Galbraith? Isn't he the one who went to Mao's China at the height of the socialist-induced artificial famine and proclaimed in a luxury hotel reserved for guests of the regime, "if there is any shortage of food it was not evident in the kitchen"?
Only the fans of socialist slavery and terror call stepping stones to a better life "sweat shops".
child labor,
Better than child prostitution.
company towns, tenements, slums, the reduction of the middle class (skilled workers),
Bullshit. The middle class greatly expanded during the Industrial Revolution. For that matter, so did the wealthier classes. And the standard of living for the lower classes rose dramatically.
and massive environmental damage
Still leagues better than the environmental damage that occurred in existent socialist states.
- all for the benefit for a few ultra-wealthy "captains of industry" like Rockefeller, Carnagie, Morgan, and Vanderbilt.
You're getting your "history" from communists. That's your problem.
Wow. Just wow. You may want to slow down on those daily viewings of Red Dawn. I think everyone can understand certain cold war moves in terms of balance of power, but I doubt you have any particular understanding on anything that happened before 1980.
"Balance of power" during the Cold War consisted of the Soviet Union arming and funding communist insurgencies, coups and outright invasions, and the US desperately trying to contain the spread, until around 1980.
So, as long as the Soviets said Afghanistan was a sovereign nation whose government requested their help - which they did [wikipedia.org] - then the military presence had no effect on their government? That's a wonderful bit of fantasy. Is that why the White House was negotiating with the government of Iraq on how long US troops would stay in 2008? Why wasn't Iraq allowed to hire Iraqi contractors to rebuild the country instead of western companies that are much more expensive?
Negotiation with a sovereign nation with an elected government is quite different from dictating to a puppet regime that came to power in a coup.
Once again, you are a liar.
Your best evidence is that the Ford administration and subsequent administrations are guilty of not caring enough about East Timor. Not caring enough does not equal support.
You fail to notice that there is no "left" or "right" - those are just labels in your head.
A more appropriate spectrum would be 'totalitarianism' and 'freedom', with people like me coming down on the side of 'freedom', and "leftists" like Chomsky coming down on the side of totalitarianism.
You apparently don't know who Upton Sinclair was, or why he wrote, or the fact that people have mixed fact with fictional plot lines in order to get certain points across.
Upton Sinclair was a socialist who wanted a socialist movement in America, and wrote the book to those ends.
The rending of human flesh wasn't confirmed in the report, but the meat packing companies had been cleaning up for three weeks before the on site inspection began.
So in other words, you repeated a lie for propaganda purposes.
Hundreds of federal, state and local government meat inspectors were already employed, and raised no concerns. Thousands of people worked in meatpacking facilities, and countless people toured the ones in Chicago, and raised no concerns. It's said that there is even a report by the Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Animal Husbandry that offered a point-by-point refutation of Sinclair's more outrageous claims, though it seems to have been buried by history, probably for political incorrectness.
Funny. Popular movements stopped slavery, got women and non-whites the right to vote, stopped the Vietnam War, got us the right to freedom of speech,
The abolition of slavery and freedom of speech were won with war - Civil and Revolutionary.
Now try to use your vote to change the shitty treatment you get at the DMV, or remedy the essential seizure of your property because some "endangered" microscopic shrimp were found in a mud puddle. I wonder how voting is working out for Krister Evertson.
You may literally be too dumb to argue with. Exactly how are you going to deprive your insurance company of profit when they deny your claim to life-saving procedures on technicalities?
Insurance companies generally have good reasons for denying claims, and they are straightforward about what they will and will not cover. Of course, if your health insurance provider does deny a claim, you can pay for the procedure yourself without being shot, unlike in Canada.
How are you going to battle Microsoft if they take you to court with a team of lawyers making $10,000 an hour?
Over what?
How are you going to sue the coal mine for poisoning your well if there are no environmental regulations?
Damaging private property is already covered by common law.
