Very thought provoking. More relevant now than ever.
Where are we going with all this, and for what?
MESO-Rx
Anabolic Steroids
I would like to know what those of you who support trump will do when he loses the election?
- Thread starter Big_paul
- Start date
Very thought provoking. More relevant now than ever.
Where are we going with all this, and for what?
Uncle Ted
Banned
Paper money has no real value, it's created out of thin air, nothing more than digits on a screen.
Our current economy is often about putting in time, more than actually accomplishing anything of real value.
Can you maximize your productivity, shorten your work week, focus on those things that people actually need and eliminate all they don't. Working tirelessly to eliminate as many bullshit jobs as possible.
If we take a look at how many jobs are unnecessary in this economy, we all know it when we see it. I see it every single day, work that never needed to be done and quite frankly is a waste of a persons limited time. Monotonous, dull, depressing and yet for some reason people take pride in the fact that they work these sorts of jobs as a badge of honor.
Maybe there wouldn't be so much depression and suicide in our country if people had something to look forward to everyday. If society wasn't programmed to work against each other, but instead encourage each other. The current system is about competition, you get to rack up a certain group of winners and lots of losers in that system, you end up wasting a lot of potential.
Universal Income would tell people that you're part of a culture, we need your help with a project, we need people to get training in certain fields, we encourage you to constantly learn, we will afford you time to study by taking the stress off you trying to keep a roof over your head and food in your mouth.
When I went to college I worked during the summer and stayed on campus in dorms for four years. Many people might think that wasn't fun, but the community, a simple room, access to three meals a day, a rec room to hang out with friends and play pool and lots of time to study. That double dorm room I had all to myself because I needed more time to study for my major, allowed me to only accumulate the bare minimum, a small fridge for some beer, cloths, books and nothing else and yet I never thought I was going without. This is the early 90's. No one had computers in their dorms, internet was just coming online. So all you needed was pencil/pen and paper.
Supporting this sort of almost prison lifestyle with UBI isn't that difficult. And yet we are filled with propaganda that we can't do it, that kids/adults need to go into crushing amounts of debt so they can one day hopefully be productive.
The problem has nothing to do with "venture capitalism", but with authoritarianism.
Pollution and Government Failure in China
It's not like it hasn't happened in literally every communist country, the massive pollution and destruction of human living standards.
BigDaddyV
Member
Makes sense when you put it like that
Uncle Ted
Banned
The government wanted to make him out to be crazy or a schizophrenic, they had to find a way to hide Teds views from fear it would blow the lid off the entire system. He's put together two other books worth of letters that show he's still not going to sleep even though he's locked up. Nothing indicates that Ted is out of his mind, he's just completely incompatible with our current system and so he has to be flushed.
I think Ted should be mandatory reading in highschool and college. Too many kids today think technology will be the savior, but it's causing more problems than it fixes. His views of leftism were like looking into a crystal ball, he predicted everything we see today, he tears down society piece by piece, that 35,000 word manifesto will have you laughing how this man with a typewriter in a 8x10 cabin with no electricity and running water was this woke.
UBI is a poor authoritarian solution to an authoritarian created problem. The solution is to stop destroying the currency with fractional reserve banking.
There are stupid futile jobs mostly because the bankers/government forces more money into the system to protect industries that would otherwise die.
There are continuous military interventions and civilian murders all over the world because government intervenes to keep the weapons industry strong when a market economy would allow it to die.
The solution is definitely not giving the government yet more power by deciding on a UBI. It has absolutely no mechanism to determine what that should be, but there are vast armies of lobbiests ready and willing to tell them. It would end up as one more federal fund being routinely robbed by those in power.
Uncle Ted
Banned
Venture capitalism combined with few regulations is very much contributing to pollution of China.
Remove everything that is attached to capitalism in China and lets see just how clean that place is in a few decades. Granted the Chinese are unique in their almost insect like value system where it's more important to have the appearance of wealth and respect then it is to have a clean environment.
1980's is when we see China start to turn into a smoke stack, largely creating crap for trade with western countries.
Uncle Ted
Banned
The problem is we know wealthy parents send their kids to good schools and these kids get good educations and they have good outcomes for the most part.
