Boris' pissed off and he's telling you why

[Spiffor]

Re: In which JohnT takes a visit to the Twilight Zone...

Originally posted by JohnT
"liberalism is a right wing ideology"

In the European eaning of "liberalism" (fovouring free-market policies, and opposing wekfare), yes it is definitely a right-wing ideology. In this meaning, you can say without laugh that Thatcher and Reagan were ultraliberals.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Economic deregulation in industries which are not natural monopolies usually does bring wealth. Look at the the telecom deregulation. Now you have more choice and lower prices.

That's strange. In Germany, since the deregulation, I had nothing but frustration, higher prices, and general discontentment toward Deutsche Telekom. My gf, who went for the competition O2 because of this, discovered with horror they were crooks too

[Tripledoc]

I agree that telecom deregulation has led to worse quality and higher prices. But not only that. The entrance of foreign competitors has lead to cases of tax evasion. This is actually the worst, since the public sector will simply not have the energy and resources to go after the cheaters. At the same time the public sector is starved by tax-cuts. One way that the lack of revenue from the private sector is being solved is by drowning welfare clients in paperwork. For instance a lone mother with two kids in Britain will have to fill out a hundred forms - in the end she just gives up and prostitutes herself. Now that's privatization!

[Tripledoc]

The joys of the free market.

Since 1991 Russia has lost half of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). By contrast, during World War II, when the Soviet Union lost 25 million people and tens of thousands of square miles of its territory were occupied by Nazi Germany, the Soviet economy declined by only 30%.

Life expectancy in Russia has fallen to 3rd world levels, below that of Mexico, Ecuador, Jordan, Thailand, and even the Dominican Republic. Disease is rampant, including killers unheard of in Soviet times, such as tuberculosis and cholera. With an annual death rate 30% higher than that of the late ‘80s, Russia is the only non-African nation in the world that is depopulating.

http://www.glennsacks.com/russias_free_market.htm

The people at the IMF and World Bank should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. They are worse than Nazis.

[Harry Tuttle]

Gee, Tripledoc, that's not a flawed argument...

[Tripledoc]

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle
Gee, Tripledoc, that's not a flawed argument...

Where is the flaw? That the free market is killing people?

[Kuciwalker]

Explain how it's killing people. People die, yes, but I don't see any overt act of murder going on

[Harry Tuttle]

Yes, the in-animate economic system is killing people as they sleep. Unlike, say, the KGB. Ever stop to think that it's because they were Communists that they don't know how capitalism works? Or that they came out of a system that ran on fear more than incentive? Or that their whole economy was a rotting corpse that was being held up by the Kremlin?

Cmon, get your facts straight and stop looking for attention.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by skywalker


Explain how it's killing people. People die, yes, but I don't see any overt act of murder going on

But you do see covert murder?

[Harry Tuttle]

No, I see a country with an old infrastructure that's deteriorating rapidly.

[Fake Boris]

What media empire? Or were you not informed that he was fired from AOL Time Warner? No, you wouldn't be, would you?

I am. I can congratulate you on a thing well said. Being fired from a company you had been running for decades will instantaneously erase your past record of actions that you have done through it?

Liberal as in leftist. As in FDR, George McGovern, Walter Mondale.

Seems like this was only a misunderstanging, as pointed out by Spiffor. I think I can see from where it springs; "liberalism", throughout the years, has been gradually associated with a leftist ideology. To the extent that some people who had claimed to be liberal felt the need to introduce a new word, neoliberal.

Nothing of this will detract from what I've said about Turner. When he was in charge, he had been ruthlessly running his empire in all of a tycoon's glory. Now that he is retired, he's become a leftitst. Great.
Now, would it have been so hard to understand the phrasing "Ted Turner & Co" as a periphrase to designate media tycoons?
Sure, Warner Bros must have been helping you in making great metaphorical movies that give you acces to literary figures.

[Tripledoc]

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle
Yes, the in-animate economic system is killing people as they sleep. Unlike, say, the KGB. Ever stop to think that it's because they were Communists that they don't know how capitalism works? Or that they came out of a system that ran on fear more than incentive? Or that their whole economy was a rotting corpse that was being held up by the Kremlin?

Cmon, get your facts straight and stop looking for attention.

Well the free market doctrine is not some magical thing floating freely in the air by its own powers. There are certain people who work for certain institutions who a spreading propaganda on the joys and wonders of the free market.

In fact the Soviet Economy was doing fine. It was actually the precise reason that the Soviet economy was able to provide consumers with goods that they started getting less nervous of rebelling. Couple that with massive propaganda in the form of semi-pornographic news and shows over western airwaves, coupled with Reagans aggresive moves and threats of nuclear war against the Soviet Union, and what happened was that Gorbachev hands began to shake, and he folded.

And the KGB in the seventies and eighties did not kill anyone except western spies, who knew the risks. In fact Soviet dissidents were put into insane asylums. that is not different from the West, where for instance the diagnosis of paranoia has been used to put many people in their place.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Osweld


But you do see covert murder?

You know what I meant

[Kuciwalker]

In fact the Soviet Economy was doing fine.

good one!

And the KGB in the seventies and eighties did not kill anyone except western spies, who knew the risks. In fact Soviet dissidents were put into insane asylums. that is not different from the West, where for instance the diagnosis of paranoia has been used to put many people in their place.

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle
No, I see a country with an old infrastructure that's deteriorating rapidly.

And how exactly is free market preventing it from deteriorating?