I'd rather deal with my local DMV than Comcast or AT&T or dozens of other companies. Why don't you compare the service you get from the US Military to the kind you receive from Blackwater? Alright, ten times the cost, none of the accountability! Way to go.
Ordinary people don't receive services from Blackwater. Blackwater caters to governments, and is therefore responsive to their needs, not the needs of ordinary people. Why don't you try giving us a relevant example?
Congratulations on linking something completely unrelated to what I am talking about! I was talking about government regulation of business. Is that an index of that? No. Oh well, try again.
Government regulation of business falls under 'economic freedom', and is one of the measures they use to rank economic freedom, if you had bothered to read.
Hey, it's the conservative types that love to blow the crap out of people.
And leftist ideology is all peace, love and non-violence, right? Well, except when you want to buy, sell or trade stuff and produce wealth. Then it's off to the labor and reeducation camps at the point of a gun to be worked to death.
Besides, your point is stupid since so many wars are fought for oil.
As evidenced by the US seizing the oil fields in Iraq and selling them off to Exxon.
Oh, wait.
Is it government or capitalism when the oil companies pay off so many? I guess there was no capitalism involved with Haliburton getting a no-bid contract out there.
A government contract is not capitalism.
The thing you don't get is that government and business is so intertwined, you don't know which is which.
This is because the government is insistent of regulating and taxing the living shit out of everything people do for profit.
The government is capable of great good and great evil. So is capitalism.
So again, let's compare the number of people deliberately murdered by those seeking profit for a company with the number of people murdered by those seeking power for a government.
So excuse me if I don't mind when the government regulates Internet use but I do mind when we decide to kill people.
Well, except if those people are "capitalist exploiters" or "wreckers", right?
The USSR. After 1945, wherever there was a war, if it wasn't started by the USSR backing communist insurgency or outright conquest, it was there pouring fuel on the fire.
It's the same way we run Afghanistan and Iraq,
That is manifestly not how "we" are "running" Afghanistan and Iraq. Both nations are sovereign, and both have our enemies in power.
and the same reasoning behind our CIA's involvement in the overthrow of democracies the world over since the 1950s,
The CIA only overthrew governments that were ruling despotically, where democracy had already been destroyed.
and the same reasoning behind our newest form of empire: economic slavery.
Commie bullshit.
This is the behavior the United States uses across the world, without exception. If you have resources, you'd better give us access or else. If you don't have resources, who cares about your plight. Black africans being murdered by muslim militias? Too bad there's no oil there. Genocide in Rwanda, or by one of our allies in East Timor?
What happened in East Timor most certainly wasn't supported by the US. You and other commies have to claim there was "US support" for the Indonesian regime because you need something to equate to the commie auto-genocide in Cambodia under Pol Pot, which was denied and rationalized by Western socialists, including your hero Noam Chomsky. Thing is though, there is no equating what happend in East Timor with what happened in Cambodia.
Who cares. Funding oppression and censorship in Communist China? Hey, they're still shipping on time.
I notice how the left wasn't complaining when there was real communism in China, and millions were dying of starvation. Only now that there has been significant economic liberalization, and the regime is merely authoritarian instead of totalitarian do we hear condemnations of the Chinese government.
If you've never heard of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair,
You do understand that The Jungle is a work of fiction, don't you?
or about labor laws in general, I recommend an education. And, those are some direct links from the article I provided. All you have to do is click on them.
Again, not one of those links substantiates your claim that "human flesh" found its way into canned meat products, deliberately or otherwise.
With a functioning democracy you have some chance of making things change. When it's you versus an immortal fictional person that makes your yearly salary every minute, you have no chance.
Your single vote cannot hope to change government policy. Plus, you still are required to pay taxes. With a corporation, you can refrain from buying their products, depriving them of profit. Thus, corporations are far more responsive to their customers than anyone working for the government. Compare the service you get at McDonalds with the service you get at the DMV or the post office.
You're also making the mistake of assuming that a corporation is a single entity animated by a single will, as opposed to merely being a collection of individuals who come together to make a profit.