Ideology of rugged individualism? If I need water don't give me a philosophy lesson on why you shouldn't get a handout, .......hand me a fucking glass of water so I don't die. That's the problem with not seeing your fellow man as your potential friend, we instead ask them "how did you get into this problem" and if it doesn't meet our standards we tell them to fuck off and die.
I'm an idealist myself, I think the system needs to be flushed, but I can't deny that certain things do seem to work, that people do have better outcomes when they are afforded quality opportunities.
Largely our society is based on keeping up appearances, we go to great lengths to avoid truth, this lie allows many to survive as long as they are obedient and follow the rules.
As for UBI, you bring down the cost of essentials by stripping away the power of those that expect to be over compensated for the work they do. If they don't like it they can take their skills to the free market and make the income they feel entitled.
I believe it was this episode. A video provided
Tucker Carlson: Yes, dead people voted in this election and Democrats helped make it happen
Dead people, like any other group, tend to vote more often when you make it easier for them to vote, and this year, we made it much easier for the dead to vote.
The cesspools that every other communist country became - without the help of capitalism - isn't example enough for you?
Every form of socialism, including UBI, requires one thing that always, always fails: an authority at the top to control it. Every single example of this has resulted in that authority taking advantage of its position and ultimately making things worse.
If you want "rugged individualism", you need individuals willing to protect their property from the ravages of government authorities.
Just by chance, maybe, you are spouting this communist BS on the anniversary of the day communism was believed to have ended once and for all.
I would not have believed then I would be reading the same suicide pack propaganda from an "idealist" today, but here we are. As a result there are a number of excellent articles to choose from. Here is one where the individuals came together against their benevolent communist dictator, without violence, and said enough:
Today Is the Day That Communism Came to an End
By Allan StevoNovember 17, 2020
Today is the day that communism came to an end.
It was autumn 1989. Momentous things were taking place in the world.
The Berlin Wall had fallen. The people of the Eastern Bloc had succeeded at getting to the West through Hungary. The firm line between east and west was wavering. The situation was moving away from the course that Warsaw Pact communist governments had charted: that their populations must remain captive within the borders of the Communist Bloc.
It was unclear whether this social contagion for freedom would spread into Czechoslovakia.
But then November 17, 1989, arrived, a day etched in history. This was Students Day, a legal holiday. Everything had to close under government fiat. People were off school and off work. But some folks were agitated about prior government actions which many saw as abuses.
When the government gave the people of Czechoslovakia that day off, it was like a match to tinder. The small flame grew into a big one.
It was a revolution noted for its bloodlessness. The Velvet Revolution, we call it today, leaning on what the Czechs called it. People, for as far as the eye could see, gathered in a giant square in Prague and called for the ouster of their government.
In the face of the idea that saying the wrong words politically could be toxic to one’s health, much like in America today, some did not resort to speaking words against their government. They merely pulled their keys out of their pockets and jingled them.
The message was clear.
Imagine tens of thousands of people jingling their keys at once.
Imagine the horror that would fill you, as a member of the communist government, looking out the window at a crowd, visible as far as the eye could see, and knowing that this delicate sound being made by each individual, growing into a horrifying sound in unison, called for your ouster.
What could a government minister, sitting at their desk, overlooking the square, even have imagined that sound to have been the first time it arose?
How ominous. How threatening. How deeply horrifying it must have been to peer out that window. The day of reckoning had finally arrived.
At that moment, a question was answered for them: “What is the last thought that goes through a tyrant’s head?” That is the thought that flashed through theirs as they realized what that sound was: reckoning. It had finally arrived. Were the government ministers thinking those thoughts as the keys jingled below them?
They would not longer be allowed to steal an election. They would not longer be allowed to imprison people for speaking unpopular beliefs. They would not longer be allowed to move members of a politically undesirable class out of their homes in the middle of the night and to move members of a politically preferred class into that same home in the morning.
With the jingling of keys, the horror show that was Czechoslovak communism — that started in 1948 with force, threats, assassinations, and stolen elections — would not continue. That’s what the jingling of keys meant.
Before year’s end, it would continue no more.
. . .
Uncle Ted
Banned
Capitalism prioritizes the whims of people that are largely planted by endless advertising.
It is a mindless system chasing dopamine.
A system where man is always trying to escape reality, where he can't deal with hard work on bread and water. He can't face himself, he instead grasps endlessly at acquiring stuff to mask pain, both physical and mental.
