Why I think a communist revolution is a pipe dream in United States.

[Dis]

capitalism rawks!

[Ben Kenobi]

The most recent update to their projections (a word the UN is now de-emphasizing in favor of "scenario" or "working hypothesis")

Gee I wonder if that has anything to do with their most recent predictions.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Flubber
4. the poorest of the poor are usually homeless, with health, alcohol or drug problems-- hardly fertile ground for energetic revolutionaries. Among those in the next economic strata there is usually enough of a social safety net to meet basic needs

Actually, this is where I would grant Che a point. I think he has said that things can change very fast. The 30's were a good example of that. Able bodied, working people suffered a great deal. Violent change was in the air, only to be repressed by force and or assuaged by social programs.

What does that have to do with now? I am led to believe that there are growing numbers of people who are fully capable of working and who do in fact work hard at one or more jobs, but what they earn in those jobs is not nearly enough to get ahead, or in some cases even to survive. Conditions are nowhere like they were in the 30's, but any time you get any great number of people who are active and productive, but who are not getting ahead you are asking for trouble.

I highly doubt that communist revolution is likely anywhere in the West, but something is going to have to change and/or adjust, or there is going to be some trouble.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Dissident
capitalism rawks!

Idea for a movie sequel . . . .


"Dude, Where's my Credit Card?"

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi


Gee I wonder if that has anything to do with their most recent predictions.

Actually, the paper itself is little more than a plea for continued funding for they as much as admit that to be able to project a rising population (and therefore a need for a UN population division, as if the department would get axed if the population actually fell ) they have to forecast so far out in the future as to make all projections, a-hem!, "scenarios" useless.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Azazel

You've obviously ignored my point that this doesn't matter since the amount wealth the 5-25 percentiles is still low, in comparison to the upper 1 percentile, for example.

So? Take the aggregate $955 billion that the top 400 richest Americans own and divide it amongst the American population and you have destroyed a social order thousands of years in the making... for a mere $357.14 per person. Good going!

I already answered it. it seems that you're ignoring my points instead of adressing them.

No, you answered it assuming that I was just going to accept your implicit assumption that your University is not a consumable resource that benefits you to the tens of thousands of dollars a year, despite how much you pay in tuition. You could sacrifice your college education to help a scholarship winner from Mozambique - why not?

You are richer than you think. You are the Elite.

That's great! I have no problem of giving you a high salary, even a very high one, as long as:
a) you deserve it.
b) you'll be a wage earner, not a capitalist.
c) your power in influencing the economical future of society will be given to you by the people, and not something that is enherently yours ( going back to point b ).
d) Those amounts of money, though very large, are not astronomical.

a. Who determines that? You?
b. Mere definitions, words whose meaning change with the passage of time, words that even to millions are not contradictory. Remember it is the Left who must keep up their artificial distinction between "worker" and "manager", between "financier" and "operator." I don't mess with such silly distinctions because I understand that all peoples work, they are all necessary in todays world, and that they get paid according to the value of their product.
c. A fundamental misunderstanding of the use of power. Authority is taken and fought for... not given to. In my life, the very fact that I have told the world that I am in charge of my little part of it (by starting/taking over my companies) gives me the right to influence the economic future of the world in my own small way - it isn't something just granted somebody by some nebulous force, rather it is a responsibility assumed.

However, not very many people want that sort of authority and even of those who do, even fewer are good at it.

d. Define "astronomical." $100k? $500k? $3.2 mil. with stock options? $200 million? (George Lucas's take the year Phantom Menace came out) $550 million (Michael Milken, 1987. Damn that was a nice year. )

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Azazel

So this is wrong?

Yes, because then you can accumulate much more wealth than what you actually need to live even a luxurious life, wealth that could be spent on building roads, building optical cables, training teachers and scientists...

Notwithstanding the plentiful existance today of roads, optical cables, teachers and scientists.

[JohnT]

Souce for 400 richest Americans cite: http://www.forbes.com/richlist2003/rich400land.html

[Ned]

I am not so sure. Dean, after all, is leading in the polls for the Democrat nomination.

[JohnT]

Cross post, Ned?

[Ned]

No, Dean sounds just like all the commies here. The so-called "Democrat" wing of the Democrat party is its Marxist wing.

True, Dean is not calling now for total nationalization of business, but, is that a distinction worth a difference for what he is advocating?

By the way, I have seen it reported that Dean is getting millions in dollars from Arabs and Muslims since he came out for a "balanced" relationship in the ME. "Balanced" is a code word used by the UN and France, among others, for an anti-Israeli stance. The code word is not lost on the anti-Israelis and Jew-haters of America.

[Ned]

Btw, I have heard it agrued that Republican strategists are chomping on their bits to seen Dean nominated. The assumption is that a candidate so radical cannot be elected. However, I think this is wishful thinking at best, and very dangerous at its worst. After all, the German people voted the NAZI party into power, did they not? Now, that was a very bad decision in hindsight.

The radicals can win. The unthinkable can happen.

Communism is very close to victory in the US.

[MrFun]

Dean??

radical??

[Ned]

Mr Fun, the guy is a socialist, Jew hating bigot. In my book, he is a NAZI.

[MrFun]

What source did you get the FACTS from that Dean is anti-Semitic???