Socialism vs Capitalism containment thread

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[Ozzie guy]

USSR vs USA
Military spending, GDP PPP, GDP PPP Per Capita, Population.

Key dates on ideology
1922 economy is state capitalist rapidly recovering from wars etc
in 1928 the economy has a capitalist recession and government decides now is the time for a planned economy
1956 Marxists say country no longer run by Marxists
1985 Gorbachev government in power which I think most people view as a liberal
1988 private sector is back

[eacao]

The last three years have been the biggest cash grab that I've ever read or heard about.

It has been insane, and it's insane to me that the public has, in net terms, just been indifferent.

[Powers]

The last three years have been the biggest cash grab that I've ever read or heard about.

It has been insane, and it's insane to me that the public has, in net terms, just been indifferent.

Elaborate.

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

I never actually got around to reading any of the works of Antonio Gramsci. Still, I do remember a lot of articles and writings in which he was cited. His theorizing had a profound influence upon socialist thinking. He was important in his advocacy of shifting away from an emphasis on revolutionary transformation in favor of organizing with more evolutionary goals in mind. A recent article in Counterpunch reviews his theoretical contributions to socialism as many understand it today:

https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/08/07 ... ovements/

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

One of the arguments put forward in defense of capitalism is that social and environmental ills can be addressed through voluntaristic approaches in which the wealthy contribute substantial shares of their wealth to the nonprofit sector. The article below points out how problematic this approach can be. Problems discussed include:

1. The relatively small amount of actual donations.

2. In many cases only a small fraction of funds donated actually get spent.

3. Various schemes render this potentially less effective, such as high salaried positions within foundations and non-profit organizations that are filled by donors. Donations can become merely a way of avoiding or at least deferring taxation.

4. Some nonprofits actually have a negative net benefit. For example, when they spread disinformation regarding climate change and other such problems.

5. Related to this fourth point is that such giving can merely be a way of exerting further financial, soclal, and political power.

Here is an introduction to the article and a link:

Those “Giving Pledge” Billionaires Had Better Pick Up the Pace
by Michael Mechanic
November 28, 2023

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) As the author of a book about runaway wealth in America, I’ve thought a fair bit about the Giving Pledge, the exclusive do-gooder club Bill and Melinda French Gates launched in 2010 with their pal Warren Buffett and 37 other billionaires, all vowing to give away the majority of their fortunes.

Now that the pledge has been around more than a decade, one can reasonably ask what progress its members have made toward their goal. As we’ll soon see, most of them have made very little.

In some respects, the whole enterprise feels like a bit of a scam. Not in the legal sense—though at least one former pledger was recently convicted of financial fraud and a current member took a federal plea deal to escape prosecution for the same.

I mean a scam in the sense of a self-selected group of excessively wealthy people—some of whom have made their fortunes in problematic ways and likely most of whom have used extreme strategies to avoid taxation—burnishing their reputations even as they exercise undemocratic influence over matters of public interest.

And maybe they stick to the pledge and maybe they don’t—or maybe they stick to it by bankrolling very, very bad causes. Because the Giving Pledge asks neither where its members’ money came from nor where it’s going.

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... -funds/

[caltrek]

We Can Have Either Billionaires or Democracy. Not Both.
by Sonali Kolhatcar
December 5, 2023

Introduction:

(Counterpunch) As we count down toward the 2024 general election, we should expect to hear from media pundits about candidates and their viability, swing states and the electoral college, likely voters and poll results, and much more. Occasionally we may hear about some issues of importance. Most likely, we will hear little about the urgent need for wealth redistribution in the United States. Extreme inequality remains an invisible scourge underlying so much of what ails society and, even when discussed, is touted as an unavoidable and inevitable outcome of our economy.

However, there is abundant evidence that wealth inequality is the product of intentional design and the idea that what is good for billionaires is good for society. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Switzerland-based global bank UBS just released its 2023 Billionaire Ambitions report and concluded, “For the first time in nine editions of the report, billionaires have accumulated more wealth through inheritance than entrepreneurship.” Benjamin Cavalli, Head of Strategic Clients at UBS Global Wealth Management said, “This is a theme we expect to see more of over the next 20 years, as more than 1,000 billionaires pass an estimated [$5.2 trillion] to their children.”