It's not an either or, capitalism and communism are both systems that aren't in the best interest of mankind.
Uncle Ted
Banned
The problem is you're focused on only two choices.
It's bat shit crazy that humans can split an atom, put a man on the moon, but are still stuck with Marx or Adam Smith as your only two choices for economy.
Ask Native Americans if they appreciated having their land cut up into lots, sold out from under them. Was that fun experience watching as the bugle horn blew and thousands of invader sociopaths made a mad dash for a flag allowing them to claim a piece of land for themselves. Then go to work turning up all the soil that had stood rich with microbes for millions of years.
It's time to sit down and figure out what works for people. To have an honest discussion, put away the toys, roll up your sleeves and fix problems one by one.
As for authoritarians. Capitalism doesn't put a bullet in your head like Communism, but it will beat the shit out of you or stick you in a prison cell if you don't do as you're told.
Under Capitalism the only real freedom you have is product A,B or C. And of course they toss in that all important religious freedom which allows adults time to play paddy cake make believe games.
Empirical data beats naval gazing every time. In this case capitalism vastly outperforms communism in terms of human standards of living, resource management and pollution prevention. Offer up an alternative that supports the current population. I can think of none.
We have a Cuban guy at work. He is close to retirement. He lived in Cuba during Castro's communist reign. He tells such great stories. Intriguing, accurate well told stories. His mind is sharp in his old days. He loves America and IMO is more patriotic than most ppl that have always taken it for granted. He is a living, breathing reminder of the past. Tells stories of the transition to communism in Cuba. Fidel ran on hope and change. Promised to help the poor. When they got in they gathered up their parties political rivals, heads of police, supporters and executed them en masse. Confiscated all the privately held money and assets and issued a new currency. Took control over all private land and did as they pleased. Govt police quartered themselves in peoples home to establish their dominance.
And a warning to the future.
Uncle Ted
Banned
Banging head against wall.....Communism/Capitalism.
How about using our noodles to come up with a different system.
Either that or come up with some scams. Like going to school for some form of engineering racking up huge debts to get a masters of PhD and when the bill comes due, you leave the country with all those skills and kiss your debt goodbye.
If the capitalistic system exists to put millions into debt, then I'm not against scamming that system to the benefit of millions. Fuck it.
Capitalism depends on a legal system to entrap millions. Sure they made the choice themselves, but lets be honest what choice did they feel they really had other than to sign the devils contract.
Honesty goes out the window, people wake up and realize capitalism is ripe for the picking, you just have to lose all the moral propaganda bullshit that we've been taught and just look at this system as a tremendous opportunity to steal services.
Id like to think its ignorance as alot of voters i meet dont have a firm understanding of the issues and policies their vote earns them.
But im starting to believe they actually like it and embrace it. Which is far worse. Liberals you know
Uncle Ted
Banned
We know how authoritarians work.
We also know there's plenty of problems in this country. Just because you point them out doesn't make you a communist.
You're either a full blooded christian capitalist or your a communist swine.
It's this kind of binary way of thinking that never fixes any problems, it's just more "what aboutism". Sure capitalism causes problems, but what about those commies?
You can't fix anything with views like this, it just turns your brain off and makes you helpless. And that's why you see problems starting to boil over into the streets in this country. Either fix them or don't, but lets not pretend the current system is the best because we can compare it to the horrors of communism and come off feeling pretty good we don't have it that bad.
Uncle Ted
Banned
A Cuban telling stories of some gangsters taking over his country and how bad it was is like explaining how asses smell like ass.
There's no lesson in this, it's obvious. Nobody is like "I want purges and gulags, and I want them now" except for the rare nihilist that enjoys watching people suffer.
Most of the communism clap trap you hear from kids these days is really about feeling helpless, they see a system they are forced to conform to and they realize it's gonna be miserable and they're looking for a way to avoid it. So they go around calling each other comrades, when most of them don't have a clue and if I handed them $10 million in a suitcase they'd instantly change into consumers on steroids.
None of these people are anchored into communism, it's just a subculture, a way to be outrages and cool. I often hear college educated women use the "comrade" term when talking to each other. It always makes me laugh, I grew up in the punk culture of the 80's and I know bullshit when I see it.
