R
Robert_Sock
Guest
I’m not sure how to accomplish it but world hunger and poverty needs to end. Everyone can be of use in the economy.
- Status
D
Della
Guest
Yes, but not through hand-outs that solve nothing. Really, you should take a basic course in economics–even a “homemaker’s guide to spending” kind of thing to understand that people need to be productive for the sake of their dignity as well as for their physical benefit. Just handing people money creates generational poverty, the kind we’ve seen right here in the USA. Socialism doesn’t work because there’s no incentive for people to work. Jobs/businesses drive an economy not welfare.
A
ACCT
Guest
You are absolutely correct! *“We are again recognizing the dangers of an over-governed society, coming to understand that good objectives can be perverted by bad means, that reliance on the freedom of people to control their own lives in accordance with their own values is the surest way to achieve the full potential of a great society *(Friedman).”
R
Robert_Sock
Guest
I agree with you. We must create the opportunity for work and education. I agree that free hand outs is not good for a society in general. However, I still believe we need special programs that provide cash to special circumstances, such as with the truly disabled.
R
ricks1948
Guest
Sure but its all right for the oil companies to raise prices to whatever they want. We giive it to them or we walk or freeze. Don’t just give people money, there has to be a better way cause the dictatorial capatilistic system is not working.
You are absolutely correct! “We are again recognizing the dangers of an over-governed society, coming to understand that good objectives can be perverted by bad means, that reliance on the freedom of people to control their own lives in accordance with their own values is the surest way to achieve the full potential of a great society (Friedman).”
S
sedonaman
Guest
Hold on, friend. College tuition has skyrocketed, even after allowing for inflation, but no one talks about “them greedy professors”. The price of oil has not. In fact, when I learned to drive back in the '50s, you could buy a gallon of gas with two silver dimes. Those two silver dimes could still buy a gallon today. So it’s not that oil has gone up but the dollar has gone down.
Have you researched distributism?
R
ricks1948
Guest
No I did not reaserch distibutism, I think the op posted about other means, we have a lot of smart people in this country, but at the same time there’s too much greed, There are a lot of young people not seeing much of a future, some are trying to change things I wish them sucsess. Your oil thing lost me. 4.00 gal gas = greed. tuition? .20 cents gal gas I’ll take it, do it.
D
Della
Guest
We’ve been down this road before and I’ll give you the same answer I did the last time you brought this up. We are NOT talking about exceptional cases here, but redistributing wealth, which means taking it from those who produce to give to those who don’t. Charity means giving to people when they are in need, not supporting them for the rest of their lives when they should be educated and helped so they can support themselves.
Distributism means each person/family owns their property/business/farm, etc. and so do not answer to an employer/landlord/government for what they produce. The phrase was coined by G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc.
There has always been greed. The commandment against coveting one’s neighbor’s goods covers this. It’s not democracy or free enterprise that is bad, but the mismanagement of them, just as fire is not bad, but burning down your neighbor’s house is.
Our government has become over-bloated, as has big business, however socialism isn’t the answer. Rather competition for custom is. We need more small businesses and family farms instead of congolmerates running everything. We need more self-government instead of big government. That is where young people ought to be directing their energies, not in protesting but in doing what will actually make a difference.
A
ACCT
Guest
“The two ideas of human freedom and economic freedom working together came to their greatest fruition in the United States…We have been forgetting the basic truth that the greatest threat to human freedom is the concentration of power, whether in the hands of government or anyone else. We have persuaded ourselves that it is safe to grant power, provided it is for good purposes.”
When you have a monopoly, prices go up and service goes down. You cannot have a mopnoply withoujt the help of the government. The only exception is DeBeers, the diamond company.
A
ACCT
Guest
Amend to that! It is the government that causes inflation, not the oil companies. Oil companies cannot create money out of thin air.
Who causes inflation? “Government and the government alone is responsible for any rapid increase in the quantity of money…Businessmen do not cause inflation (Friedman).”
**Who pays for inflation? ** All holders of money pay for inflation.
**
Is inflation serious?** Inflation is a serious disease that can destroy a society. “There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which **not one man in a million is able to diagnose **(Keynes).”