Nevermind. Go back to watching the TV. You're a lost cause.
Yes, we can have a genuine free market like Haiti. So people can build houses and buildings that will be death traps in earthquakes since it so much cheaper despite being in a major earthquake zone. Really brilliant.
In fact, Haiti is so free-market capitalist that it ranks 141 out of 179 on the Index of Economic Freedom!
All you morons scream about a true free market. Then when the companies start killing you and your family you scream at the government asking why it isn't doing anything about it.
Compare the number of people deliberately murdered by those seeking profit for a company (which is easily remedied) with the number of people murdered by government (which isn't easily remedied, as the government imposes a monopoly of force, and disarms its victims). I suspect however, that what constitutes being 'killed by a company' in your mind is so broad, that people dying of natural causes in their sleep are counted by you as being 'killed by a company'.
If you want to go back to having children pack human flesh in your canned meat products, go ahead and make your case.
Nice lie you have there. I notice that the Wikipedia article says nothing of the sort.
The difference between a large powerful corporation and a large powerful democracy is that you can influence the government with just your vote.
I suppose next you'll tell us "Why, you can write your congressperson!". What a joke.
If Shell wants to drill in front of your beachfront condo and you have no government to regulate their activities, what are your options? Do you think they will acquiesce to your complaints instead of netting a few billion dollars?
You wouldn't be able to see the offshore oil rigs from the condo in the first place.
I am closest to being described as a democratic socialist, not a communist.
So what's the difference?
"I'm a democratic fascist!"
See what I did there?
I agree that we spend too much...on the military. Our other spending is mostly things I would agree with except it doesn't go far enough. The top marginal income tax in the US used to be 90%. It's now less than half of that. Sorry that I have little sympathy for the billionaire who wants to keep 500M dollars. He's still not poor if he only has 10 million in spending cash at the end of the year. Meanwhile there are people starving and dying from lack of health care.
You do understand that most billionaires are billionaires because of stock, not because of normal income, don't you? Furthermore, do you realize that if you simply seized large amounts of said stock, the value would drop dramatically and you would have next to nothing?
Slashdot Mirror
Galbraith? Isn't he the one who went to Mao's China at the height of the socialist-induced artificial famine and proclaimed in a luxury hotel reserved for guests of the regime, "if there is any shortage of food it was not evident in the kitchen"?
Only the fans of socialist slavery and terror call stepping stones to a better life "sweat shops".
Better than child prostitution.
Bullshit. The middle class greatly expanded during the Industrial Revolution. For that matter, so did the wealthier classes. And the standard of living for the lower classes rose dramatically.
Still leagues better than the environmental damage that occurred in existent socialist states.
You're getting your "history" from communists. That's your problem.
"Balance of power" during the Cold War consisted of the Soviet Union arming and funding communist insurgencies, coups and outright invasions, and the US desperately trying to contain the spread, until around 1980.
Negotiation with a sovereign nation with an elected government is quite different from dictating to a puppet regime that came to power in a coup.
Your best evidence is that the Ford administration and subsequent administrations are guilty of not caring enough about East Timor. Not caring enough does not equal support.
A more appropriate spectrum would be 'totalitarianism' and 'freedom', with people like me coming down on the side of 'freedom', and "leftists" like Chomsky coming down on the side of totalitarianism.
Upton Sinclair was a socialist who wanted a socialist movement in America, and wrote the book to those ends.
So in other words, you repeated a lie for propaganda purposes.
Hundreds of federal, state and local government meat inspectors were already employed, and raised no concerns. Thousands of people worked in meatpacking facilities, and countless people toured the ones in Chicago, and raised no concerns. It's said that there is even a report by the Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Animal Husbandry that offered a point-by-point refutation of Sinclair's more outrageous claims, though it seems to have been buried by history, probably for political incorrectness.
The abolition of slavery and freedom of speech were won with war - Civil and Revolutionary.
