be impressed.
It’s the kind of thing that can work in a smaller community (Hopi, ancient
Celts, etc.) but in modren nations, it just seems to be abuse magnet.
-->Bruce<--
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Preaching to the Choir
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| (...) This is a fairly typically cited flaw with communism. It presumes some stuff that don't jibe with my observations of the real world and I'd be interested to see how you explain them. (Perhaps as annecdotes that don't mean anything, but if so, (...) (20 years ago, 11-Aug-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Preaching to the Choir
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| (...) To the best of my knowledge -- limited as it is, no system of equitable socialism has been tried on this planet for 500 years since the peak of Hopi civilization. All of the modern communisims that I have read about (and talked to (...) (20 years ago, 10-Aug-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)
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