Any political / economic system is only as good as the people in charge of it. As it stands now, you can be a slave to a rich man or a slave to the state, if you piss off the rich man, you have to find another rich man to be a slave to. If you piss off the state, you get a bullet behind the ear.
@JovialPlutonian Discretion is the better part of valor. I've accepted my lot in life. We, in the United States, are approaching a civil war. I'll probably be conscripted by the 'rich man' because I understand the fact that innovation and hard work is better than the mediocrity of collectivism. I believe that competition encourages progress, so I am a capitalist and a nationalist and I have no problem working my way up. My sword belongs to the man that signs my paycheck.
@JovialPlutonian All of that is an ideological fantasy. You have to work for success. All are created equal in a spiritual sense, but we all have to accept our subordinate position as we struggle towards improvement. Some of us are doomed to virtual slavery, but if we are housed and fed, we should be grateful.
@JovialPlutonian There is trickery and subterfuge everywhere. Wisdom is working and enjoying the fruit of your labor, and being grateful that you are not her....
@puck61 but we are not all housed and fed which is what communism (done correctly) would create. Can't you see how disconnected we are all from one another? Isn't this a direct result of the capitalistic attitude of survival of the fittest? Wouldn't you rather we were all one (communism). We'd be foolish to condemn it out of retrospect, I believe isn't more of a case of not being honest with ourselves.
@JovialPlutonian Oh definitely not, in my opinion. I am very authoritarian fatalist. I 'do' believe in survival of the fittest. It is the backbone of evolution.
@puck61 wouldn't it be wise to know our power and make her situation a thing of the past? Unfortunately we don't seem to think that highly of ourselves so we have never experienced ourselves to be more than what we currently are. Her situation would only be nonexistent if we work together as opposed to for ourselves alone.
Practicality Trumps ideology every time. You have to be happy with your lot in life, and be grateful for the roof over your head and the food in your stomach.
@puck61 as a race we haven't even evolved past the attitude of survival of the fittest, it is so primitive. Can you not see how all that creates is winners and loser. We are so evolved we can't even prevent our own from starving to death, this is capitalism at its best.
@puck61 I must admit despite our differences I do have a lot of respect for you. It's the desire to understand one another that helps us to evolve together by recognising and accepting each other's needs as equally valid
@JovialPlutonian Yes. That, in my opinion, is the way things should be. We as the'successful' are to blame for the 20,000 children that die every single day of starvation, war, and disease. It is our cold hearts and distractions of pleasure, that makes us forget the twenty thousand. We make our token offerings to token charities, but in this hard world, all the right people are dying for the most part. This is how humanity works, and that is why the neanderthal is gone. Onward and upward.
