[Dark_crow]

Nothing scares Wall Street more than Socialism Why?:confused:

[tomder55]

Our founding fathers made it very clear that they wanted federal government restraint, not government control. Given their huge distrust of big government I doubt if it was their intention to create a founding document that favors central economic control like socialism.

[thegandyman]

I am often posed with questions regarding the government, Firstly, if socialism is what the people want then the government would have to adapt.
We are a capitalist nation, that's how Wall Street survives. If we were socialist, possessions would nean nil.

Would we prefer a Democratic republic or a republican Democracy?

[Dark_crow]

Socialism has been defined many ways and of course in America it has become akin to hate speech. But Let me define it as Schaeffle has the Quintessence of Socialism…i.e. the replacement of private capital by collective capital: that is, by a method of production which, upon the basis of the collective property of the sum of all the members of the society in the instruments of production, seeks to carry on a cooperative organization of national work.
From that it does not follow that government would grow, in fact it could shrink.

[tomder55]

The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling the people. Outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well as the private sector.

Show me one example of a socialist country that has limited government.

[Dark_crow]

Yes, you are quite right, the plan has in most cases been to nationalize industries rather than let them operate as cooperatives. Today isn't government controlling the economy and the people to a fairly large degree?

[tomder55]

DC my grandfather complained about creeping socialism when he tried to explain to my grandma why the government was going to start taking a part of his salary directly from his paycheck to pay for someone else's retirement.

By the way ; Wall Street doesn't mind an occasional handout either . That is the seductive part of socialism . Did you happen to see 60 Minutes Sunday ?

Read the inteview with the Danish slackards .
And The Happiest Place On Earth Is..., Morley Safer On Why The Danes Are Considered The Happiest People On Earth - CBS News

[Dark_crow]

Interesting read Tom, thanks for the link.

For example: they have no student loans hanging over their heads. All education is free in Denmark, right on through university. And students can take as long as they like to complete their studies.

"And we get paid to go to school actually. Instead of in the U.S. you pay to go to school, we get paid to go to school if we pass our exams," a student explains.



In America "There's a lot of unhappiness on college campuses. And it's not just at Harvard. Over 94 percent of college students nationwide are stressed and overwhelmed. And students are paying a very high price for this pressure," Ben-Shahar says.

That pressure is a result of high expectations; wanting it all is a bacterium that stays with us from youth to old age - wanting a bigger house, fancier car, more stuff. And when we get more, there's always someone with even more stuff, who's just as unhappy. Some suggest that the unhappiest zip codes in the country are the wealthiest, like the Upper East Side of New York.

[speechlesstx]

So Danes are the happiest people in the world - or, most content that is - because of low expectations. Makes sense.

[tomder55]

Yeah keep expectation low enough and you'll never be unhappy... Hakuna Matata . The down side of course is that they are all a bunch of drunks.

[inthebox]

Danish youths riot for sixth night, several arrests | Reuters

Funny how in the happiness equation they never mention this kind of reality. Notice "youths" in the headline.




The other day there was a letter in the WSJ using this analogy to describe socialism.

You have half of a class, in which the students study hard, and average 95%. The kids in the other half either don't study hard enough or just are not that smart and average 55%.
The teacher then gives each student the class average of 75%.

What direction do you think the average of the class is going to go with this grading policy?

[Dark_crow]

Yeah, they made the mistake of allowing Muslims to emigrate. :D


I think the above average students will continue to be above average while the below average have something in which to set a goal.

[thegandyman]

Denmark is a wonderful place without many natural resources, they import lots of booze, it's true and export mainly empties but I wouldn't go as far as to tar all Danes as "A bunch of drunks" I obviously haven't known the same Danes as you have and respect your opinion of the Danish population as a whole. However I will come to their defense is stating that they do produce the BEST bacon in the world. That in itself puts them on a pretty high pedestal, along with Swizerland and their chocolate & clocks, the swiss have little to offer.
This sort of conversation is one reason why socialism wouldn't work in the US. People here just don't like each other enough to believe in a common property system. Also I found myself writing this whole passage in a very defensive way.