tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post1214096231864123646..comments2024-03-29T00:24:13.128-04:00Comments on Daniel Greenfield / Sultan Knish Articles at DanielGreenfield.org : A Socialist Government is One that Distrusts its CitizensDaniel Greenfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575285186581875356noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-28158249271807523412011-07-28T15:55:11.379-04:002011-07-28T15:55:11.379-04:00Don't sell yourself short. The left isn't ...Don't sell yourself short. The left isn't for anything that they can't turn into a lifetime sinecure for their bureaucrats, a plantation vote and a handbook of regulations.<br /><br />Helping people? That's a laugh. Your kind doesn't help anybody, unless they can build a bureaucracy on their heads and then use that bureaucracy to create a 1000 laws and keep those same people down. And then maybe find a way for their Wall Street pals to make money reselling that misery. And pass all that on in more taxes to the middle and working class so the only people left are government bureaucrats and the welfare dole.<br /><br />Europe is collapsing you moron. You want their economic system, go move to Greece.Daniel Greenfieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13575285186581875356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-35753113289903524152011-07-28T09:22:30.095-04:002011-07-28T09:22:30.095-04:00Can anyone be more distrustful and disdainful of &...Can anyone be more distrustful and disdainful of 'the people' than Conservatives? They want nothing for the people, unless someone can get rich off of it - libraries, police and fire departments, the military, schools, street repair etc. They have opposed everything to benefit the people from child labor laws to the right to bargain for one's labor to mine safety laws. Everything! But they've never have seen a corporate welfare payment or land mine that cost too much.<br /><br />The most advanced countries in the world with the most egalitarian democracies and fairest distribution of wealth are the Democratic Socialist countries like Sweden, Norway, Denmark et al. <br /><br />The US can't hold a candle to their quality of life. All the US can show is the highest child and maternal death rates outside of the 3d world, high crime and violence, a crumbling infrastructure, dying middle class, growing poverty, the world's biggest taxpayer funded military bully conquering the world for Big Business and private enterprise, and even the Conservative CIA ranks the US below Cameroon in equality of wealth distribution - a real Banana Corporate-owned Republic.<br /><br />And those 'terrible' Socialist countries of Northern Europe also have better economies because they still regulated their greedy banks, whereas Conservatives think the incompetent thieves of the Corporations and Banks are so good of heart they'll regulate themselves!<br /><br />Check out the rankings of countries on the personal happiness scale. The Scandinavian countries are at the top, as they are in all positive rankings, while the US can't even make it into the top 20. More proof of the failure of US-style unregulated corporate Capitalism, lack of social programs and neo-colonial militarism - the world's biggest exporter of terror. A land where most people live lives of quiet desperation. I left it for Europe and wouldn't go back to visit let alone live.<br /> <br />The more Conservative the country or state, the more backward it is and the greater the gap there is between the rich Robber Barons and War Profiteers and the people who actually do the work and produce the wealth. Just look at the Red States! Half of them would be classed as developing countries if they were independent. All of them the most backward and intolerant in the US.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-10769379583552350452010-06-29T12:55:26.758-04:002010-06-29T12:55:26.758-04:00Socialism, as well as other isms such as envirnome...Socialism, as well as other isms such as envirnomentalism, should not always be dirty words.<br /><br />What prompted the birth of socialism was human suffering caused by greed and tyranny. Socialism and Communism rallied those opposed to oppressive, abusive and undemocratic regimes. <br /><br />Batista's Cuba was awash in corruption. Fidel Castro came to power promising justice and democracy while denying he was a Marxist. It was only after he took power that he declared he had been a Marxist-Leninist all his life. By then, it was too late.<br /><br />We cannot put democracy and socialism at opposite ends of the spectrum. <br /><br />I would put democracy and tyranny as opposites. <br /><br />Aspiring tyrants will use any philosophy they find convenient to suit their purposes: Communism, Socialism, Nazism, Fascism and the all-encompasing Anti-Communism (Chile's Pinochet).<br /><br />Socialism is not in itself BAD. There are excellent socialist (yes, paternalistic too) policies that work.<br /><br />Canada, for example, has a very good health care system. It's being ruined deliberately by both Liberal and Conservative governments by starving it for funds. They want to facilitate private health care systems. In Canada people choose their own doctors. There is a Pharmacare program. The government buys pharmaceuticals in bulk so it's affordable for the consumer. It's a really good system. <br /><br />Americans battle Obama's health care in principle, partly because the US government is too big and too much in the pockets of corporations, so they don't trust it. Now that Obama is at the helm, they are justifiably spooked by his hidden and not-so-hidden agendas. <br /><br />But a little bit of socialim is not a bad thing in itself. Take state-owned utilities. They work. Once they are privatized, all hell breaks loose. Rates go up. Quality goes down. The environment suffers.<br /><br />And a little bit of state control is not bad either. Watchdogs, when they do their jobs properly, protect consumers. We can't ask every individual to investigate the safety of food, air, water, the workplace and consumer items.<br /><br />Laissez Faire capitalism results in disaster for the environment and for the well being of the majority of people. The government must regulate and keep a watch over things. And there's nothing wrong with minimum wage, unemployment insurance, or public pensions.<br /><br />Daniel, there is too much disparity in the amount of power between the rich and the rest of us. It's not only children and the incompetent who are helpless to challenge those with power. Government's role is also to protect the individual.Tracy Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00518463946300763941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-47015475789862188952010-06-29T01:48:01.065-04:002010-06-29T01:48:01.065-04:00"Socialists have to define themselves as anti..."Socialists have to define themselves as anti-elitists, precisely because they are elitists." = Evidenced by cramming a health care mandate down our throats, while EXEMPTING themselves FROM it! <br />I especially resent & fear the inevitable: that private insurers will be unable to survive, especially on any affordable level. My health care options should remain between the Drs I choose, and myself.<br />We will have no rights under obamacare.2sloehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07687684487054065583noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-63019544335595510162010-06-29T00:00:01.092-04:002010-06-29T00:00:01.092-04:00I don't think i've ever met anyone who adv...I don't think i've ever met anyone who advocated for a Socialist system of government in America that actually wanted to be one of the workers.Holger Awakenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14728123335596054395noreply@blogger.com