Assault on Capitalism II: Internal Threats

Remember our definition of Socialism from the other day?  If not, basically socialism is when the central government owns or controls all of the wealth in a country.  Well, anyone that says our government hasn’t been moving toward a socialist model hasn’t been paying attention over the last year or a little more.  According to William Boyes, an economist with Arizona State University, the government now controls 30-40% of private business profits.  The only link I could find for it that seemed to be credible news is from the Washington Times here.  Whether you believe Mr. Boyes or not, or the Washington Times or now the fact remains that the government owns quite a few large businesses.  I first heard this stat this morning while listening to Glenn Beck.  Michelle Bachman went on to say that if the government passed health care and cap and trade it could push the percentage over 50%.  I couldn’t find anything about the last part, and of course that could all be debatable.  It would all depend on the effect a public option, if passed, would have on private insurance, how much of a tax burden private insurers would have to shoulder, and how much of a tax burden business would have to pay for insurance.  Regardless of the debate, the government controlling even 1% of private business profits is 1% too much.

Not only does is the constitution completely devoid of any reference to the government owning businesses, it’s just plain common sense.  Imagine if you will the complex idiocy of it all.  Our tax dollars went to bail out GM, effectively giving control of over half of the business to the government.  The government has a say, through the ‘Pay Czar’, about how much GM employees can make.  The government has control of how the business is run by having appointed the CEO of GM.  Essentially the government is offering you a product, and making a profit from it.  Don’t forget you also pay a sales tax on that vehicle, which then goes to the government.  You might think, “Well, that money, profit and taxes go back to us through the government”.  You would be wrong though.  Remember when they said all that bailout money would get paid back and then go into the treasury to pay down the debt?  Yeah, I do too, but our buddy Barney Frank and his goons want to take those profits and put them into their own little pet projects.  So basically they took our money, without really asking.  Oh, I know they voted, they were elected, blah blah blah.  The majority of the people didn’t want the bailouts, but Washington said, “It’s ok, we have to do this.  We know better than you, but don’t worry, it will all get paid back and the government will make a profit, and we will pay down the debt, and lie, Lie, LIE!!!”

It’s time we open our eyes, and our friends eyes, and our neighbor’s eyes.  Our government isn’t hiding the fact that they don’t care about us anymore.  Politicians are blatantly defying their constituents.  They are blatantly ignoring the people who are supposed to be in charge according to our constitution.  They took that document down off their walls a long time ago and wiped their backsides with it.  Time for us to staple it to their foreheads.

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Assault on Capitalism

I am seeing a disturbing trend going on around the world and here in our own country.  Capitalism is being villified, in may cases by the very people that benefit from it.  I keep hearing how Capitalism is responsible for climate change, oppresion of third-world countries, class warfare, and a long list of other perceived crimes.  I have been thinking for the last couple of days about what I want to write about, and I think I am going to spend the next couple of days dealing with this issue.  I think our first step should be to explore the definition of economic models and the benefits or drawbacks of each one.

Capitalism is defined as a social and economic system where individual rights are recognized and private property and capital are privately owned.  Under true capitalism the state is separate from economics.  (Hmm, first observation, America is no longer a true capitalist country but it used to be)

This observation begs the question, in our recent economic problems is capitalism really the problem?  Is it just as possible that because capitalism was corrupted years ago by government involvement it collapsed.

Socialisim carries a few definitions, but what I find is that 1. a system of social organization where the ownership of property and capital is held by the community as a whole.  (Redistribution?) 2. (in marxist socialism) the stage following capitalism that inevitably leads to Communism.

Wait…have we ever heard people defend our current administration by saying “You can’t call them socialist and communist in the same sentence, they are opposites”?  Yeah, opposites if the definition of opposite means a straight line from one to the other.

Communism is defined as a system of social organization where the ownership of property and capital is held by the community as a whole OR by the state.  (hmm, I guess they are almost exactly the same)  It is also defined as a system of social organization where control of all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state.

So, you pick which one we resemble the most, and which one you think we should resemble.  I would argue that we should start to call our current system communist socialism.  Private property and capital are privately owned, BUT most of the economic activity is controlled by the state.
Fascism is defined as a political movement that exalts the nation and often the race, above the rights of the individual and that stands for centralized autocratic government and forced suppression of dissent.  (not really an economic model but because of current discussion it is relevant and should be forefront in the minds of Americans right now.)

Hmm, next time someone says you can’t call a person a communist, a socialist and a fascist at the same time, educate them a little bit.  If the government is run under one person, based on the rights of the nation, and owns all the property and capital, they are fascist and communist.  Since socialism is defined by Karl Marx as a stepping stone to communism, as in it’s root, then they can also be socialist.

Tomorrow we will talk about attacks on Capitalism from the outside.