by Outcast_Searcher » Tue 26 Oct 2010, 18:30:45
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', 'o')utcast_searcher
I'm no admirer of bourgeoisie democracy but even a Marxist like me, way over here in New Zealand can see where blame rightfully lies in terms of the national bankruptcy your country is struggling to emerge from.
American, I appreciate your point of view, you civil response, and especially your honesty on where you're coming from.
No one (IMO) hates the stupidity and excesses that SOME corporations, such as big banks, have taken part in, and the harm they have caused more than me. (I do assign responsibility to individuals for signing mortgages, though). I felt the same way after the internet bubble and the Enron mess -- ashamed of all the corporations that cheated to enhance their gains. I wish such behavior was seriously punished with long term "ass-raping jail" when it could be conclusively proven at the top of corporations, frankly.
There are some from the left, such as Barney Frank that (sometimes) I think have good ideas to try to come to some sort of compromise. Elements of his to balance the financial reform act, such as to put common derivatives on exchanges -- and ideas like having the US either charge for our services to act as military protector to Western Europe, or leave them to their own devices (after a fair warning period, IMO) -- instead of bankrupting ourselves make a LOT of sense to me.
However, I guess my "bias filter" just can't accept all the bungling, corruption, incompetence, arrogance, and sense of entitlement that SO much of leftist government represents. At least in competitive private industries, I can choose not to deal with corporations whose behavior I detest. Not so with government, unfortunately.
So, I think we might have an honest debate about "which is worse?". They both have plenty of problems.
i think you can see that socially, I lean way more left than financially. For exampe, most of the GOP will HATE my admission that I am basically for a medicare for all option (i.e. government INSURANCE reform -- not government control of all medical technologies and staff). This is because I find the behavior of the private medical insurance industry SO reprehensible, especially the mass rescission of policies the likes of Blue Cross have lost multi-million dollar class-action lawsuits for multiple times. (You can Google this for Blue Cross in California for examples).
Air travel is a total disaster for the customer, largely due to dergulation. OTOH, it was a lot more expensive when highly regulated.
Can you imagine how terrible it would be though, if government tried to regulate highly competitive electronics sales on the internet? The consumer would be MUCH worse off -- competition takes care of that.
So, it's not a one-size-fits-all answer, IMO. The fight is often about how much is enough.
The one question I would like to know from an intellectually honest self-proclaimed Marxist is -- how much is enough?How much transfer of wealth? How big should government be as a fraction of the total economy? I find that I have NEVER been able to get meaningful answers on questions like this from the left. As a Marxist, your answers might be very enlightening.
Cheers.
Given the track record of the perma-doomer blogs, I wouldn't bet a fast crash doomer's money on their predictions.