Political Cartoon from '34 Chicago Trib

[revefsreleets]

See the duplicity? He's cherrypicking. "Isn't Canada's economic system wonderful? Isn't it great that I can participate in the American capitalistic ritual of buying and selling stocks/bonds and profit in that system while also concurrently blasting the parts of that system I DON'T like while basking in the failure of the very system I also derive great benefit from"

[revefsreleets]

Originally Posted by TheWarDen86

Where is Joe McCarthy when you need him.

I don't understand. Are you also saying that Socialism trumps capitalism? Nobody is being persecuted here. There are no blacklists. This is simply an argument over idealogy.

[fansince'76]

Originally Posted by revefsreleets

Prime example. When i finally nailed him down and said "So it's your view that Socialism >>> Capitalism?" His response was:

"For the viewpoint of the down-on-his-luck schmuck whom I described below, at the present time it certainly does.

By the way, would you mind asking your friend what incentive there is to work hard, or even to work, for that matter, in such a system, since Mother Nanny State will presumably take care of all my needs for me and everything will then be "free?"

Utopia is a nice pipe dream, it really is.

[revefsreleets]

I got some kind of weird lecture about Bernie Madoff when I pursued that route.

Deflection and diversion are a lawyers favorite tools.

[GBMelBlount]

Originally Posted by revefsreleets

There is no doubt that the left has been demonizing capitalism for a long time. In fact Spike (Killer) found something that showed that only 53% of Americans now think Capitalism is better than Socialism.

Where do you think that kind of thinking originated? Who would propagate thosekind of ideals? Which party most embodies the tenets of Socialism?

People like Tony are a perfect example of why I feel that freedom and capitalism WILL lose out to socialism in this country.

Our taxes as a percent of GNP are close to many socialist countries and you will still find people like Tony demonizing capitalism as though it is the cause of all evil and problems in this world and having a difficult time even acknowledging that government corruption,taxes and regulation are a problem.

As most conservatives know, the key to socialism succeeding is the media and educators convincing the ignorant masses that the freedom, liberty and capitalism that catapulted our young country to become the most prosperous in the world, is actually the problem.

[steelreserve]

I really don't think it was possible for anyone to "plan" the current crisis. Home prices got too high because a large new generation suddenly started shopping for houses, it took a few years for them to throw up enough crappy tract houses to meet demand, and then prices went back down and the people who paid too much were screwed -- in no small part because they relied on way to pay for the house that assumed the price would keep going up. This is not hard to figure out.

If you want to blame anything, blame the stupidity of the average American, and his/her failure to understand that if you can contrive some elaborate scheme to buy something you can't afford ... the basic fact remains that you've bought something you can't afford. Double congrats to the banks who couldn't figure that out either, and lent them the money to do it.

[revefsreleets]

Therein lies the rub. The system is not beyond repair. It's not necessarily even broken, it just needs a little repair. Capitalism IS what made this country great, and it has survived many tests. This is just the next in line.

The biggest lesson to take from this cartoon is that 75 years ago Capitalism was under attack. The sytem survived and ended up even stronger for it. The post WWII boom in the US may have been the greatest period of economic expansion by a Country ever seen in history.

We can't scrap that system now. We just can't...

[steelreserve]

Originally Posted by GBMelBlount

People like Tony are a perfect example of why I feel that freedom and capitalism WILL lose out to socialism in this country.

Our taxes as a percent of GNP are close to many socialist countries and you will still find people like Tony demonizing capitalism as though it is the cause of all evil and problems in this world and having a difficult time even acknowledging that government corruption,taxes and regulation are a problem.

Well, that, and the fact that the "average" American keeps demanding more and more from the government, and the only way anyone wants to pay for it is to keep going back and piling more taxes on the wealthy. Political correctness has literally gotten to the point where if you propose a tax increase on anyone other than corporate executives making more than $250,000 a year, you'll be denounced as a racist or an elitist.

Remember: You cannot have any service or financial aid provided by the government without confiscating that money from someone else; it's a zero-sum game. Government spending is rising WAY faster than inflation, and has been for decades. Sounds to me like we're on the path to socialism already.

[revefsreleets]

Maggie Thatcher still said it best: "The problem wth Socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples money"

[KeiselPower99]

I was watching the History Channel the other night and it was a sow about the Presidents. Alot of whats happening now happened before.