11% Globally Think Capitalism Works Well

[David Floyd]

No, it doesn't. Just because 95% of the population might think it's a good idea to wreck the economy, devalue the property of the other 5%, and just in general set economic policy back 6000 years doesn't mean that the rest of us should let them.

But that was also an extreme example. Your defense of it is just an example of your extremism. A better example is something like universal health care - just because a faint majority wants "something for nothing", as it were, doesn't mean they should get it.

[chequita guevara]

Yes, we all know, you don't believe in democracy, but that you do believe that there are these things called rights floating out there in the ether, completely unconnected to human life.

[David Floyd]

Attacking strawmen won't help your argument. All I'm saying is that just because the majority thinks something doesn't mean the majority knows what they're talking about.

[chequita guevara]

It doesn't matter whether they know what they are talking about or not. It does, however, mean we should do it if we have democratic system.

[David Floyd]

So we should do what bunch of stupid people think, just by virtue of the fact that there are a lot of them?

Sounds like an easy way to wreck a country, to me.

That's the problem of democracy without controls, especially in a system with a biased press combined with an easily manipulated public. The ideal system, for me, involves democracy with strict restrictions, in the sense that "the people" can vote for their government, but that the government is constitutionally, as it were, restricted from doing certain things and prohibited certain powers.

The US system, as set up in 1783, is as close to perfect as I have yet seen. It combines freedom with the inability of the masses to force their will on everyone else, with a built-in mechanism for constitutional change.

[chequita guevara]

The system that had slavery and stole a continent from its inhabitants? That system?

[David Floyd]

Yep, that system. It's certainly far better than any alternative you could describe (you know, in the real world).

[Ben Kenobi]

I don't see "life, liberty and the pursuit of universal healthcare.

[chequita guevara]

No one cares what you think, Ben, except from a point of sheer amusement.

Still, you might consider the Preamble to the Constitution, the part about securing the general welfare.

[David Floyd]

You mean, the part that is not only taken out of context, but also not an actual part of the Constitution when it comes to what is legally enforceable/permissible? Yeah, good point

[Imran Siddiqui]

The system that had slavery and stole a continent from its inhabitants? That system?

I'm thinking if you put that up to a vote at the time, you wouldn't get an answer you'd want. So basically, you are just as bad as Floyd in only defending democracy when you want it (according to your argument).

[David Floyd]

Except, I don't defend democracy at all

But otherwise, good point.

[Zevico]

The system that had slavery and stole a continent from its inhabitants? That system?

Look, I know you're a religious fanatic and all, but try to understand that moral change is independent from government and politics. Like say, your beloved Lenin was happily killing gays left and right. Ergo, communism=gay killing machine we should never support.

[DanS]

This poll isn't very informative. Capitalism is a cyclical beast, with times being bad maybe 15 years out a hundred. What do you think people are going to say when times are the worst?

[One_more_turn]

Surprise: Germans are the biggest fans of free market capitalism.

Russians seem to accept capitalism now.