There is a certain base level of virtue necessary for a society to properly function. However, our society has mocked, deconstructed, equivalenced, flipped, excused, coopted, and discarded most of the essential virtues.
Who is teaching things like Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temprence without a bit of embarrassment for endorsing such corny thinking, or throwing in a sneer or two?
"You win 100% of the fights you avoid. If you're not there when it happens, you don't lose." - William Aprill
"I've owned a guitar for 31 years and that sure hasn't made me a musician, let alone an expert. It's made me a guy who owns a guitar."- BBI
Both unfettered socialism and unfettered capitalism assumes the best of human nature. A socialist or communist utopia assumes that we're all going to be happy to contribute to society, chip in what we can, take no more than we need, sing kumbayah and be a big happy family.
A capitalist utopia assumes that corporations are likeable mom-n-pop shops on a grander scale, you're paid what you're worth cuz if your boss won't pay it someone else will, nobody tries to screw anybody over on wages or prices because the market always regulates itself anyway, and we all sing kumbayah and be a big happy family.
Like many things, the truth is somewhere in the middle. But at least capitalists have a little bit better grasp on reality, in that if you contribute nothing you get nothing, and people do need an incentive to outperform everyone else (that incentive is usually money, if you weren't aware).
Last edited by Darth_Uno; 02-21-2023 at 04:50 PM.
I wish I could take my own advice more often, but here goes: there is a small circle of things you can see and influence, and a really big circle of things you can see, but can't influence. Concentrate on the former.
Schools, religious organizations, coffee shops, libraries parks, soup kitchens, etc. There are lots of places for the civic minded that would love a set of extra hands, or could use a bit of leadership.
I don't think I'll ever have a say in Congress. I simply wasn't born in the right family and didn't make the correct life choices. So, I can fret about that, or I can pick up litter at the playground. Maybe not as glorious, but there's a difference made, I get some sunshine and maybe meet a new neighbor.
"It was the fuck aroundest of times, it was the find outest of times."- 45dotACP
Sigh,... I believe the U.S. is the best lookin' horse in the guy factory for government at this point. As has already been said, I think we are left to try and make ourselves the best we can be (focusing more on the process than the outcome) and try to help others around us do the same. There may come a time when reality sets in and competent people will be needed to keep things going and will be rewarded accordingly. All the virtue signaling BS in the world won't keep the water and electricity flowing. But yeah, things are currently a mess, but with pockets of sanity in some places I think.
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
No one is coming. It is up to us.
Much agreed. It's a point I brought up on a different site- and was accused of being the usual things (Cuck RINO traitor coward) because I was against a 'Stalin style purge' or going full Pinochet.Originally Posted by Joe S
I politely asked that if they didn't understand the principles behind our Constitution, or if they thought those to be useless, then maybe stop pretending to be a supporter.
"You win 100% of the fights you avoid. If you're not there when it happens, you don't lose." - William Aprill
"I've owned a guitar for 31 years and that sure hasn't made me a musician, let alone an expert. It's made me a guy who owns a guitar."- BBI
You're right.
I'm afraid the majority of those moderns who champion CRT, DEI and other WOKEisms, and who classify everyone according to cis-trans* categories, don't care about, and have mostly never even heard of those virtues, yet they're called Cardinal Virtues for a reason; all other desirable human qualities hinge upon their possession, and without their presence in some measure, nothing worthwhile can be accomplished.
*Those of us who studied Organic Chemistry half a century ago resent the co-opting of our scientific language by the gender-obsessed.
"Therefore, since the world has still... Much good, but much less good than ill,
And while the sun and moon endure, Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure,
I'd face it as a wise man would, And train for ill and not for good." -- A.E. Housman
^^^I’ll go with this, myself.
”But in the end all of these ideas just manufacture new criminals when the problem isn't a lack of criminals.” -JRB
So, how many of us are ready to step up and take it on the chin to right things?
Not very many I would wager. Because, as much as many of us piss and moan things haven't really impacted us (the corporate us) enough to hurt.
And, some of us are loathe to speak to loudly or forcefully because we are slaves to the 401K's. Yeah, I'd like to see things reset, but quite frankly not to the point that my retirement disappears. I'm sure I'm not the only one in that boat.
I think I may be a Socialist because aI agree with a lot of what Bernie the Commie says in this article (linked from RCP):
https://www.thenation.com/article/so...ut-capitalism/
...I can tell you as a United States senator that the issue of inequality rarely, if ever, gets sufficient attention on the floors of Congress. While we are very good at renaming post offices and acknowledging Super Bowl winners, we don’t often get around to discussing the reality that, after adjusting for inflation, the average worker in America is making roughly $43 a week less today than she made 50 years ago. Think about that. Think about the huge increases in worker productivity that we have seen in the past five decades.....
