ColdWarBaby

So, let me get this straight; when working people are stricken with hardship caused by circumstances completely beyond their control, natural disaster, costly medical emergency, job loss, disabling injury or the complete collapse of the economy, which they have supported with their labor all their lives, they should not be assisted by the government, which exists solely by their will and at their expense, because that is socialism and that is EVIL and would hurt everyone.

However, if giant corporations and financial institutions, which exist for the sole purpose of making a very few individuals extremely wealthy, should find themselves facing a catastrophe, involving insolvency, loss of profit and total failure, all precipitated by their own fatal flaws, psychopathic avarice, blind self-interest and terminal stupidity, the government should use taxes, paid by the worker described above, to provide massive welfare payments to said corporations and institutions because that is the free market and that is GOOD and would help everyone.

Is there anybody out there who does not understand this? It should be perfectly clear. The market, which sucks the life and vitality from everyone and everything, except a small number of insiders, should be left alone. It will magically fix everything as long as no one interferes with it. There is, in fact, far too much regulation being applied even now to what is a perfect, self-regulating, self-correcting, omnipotent, invisible force of total benevolence. As long as no one interferes with the market in any way, everything will be absolutely wonderful, someday.

Really.

So, get a grip people. Settle down in your cozy cardboard boxes. Make yourselves at home under the freeway overpass. Run for mayor of your tent city. Everything will be fine, eventually.

I promise.

In many third world countries there are small, guarded communities of the wealthy minority. They are gated, walled and protected by armed sentries. They have electricity, hot and cold running water, cable television, high speed internet service and all the comforts that wealth can provide.

The rest of the populace lives in varying degrees of poverty and squalor from shabby apartments, for those fortunate enough to secure actual jobs, to squalid shanty towns populated by people who have no access to basic sanitation, potable water or adequate nutrition.

This, it would seem, is the goal that has been set by the capitalist rulers of amerika. Oases of wealth and opulence populated by the fortunate few, guarded by the likes of Blackwater and supported by the slave labor of the remaining populace surrounding them in an ocean of poverty.

But really, that will just be a transition phase. It won’t be long before the market corrects. Soon everyone will be lifted by the invisible hand. All ships will be raised on the rising tide of free market prosperity.

Trust me.

For Whom The Bell Tolls

Capitalism has and will always fail simply because it ennobles wrong-doing. It is, allegedly, based on the negative concept of competition rather than the positive one of cooperation. It rewards the best liars, cheats and thieves and elevates them according to their ability to exploit and oppress those who are honest and hardworking. Capitalism has a built in self destruct mechanism that can’t be eliminated. It’s part of the system.

Anyone who can voice any defenses whatever for any aspect of capitalism at this point is beyond delusional. Try completely psychopathic. "The proof of the pudding" as they say. We've had this trickle down bullshit shoved down our throats long enough, centuries in fact. Noblesse Oblige is a myth.

It's true that government interference is largely responsible for the current disaster we’re facing. Can you say deregulation? That’s what has allowed the criminals who run corporate/fascist amerika and wall street to do whatever the hell they please with absolutely no thought of any consequences. Even after driving the country into complete bankruptcy and collapse they are being handed something like $2.5 trillion, probably a lot more, to make sure they won’t suffer any undue inconvenience or discomfort from the catastrophe they caused.

After virtually millennia of repeating the same mistakes you might expect rational beings to “get it”. Apparently this isn’t true. The human race seems content to keep repeating the same cycle of exploitation, oppression and bloody revolution over and over ad nauseam.

R.W. Posner