Not particularly convincing. The Soviet Union, East Germany, North Korea, so what? Nobody is advocating a change to full-on centrally planned economy anyway. As for Sweden and Finland, when exactly have they went bankrupt? All this part of your rant comes down to is "Historical examples of Socialist economic failure prove that Socialism doesn't work, historical examples of Socialist economic success don't count, because reasons". If you maintain that such argumentation is valid, you could just as well find reasons to dismiss any examples of failures of centrally planned economies as irrelevant.
A more relevant comparison, and one that the Americans you are actually having your little ideological disagreement with are actually fond of making, is New Deal Era America 1930-1980. A time during which America was the world's most prosperous country by an even larger margin than today, while being more Socialist than nowadays, and no less Socialist than the rest of the West.
The whole question you raise of what happens when you take away a larger share of people's productive output via taxation is what Bastiat calls focusing on the seen and missing the unseen. Everyone would agree that less taxes are better than more taxes, everything else equal. It's just that everything else isn't equal, since more money for the government means that it can get more stuff done. The question is whether the increase in capacity of the government to get things done outweighs the harmful effect of more taxation or not, and that's a question you aren't offering any simple and convincing answers to.
As a wise man once said, to every complex question there's a simple answer, and it's almost always wrong.
Great comment. Capitalism also produces mass immigration, radical feminism, negro worship, and deviant normalization.
I wrote a lengthy and provocative blog post discussing nearly every aspect of communism. The Cold War technically began after WW2 but in reality started with the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917.
3 comments:
Not particularly convincing. The Soviet Union, East Germany, North Korea, so what? Nobody is advocating a change to full-on centrally planned economy anyway. As for Sweden and Finland, when exactly have they went bankrupt? All this part of your rant comes down to is "Historical examples of Socialist economic failure prove that Socialism doesn't work, historical examples of Socialist economic success don't count, because reasons". If you maintain that such argumentation is valid, you could just as well find reasons to dismiss any examples of failures of centrally planned economies as irrelevant.
A more relevant comparison, and one that the Americans you are actually having your little ideological disagreement with are actually fond of making, is New Deal Era America 1930-1980. A time during which America was the world's most prosperous country by an even larger margin than today, while being more Socialist than nowadays, and no less Socialist than the rest of the West.
The whole question you raise of what happens when you take away a larger share of people's productive output via taxation is what Bastiat calls focusing on the seen and missing the unseen. Everyone would agree that less taxes are better than more taxes, everything else equal. It's just that everything else isn't equal, since more money for the government means that it can get more stuff done. The question is whether the increase in capacity of the government to get things done outweighs the harmful effect of more taxation or not, and that's a question you aren't offering any simple and convincing answers to.
As a wise man once said, to every complex question there's a simple answer, and it's almost always wrong.
Captain Capitalism,
I want you to go visit this website
http://www.mckeefoods.com/www
McKee Foods
5,800 Employees
2007 Revenue $1.09 billion
They export and sell internationally, I know because I buy their products here in Canada.
Tell me, what is your first impression when you visit their site.
They show us Uglies, Ugly minorities and fat women. Everybody shown in their website is ugly or fat or old.
Yet, look at their results and stats:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKee_Foods
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/21/privates08_McKee-Foods_A08U.html
You need to realize, Captain, that extraordinary results can be achieved by a team of ordinary people.
You need to get off your moral high horse and clean your mouth with soap.
@ Red Knight
Great comment. Capitalism also produces mass immigration, radical feminism, negro worship, and deviant normalization.
I wrote a lengthy and provocative blog post discussing nearly every aspect of communism. The Cold War technically began after WW2 but in reality started with the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917.
https://eradica.wordpress.com/2014/05/06/old-and-new-gods/
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