Now try to use your vote to change the shitty treatment you get at the DMV, or remedy the essential seizure of your property because some "endangered" microscopic shrimp were found in a mud puddle. I wonder how voting is working out for Krister Evertson.
Insurance companies generally have good reasons for denying claims, and they are straightforward about what they will and will not cover. Of course, if your health insurance provider does deny a claim, you can pay for the procedure yourself without being shot, unlike in Canada.
Over what?
Damaging private property is already covered by common law.
Ordinary people don't receive services from Blackwater. Blackwater caters to governments, and is therefore responsive to their needs, not the needs of ordinary people. Why don't you try giving us a relevant example?
Government regulation of business falls under 'economic freedom', and is one of the measures they use to rank economic freedom, if you had bothered to read.
And leftist ideology is all peace, love and non-violence, right? Well, except when you want to buy, sell or trade stuff and produce wealth. Then it's off to the labor and reeducation camps at the point of a gun to be worked to death.
As evidenced by the US seizing the oil fields in Iraq and selling them off to Exxon.
Oh, wait.
A government contract is not capitalism.
This is because the government is insistent of regulating and taxing the living shit out of everything people do for profit.
So again, let's compare the number of people deliberately murdered by those seeking profit for a company with the number of people murdered by those seeking power for a government.
Well, except if those people are "capitalist exploiters" or "wreckers", right?
The USSR. After 1945, wherever there was a war, if it wasn't started by the USSR backing communist insurgency or outright conquest, it was there pouring fuel on the fire.
That is manifestly not how "we" are "running" Afghanistan and Iraq. Both nations are sovereign, and both have our enemies in power.
The CIA only overthrew governments that were ruling despotically, where democracy had already been destroyed.
Commie bullshit.
What happened in East Timor most certainly wasn't supported by the US. You and other commies have to claim there was "US support" for the Indonesian regime because you need something to equate to the commie auto-genocide in Cambodia under Pol Pot, which was denied and rationalized by Western socialists, including your hero Noam Chomsky. Thing is though, there is no equating what happend in East Timor with what happened in Cambodia.
I notice how the left wasn't complaining when there was real communism in China, and millions were dying of starvation. Only now that there has been significant economic liberalization, and the regime is merely authoritarian instead of totalitarian do we hear condemnations of the Chinese government.
You do understand that The Jungle is a work of fiction, don't you?
Again, not one of those links substantiates your claim that "human flesh" found its way into canned meat products, deliberately or otherwise.
Your single vote cannot hope to change government policy. Plus, you still are required to pay taxes. With a corporation, you can refrain from buying their products, depriving them of profit. Thus, corporations are far more responsive to their customers than anyone working for the government. Compare the service you get at McDonalds with the service you get at the DMV or the post office.
You're also making the mistake of assuming that a corporation is a single entity animated by a single will, as opposed to merely being a collection of individuals who come together to make a profit.
Likewise, go smoke some more Chomsky.
In fact, Haiti is so free-market capitalist that it ranks 141 out of 179 on the Index of Economic Freedom!
http://www.heritage.org/Index/Country/Haiti
Compare the number of people deliberately murdered by those seeking profit for a company (which is easily remedied) with the number of people murdered by government (which isn't easily remedied, as the government imposes a monopoly of force, and disarms its victims). I suspect however, that what constitutes being 'killed by a company' in your mind is so broad, that people dying of natural causes in their sleep are counted by you as being 'killed by a company'.
Nice lie you have there. I notice that the Wikipedia article says nothing of the sort.
I suppose next you'll tell us "Why, you can write your congressperson!". What a joke.
You wouldn't be able to see the offshore oil rigs from the condo in the first place.
So what's the difference?
"I'm a democratic fascist!"
See what I did there?
You do understand that most billionaires are billionaires because of stock, not because of normal income, don't you? Furthermore, do you realize that if you simply seized large amounts of said stock, the value would drop dramatically and you would have next to nothing?