capitalism : socialism : economics :: gravity : mechanics : physics

[expatriot]

Someday I am going to write a book. Discuss.

[applegrove]

1. In science - you come up with an idea, test it, and if it works better

than all the others - you keep it.

In politics - you put into place only the ideas that garner you more votes and give some elite what they want.

Fact is that nationalized (socialized) health care works well. The same as socialized pharmaceutical intellectual property rights. U.S. has one but not the other - because the elites have control over the representatives.

Make for a bad world.

[expatriot]

3. the analogy is like this....

lower case c capitalism is of course an unavoidable human act... the first capitalist act was when the first humanoid picked up a rock and used it to peel the bark off of a tasty root. S/he was exploiting the rock, was using the tool as capital. Even in hunter and gatherer societies, they try and gather a surplus when they can... there is a power structure... Che became disillusioned with the Soviets very soon when he realized that Cuba had just switched from being the sugar colony of the West to the sugar colony of the Soviet bloc.

Lower case c capitalism is unavoidable like gravity. it is all pervasive in all human societal-economic action. but we shall not lie down against gravity, we push against it and stand up.


lower s socialism is as old as society, it is collective effort. the first socialist act was when a father and his sons went out to take down a mastodon together... the first class struggle occurred when one brother said to another, "Why shall we let Father control who shall eat what portion of the meat and when? For he is old and it is we who killed the beast."

Lower case s socialism is democratic pressures and it is in this world in which socialism arises of and from a system permeated by the omnipresence of capitalism that it rises to counter-capitalism, like simple mechanics rises up as a system of and from a world dominated by gravity to counter it. when i speak of mechanics, it is in the simple abstract sense, like for the purposes of this analogy the roman wedge arch would be a perfect example of mechanics, gravity being harnessed to provide counterpressure against gravity.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. Write books that pack a bigger punch than EJ Routh's

100+ year old ones on mechanics and I will buy them.

[slor]

4. Maybe someday you can write it, legallly...

on paper made fron HEMP. Support H.R. 3037!
<http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/bills/?bill=7766161>

[rman]

5. Capitalism is the phenomena of aggregation of wealth,

and the fact that the more wealth one has aggregated, the easier it becomes to get more wealth (and power) still.

In and of itself there isn't anything wrong with aggregating wealth. It does matter however how much wealth is aggregated and what the consequences for others are.

If capitalism is insufficiently regulated then it is a winner-takes-all system which is favorable to a very few, and damaging to the many.

It is why Republicans want to deregulate and privatize everything. It is why the RW wants to deregulate and privatize everything. The more things are privatized and deregulated, the more these things can be exploited for private profit.

The opposite is to not want to privatize everything; it's typically what the Left/Democrats/Liberals/Labor Movement want;

- public funded education

- public funded health care

- public funded social security

- public funded media

- fair wages

- strong labor unions

- strong environmental protection