That’s more than the economy of the entire United Kingdom. It’s more than the economies of Canada and Mexico combined.

The UBS report was not a critical one and hardly blinked an eye about the obscenity of wealth being hoarded in dynasties. About half of all billionaires around the world use UBS’s banking services, so the bank merely analyzed the investment habits of its most important clients. It did so candidly, referring to “the great wealth transfer” from one generation to the next, avoiding mention of the wealth transfer from the majority of the public to an elite minority.

Read more here: https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/12/0 ... ot-both/

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

The National Debt, Tax Farming and Patent Monopolies
Dean Baker
December 22, 2023

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) It increasingly looks like the Fed and the Biden administration have nailed the notoriously difficult soft landing, with inflation rapidly falling towards the Fed’s 2.0 percent target and the unemployment rate still under 4.0 percent. All the signs are that the economy will continue to grow and create jobs at a healthy pace in 2024 and that inflation will remain moderate for the foreseeable future.

With near-term economic prospects looking pretty damn good, we can be sure that the deficit hawks will soon be coming out of the woodwork. We can count on being regaled with talk of unprecedented levels of debt and deficits. We will hear of the need for cutting Social Security and Medicare, or cries for the creation of another deficit commission, which is the backdoor way of cutting Social Security and Medicare.

Since we all know what’s coming, we should arm ourselves with knowledge of tax farming. You’re probably wondering what tax farming is, and what it has to do with our current debt and deficit situation. In an odd way, it can tell us a great deal about how we should think about our deficits and especially our debt.

Tax farming was the practice of selling off the right to collect a specific tax. It was a common practice in pre-revolutionary France and in many other countries in prior centuries. The idea was that the government set a tax, say a customs duty on the goods that came through a specific port, and then sold off the right to collect the tax to a specific person. This gave the government an immediate infusion of cash, although it meant that it did not have access to the future revenue from the tax.

We actually still have similar practices. For example, back in 2008, Chicao’s then mayor, Richard M. Daley, sold off the right to collect revenue from city parking meters for the next 75 years for $1.16 billion. This gave Daley money to pay the bills in 2008 but cut off a stream of revenue to the city for the next seven and a half decades.

Read more here: https://www.eurasiareview.com/22122023 ... analysis/

caltrek: Why does this belong in this thread?

Well, tax farming is generally favored, or at least tolerated, by pro-business conservatives because of the opportunity for private sector profit.

Retaining control of revenue generating mechanisms to fund government is more socialistic in nature.

[wjfox]

[raklian]

Yikes.

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

From Argentina to the United States, Libertarians Come to Destroy the Common Good
by Thom Hartmann
January 30, 2024

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) Please name one country, anywhere in the world, any time in the last 7000 years, where libertarianism has succeeded and produced general peace and prosperity? There literally is none. Nowhere. Not a single one. It has never happened. Ever.

Usually it’s Republican politicians bragging that they’re “more libertarian than conservative” but this time it’s a former Democrat, Bobby Kennedy Jr., who’s reportedly thinking of running for president on the Libertarian Party ticket.

This bizarre experiment of libertarianism — now officially a political party with ballot access in all 50 states — has been promoted by the billionaire class ever since World War II. And it’s literally killing some of us, along with threatening our democratic republic.

Reporter Mark Ames documents how, back in the 1940s, a real estate lobbying group came up with the idea of creating a new political party to justify deregulating the real estate and finance industries so they could make more money.

This new “Libertarian Party” would give an ideological and political cover to their goal of becoming government-free, and they developed an elaborate pretense of governing philosophy around it.

Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/f ... mon-good

caltrek's comments: One of the more startling revelations of the uncited portion of the article is that Ayn Rand admired a psychopath who kidnapped, held for ransom and then killed the daughter of a banker.

[wjfox]

libertarianism

The most selfish ideology on earth.

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[firestar464]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/compani ... r-BB1itgEC

Are We Transitioning From Capitalism to Silicon Serfdom?