...rom the end of World War II until the late 1970s, according to the Economic Policy Institute, increased productivity and increased pay for workers ran roughly parallel. Since then, the measures have parted ways. Between 1979 and 2020, worker net productivity increased by 61.8 percent, while worker hourly pay increased by just 17.5 percent. What happened? “Starting in the late 1970s, policymakers began dismantling all the policy bulwarks helping to ensure that typical workers’ wages grew with productivity,” explain the analysts at the EPI. “Excess unemployment was tolerated to keep any chance of inflation in check. Raises in the federal minimum wage became smaller and rarer. Labor law failed to keep pace with growing employer hostility toward unions. Tax rates on top incomes were lowered. And anti-worker deregulatory pushes—from the deregulation of the trucking and airline industries to the retreat of anti-trust policy to the dismantling of financial regulations and more—succeeded again and again.” Instead of increased productivity translating into increased pay and shorter workweeks, Wall Street investors made off with the cash in one of the biggest heists in the history of the American economy.
That heist transformed the lives of the very rich, allowing them to pursue their wildest dreams—even if those dreams involved building rockets and flying into space. But for the working families that were left on Earth, horizons narrowed. They had to work harder for less. They lived on the margins, struggling to get by. When inflation was surging in 2021 and 2022, many found they could no longer make it. A survey of 500 parents by the nonprofit advocacy group Parents Together Action found that about 41 percent said they’ve had to get a new job or work more hours to make ends meet. About 48 percent said they could no longer afford enough food for their family. And almost half of parents who report they are struggling to afford food now that the government has discontinued the expanded monthly Child Tax Credit payments say they have skipped meals so their children have enough to eat.
Is it any surprise that, around the same time that the Parents Together Action survey came out, a June 2022 survey of over 1,000 Americans from the Decision Lab found that a whopping 77 percent of respondents reported anxiety about their financial situation? For many families, there’s a sense that—no matter how hard they work—they’ll never catch up.
I'm sure the folks contacted by the pollsters in the highlighted portion of the above excerpt are in a lower income group than most of us are, we haven't felt their pain yet. I'm sorry to say that I think by the time we (the corporate we of PF) hurt that much it will be a repeat of this:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
—Martin Niemöller
Last edited by DDTSGM; 02-21-2023 at 11:41 PM.
Adding nothing to the conversation since 2015....
One might ask how much of that anxiety about one's financial situation is due to the apprehension that the government is going to take their finances? To leave us with nothing and enforced happiness?
Some of the problems we face is because we are taking money from working people and giving it to a buffet of parasites- political cronies being the worst of all. Let Bernie have his way, and we'd get a lot more of the same. He is a guy who praises the USSR, Venezuela, and Cuba after all.
"You win 100% of the fights you avoid. If you're not there when it happens, you don't lose." - William Aprill
"I've owned a guitar for 31 years and that sure hasn't made me a musician, let alone an expert. It's made me a guy who owns a guitar."- BBI
I'm not sure a lot of the problems perceived as capitalism aren't more accurately seen as a result of corporations.
As an aside, it's also important to note that many people mean "free market" when they say "capitalism". Economically, the distinction is more about free markets versus centralized control. The challenges with free markets are usually incomplete information for consumers -- leading to fraud -- and tendencies for monopolies to develop. There are just products and services with inherent network effects that naturally become monopolies. Think telephone companies in the 1960s/70s and many technology services today.
Centralized control has demonstrated its own limitations. Most obviously, it stifles innovation and progress. It is nowhere near as efficient at aligning demand and supply as free markets. It creates overwhelming incentives for the centralized planners to enrich themselves.
What we call "crony capitalism" is often a combination of the worst aspects of free markets and managed economies. Central planners enrich themselves by allying with entities to pervert the market. They accomplish this by awarding government contracts corruptly or "managing" the economy through regulations that favor certain parties.
Want to completely lose faith in our government? Go check the salary of a Senator or Congressperson, then check their net worth. Ask how that happens. Now go look at timelines comparing their investment choices and key legislation affecting certain industries.
Corporations are a legal construct -- an organization that is treated legally like a "person". However, the structure of corporations dilutes accountability. Practically speaking, government can't put a whole corporation in prison like an individual when the corporation does illegal things. The complicated reporting structures allow management to plausibly claim ignorance. We think CEOs should go to prison when corporations do evil things but we all know only a small percentage of the most egregious offenders do.
Yes, government could dissolve a corporation for offenses. The optics of putting people out of work because of lawbreaking management is bad, though. So government fines and maybe changes a regulation here or there. And, of course, those regulations will change in ways that benefit somebody -- see crony capitalism.
Reply With Quote