Why do socialists in America refuse to admit they are socialists?

[Tupac Shakur]

RtS is okay, but a bit of a polemic.

Individualism and Economic Order is much better.

As a devoted reader of the New York Times, I had never heard of either of those books before now.

[DriXnaK]

That's because you're a devoted reader of the New York Times.

[KrazyHorse]

RtS is okay, but a bit of a polemic.

Individualism and Economic Order is much better.

As a devoted reader of the New York Times, I had never heard of either of those books before now.

Most hip-hop artists are more broadly read than you

[KrazyHorse]

That's because you're a devoted reader of the New York Times.

Just stop before you embarrass yourself any further.

[Thoth]

Too late.

[DriXnaK]

Thoth you're kind of pathetic. You're basically a "me too" ***** with no original posts or anything to offer. You basically swoop into a topic and then parrot what has been said before. I really have to wonder about you.

[Tupac Shakur]

Most hip-hop artists are more broadly read than you

This is demonstrably untrue.

Shakur was a voracious reader. He was inspired by a wide variety of writers, including William Shakespeare, Niccolò Machiavelli, Donald Goines, Sun Tzu, Kurt Vonnegut, Mikhail Bakunin, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, and Khalil Gibran. In his book, Dyson describes the experience of visiting the home of Shakur's friend and promoter Leila Steinberg to find "the sea of books" once owned by Shakur.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupac_Shakur

[Thoth]

Thoth you're kind of pathetic. You're basically a "me too" ***** with no original posts or anything to offer. You basically swoop into a topic and then parrot what has been said before. I really have to wonder about you.

*sqwak* Polly wanna cracker.

[curtis290]

RtS is okay, but a bit of a polemic.

Individualism and Economic Order is much better.

As a devoted reader of the New York Times, I had never heard of either of those books before now.

I haven't read Individualism and Economic Order, but Road to Serfdom is a phenomenal book. It's the best defense of free-market capitalism I've ever read. Friedman's libertarian ideas discussed in books such as Free to Choose are completely ripped off of Hayek, just a dumbed-down version applied to American politics. I read FtC after RtS and thought it was just a much crappier version of Hayek.

Drix if you think Sumners, Geithner, and Bernanke (two neoliberals and a monetarist) are socialists you've completely lost any credibility.

And Thoth how can you be convinced that I'm a DL? After the long essay in my blog? And my lengthy posts here? I wrote more in one post usually than you people do in a week's worth.

[KrazyHorse]

Most hip-hop artists are more broadly read than you

This is demonstrably untrue.

Shakur was a voracious reader. He was inspired by a wide variety of writers, including William Shakespeare, Niccolò Machiavelli, Donald Goines, Sun Tzu, Kurt Vonnegut, Mikhail Bakunin, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, and Khalil Gibran. In his book, Dyson describes the experience of visiting the home of Shakur's friend and promoter Leila Steinberg to find "the sea of books" once owned by Shakur.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupac_Shakur

More posthumous whitewashing

Tupac's understanding of even basic economic principles was shallow and uninspired.

For example, most of his drug market activities as recorded in his lyrics imply that he and his homies can't even find the Nash equilibrium to very simple games...

[Tupac Shakur]

You're not going to have much success baiting me on economic issues, given that I've released seven platinum albums since my "death" and could easily buy and sell you. Frankly, you're fortunate that I'm even willing to talk to you given our respective social standings derived via Worthington's Law.

[KrazyHorse]

Your prominence as a hiphop artist has absolutely no bearing on your understanding of economic philosophy.

You are certainly more valuable than me, but this is both a statement about our relative abilities AND the value of these abilities as determined by the market. In a crude, multilinear model, we can state this in terms of linear algebra: W = sqrt(A^i A_i) with the metric tensor being determined by the market.

[Tupac Shakur]

Your prominence as a hiphop artist has absolutely no bearing on your understanding of economic philosophy.

I disagree. My prominence (and high productivity) as a hip-hop artist is what allows me to devote almost all my time to activities with high expected utility (consuming alcoholic beverages, smoking cannabis, having sexual intercourse, etc.) rather than wasting time on activities like studying economic philosophy. I certainly could learn about economic philosophy, but why bother when there are less valuable individuals like yourself out there to do it for me?

Comparative advantage

[JackRudd]

I'm a socialist. Obama isn't even close to being one. He is, however, more close to being one than any candidate the Republicans might field, which is why a number of socialist groups support him.

[bc1871]

Where’s Che and all the old lefty posters when you need them? They may have been full of crap, but at least they could shed some light on whether or not Obama is a socialist.