Posted on 09/25/2008 5:20:24 AM PDT by Kaslin
Socialism has failed. A massive gov’t bailout is an effort to recover from that failure and breathe a little more life into American socialism.
No, it’s not. It’s the best system, and will prevail. It’s the only system that allows the individual to decide their own economic fate. It’s the only system that nurtures creativity.
Social Security? I'll honor those currently in the program, but you have an option. You can opt out of SS and take your contributions, along with your employer's, and put them in an IRA and manage them however you see fit. If you do opt out, you're on your own. If you're starving when age 65 rolls around, not my problem. You mismanaged things so I guess you don't get to retire.
Health insurance? Invest in yourself...educate yourself to the point where a private company with a health plan employs you. Don't have enough money to educate yourself? Join the army and learn a skill. The military is the most underutilized educational facility on the planet. Health insurance is not a right, you earn it. If you can't learn enough for health insurance, I guess survival of the fittest eventually takes care of that.
I had a bellyful of seeing productive members of society tow the weight for the unproductive. If you're greedy and invested in high-risk investments because they promised high returns and that didn't pan out, not my problem. You built your house 8' below sea level and didn't insure it. Also not my problem...you gambled, you lost. The day of the free lunch is over. Get off your lazy a$$ and start working or your lifestyle is going to plummet.
Socialism fails by capitalist standards, but it succeeds with flying colors by their standards - keeping the masses poor, dependent and under the control of elites who get to consume the resources denied to the masses.
All your ideas come from the traditional American culture of self reliance and personal responsibility.
The left has spent generations trying to push this out of the mindset of the average American.
We are looking at the Atlas Shrugged scenario. Big government creates problems. The solution proposed is bigger government which will create more problems, for which they will impose even bigger government.
The sad irony is that the people who bought homes that they can afford, and are making the payments, may be the ones losing their homes because they will not be able to pay the higher taxes resulting from the bailout of the deadbeats.
Last sentence in the article:
“So, yes, our recent financial turmoil does suggest failure — a failure to truly practice capitalism and a failure to accept and believe in the value, appropriateness and morality of a limited government and maximum personal responsibility.”
How do you get people to see the truth in this statement? Every time I use the term ‘personal responsibility’ I am labeled racist, heartless, inhumane. You can’t get through to entitlement oriented folks.
The people you describe are personally responsible, and personally self reliant.
That has to be beaten out of people if they are to be controlled.
The best way to do this is to incentivize irresponsibility and disincentivize personal responsibility.
There are those who want to be irresponsible, and those that want people to be irresponsible in order to get control of them.
We are too far gone now.
The dependent class is so huge, that I don't see any good end to this.
If we had 20 years to slowly destroy socialism, and the majority will to do so there might be hope.
We are facing a second Revolution.
I hope we're up to it.
Read the article, not just the headline.
Let's hope our personal freedoms don't continue to go the same way.
>>Profit is private and individual. Loss is public and social.
Scary. When I saw Bear Stearns I thought “great, we are in a system that privatizes profits and socializes the risk.” Didn’t realize there was a historical antecedent.
Yeah, you're right. I'm pretty much an old fuddy-duddy who helped raise his kids believing that their fate is in their hands, not anyone else's. We fought the "we don't keep score 'cause every child's a winner" crap. The good news is that my kids are doing great. The bad news is that their kids are forced to join soccer leagues where they don't keep score. No problem, I just sit in the stands and yell the score out each time it changes. It's a little thing, but you'd be amazed how many parents come up to me later and say they appreciate me keeping score. Kids must learn that life does keep score and you are either competitive or you lose...on so many levels...
I have wondered what could possibly turn it around and renew our country. Another WWII? A massive pestilence? Another Great Depression? Well, I don't want these things to happen, but I do think that the only thing that can make this country well will be a period of great stress and strife -- not as catharsis, but just to flush out the bad ideas that have permeated our system.
I think we are at the point where we take our medicine. I oppose the bailout. I'm aware that pain will follow -- I've been in pain for 40 years. I want my country back.
Yes, and we saw what a wonderful success Fascist Italy was, eh?
:-(
Agreed.
And the sooner it happens, the younger I'll be and the better the chance I'll be able to help the republic survive and see the other side.
Homeschooler here.
Our family, and the other families at our church that homeschool (90% do, with LARGE families), “armor up” our kids to be an influence on the culture, instead of the other way around.
My homeschool philosophy centers around the theme of “impervious to nonsense”:
Strong Biblical Worldview
Strong understanding of economics
Knowledge of probability and statistics
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