Is capitalism working?

Good example is Germany's Hitler that used Jews as his favorite scapegoats because they represented the so-called evils of capitalism and everything else that was bad for the world. According to Obama's friend and mentor Jeremiah Wright, rich whites and Jews are still the cause of most of today's problems.

okie wrote:

Good example is Germany's Hitler that used Jews as his favorite scapegoats because they represented the so-called evils of capitalism and everything else that was bad for the world. According to Obama's friend and mentor Jeremiah Wright, rich whites and Jews are still the cause of most of today's problems.

You know you're winning an argument when all your opponant can do is compare you to the Nazis.

That's just a tactic used by progressive liberal democrat left wing extremists that choose to ignore their roots in history.

You know you're winning an argument when all your opponant can do is compare you to the Nazis.

Study history and almost every notable tyrannical dictator demagogued capitalism and the rich. This included both communists and fascists. Good example is Germany's Hitler that used Jews as his favorite scapegoats because they and everything else that was bad for the world.

okie wrote:

Study history and almost every notable tyrannical dictator demagogued capitalism and the rich. This included both communists and fascists. Good example is Germany's Hitler that used Jews as his favorite scapegoats because they and everything else that was bad for the world.

Hitler was against the "capitalistic" Jews because they were ... Jews, not because they "represented the so-called evils of capitalism". (See his dispute with Strasser and "socialistic wing" in 1930.) (His denial of Socialism was already done in 1928, with the "unabänderliche Parteiprogramm" ('irreversible party's program').

During the phase of the "Aryanisation of economy", when Jewish owners had their businesses expropriated, these businesses weren't state owned afterwards (which could have been easily done) but became the property of .... other non-Jewish capitalists.

Hitler didn't implement through expropriation (and nationalisation) some socialist ideas, but he only helped the "Aryan" entrepreneurs to eliminate their Jewish competitors.

What you said, okie: "study history".

I think mineral rights belong collectively to the people and not to a few corporations that want to use their profits to further destroy the middle class.

This land is your land this land is my land...

RexRed wrote:

I think mineral rights belong collectively to the people and not to a few corporations that want to use their profits to further destroy the middle class.

This land is your land this land is my land...

Nice sounding idea. Interestingly it has already been tried. The Soviet Union made not only mineral rights, power utilities, agricultural land and forests the "property of the people", but also, as the self appointed vanguard of the working class, managed every aspect of their use and operation - all for the benefit of the people. Unfortunately such power concentrated in one group produced a brutal and murderous tyranny. In addition the lack of competition that resulted also delivered poorly made goods that no one wanted, widespread drab semi poverty, and rather ghastly wasteful exploitation of natural environments .

Today Saudi Arabia controls all its petroleum wealth for "the people". It of course is managed by the government controlled by the family of old Abdul Azzis Saud. There are widespread public works, but they are accompanied by rather severe authoritarian control, very high unemployment, and very little social economic mobility.

Plato had a lot to say about such "perfectly managed" states, but even he didn't come up with a workable formula for finding the philosopher kings to run them.

[You forgot to mention Norway whose oil revenue profits are dealt respectively to their low and middle class people... There does not seem to be any "oppressive tyranny" associated with this and they have one of the wealthiest middle class sectors in the world. It is still rapidly growing...

RexRed wrote:

[You forgot to mention Norway whose oil revenue profits are dealt respectively to their low and middle class people... There does not seem to be any "oppressive tyranny" associated with this and they have one of the wealthiest middle class sectors in the world. It is still rapidly growing...

Norway has a very small population, a history of poverty relative to their Scandanavian neighbors, and a great deal of fairly recent wealth based on the North Sea petroleum discoveries of a three decades ago. The Norwegians have, as you indicated, used the profits of their off shore oil production to finance their government and to create a still growing "petroleum fund" for their future financial security. The result is Norway has nearly the highest GDP per capita in the world and an effective welfare state, though the Norwegians have been relatively prudent in this area compared to other European nations.

The non petroleum component of the Norwegian economy is not growing particularly fast and it is far from adequate to fund their current lifestyles. They have been blessed with enormous marketable natural resources much sought after by the rest of the world. However they won't last forever, and this isn't a model for others who aren't so well endowed by nature.

It is interesting to note the very stark contrast between Norway's very aggressive development of their off shore petroleum resources (including deep water resources), and the stupid policies of our government.