S
sedonaman
Guest
S
sedonaman
Guest
I didn’t finish editing my response before the time limit expired. Here is my complete response:
“Liberals never accuse you of ‘greed’ for wanting other people’s money – only for wanting to keep your own money.” – columnist Joe Sobran
Leftists think that utopia can be coerced into existence – so no dishonesty or brutality is beyond them in pursuit of that “noble” goal. – Dr. Jon Jay Ray
You are the one who said there must be an alternative to capitalism because it wasn’t working. So research distributionism.
So you are going to cure it by raising taxes on the working class. Sounds like you are envious of them greedy rich people. You can’t personally take away their money, so you lobby the government to do it for you. There are two Commandments against envy, none against greed.
“Liberals never accuse you of ‘greed’ for wanting other people’s money – only for wanting to keep your own money.” – columnist Joe Sobran
So, if you had two of them, you could get $3.82 for them from a collector. The national median for a gallon of gas is about $3.79 today [as of 5/21/12]. If you sell the two dimes for $3.82 and buy a gallon of gas with it, you will have 3 cents change. This illustrates how much the money has been inflated since 1964.
Capisce?
Leftists think that utopia can be coerced into existence – so no dishonesty or brutality is beyond them in pursuit of that “noble” goal. – Dr. Jon Jay Ray
S
sedonaman
Guest
Is there a shortage of educational opportunities in this country [USA]?
“We believe that the school should not create differences between students who know more and students who know less.” – Parents against the Gifted and Talented Education [GATE] program.
S
sedonaman
Guest
Not only property/business/farm, but also shares of companies [via individual stocks, bonds, mutual funds]. Ironically, privatizing social security would have gone a long way to accomplish this. Who fought against it? [Three guesses, and the first two don’t count.]
R
Robert_Sock
Guest
When I spoke about educational opportunities I’m talking worldwide.
P
Portrait
Guest
Dear Robert Sock,
Cordial greetings and a very good day. My sentiments entirely.
There is much nonsense spoken about welfare benefit payments and the widespread abuse of the system, but much of the rhetoric against welfare and the so called ‘workshy’ is mostly politically actuated and designed to secure the middle-class vote. A politician will probably not get elected nowadays unless adopts a hard line on welfare and talks tough when speaking of the recipients of state benefit payments.
Here in the UK the welfare state was created as a safety net for those in need of ‘national assistance’, the former name for welfare payements over here. It was started from the best of intentions but it would be naive to argue that there has not been some abuse of this nobel system. However, successive goverments have exaggerated that abuse to pacify the middle-classes and to assure them that they are on the side of the hard working tax payer. What is so very lamentable is that it has become, in recent years, almost impossible for a politician to speak kindly about the recipients of welfare, without being branded a bleeding heart socialist. That, dear friend, is deplorable in any civilised society like Britain and America and indicates an un-Christian hardening of attitudes, albeit stirred up by government and the ultra right-wing tabloid press.
You are quite correct, dear friend, cash must always be provided for the genuinely disabled, but here in the UK the coalition government have commenced the most unfair and draconian welfare reform programme of any government since the creation of the welfare state. Sadly, many genuine people are being declared, by a flawed system, able and capable for work who are manifestly not able and capable. However, this is what occurs when men harden their hearts unjustly against God’s poor and vulnerable. As Catholics we cannot and should not be among those who oppress the poor and weak in society, rather we should proudly champion their cause and be a voice for them. Caring for the vulnerable and defending their right to benefits has nothing to do with socialism, but is something which transcends party politics because it is fundamentally about being a follower of Christ.
God bless, dear friend.
Warmest good wishes,
Portrait
Pax
R
Robert_Sock
Guest
This will never happen. Who wants such a world that takes us back to the ice age? Individuals cannot compete with the efficiency of corporations. Imagine mass producing a simple box of toothpicks. Who has the innate wit to figure this out? Dstributism is not where the world is headed. The world is headed toward corporatism.
S
sedonaman
Guest
How can you make a statement like this after admitting you didn’t even research what it is?
S
sedonaman
Guest
I for one am tired of reading how cutting government waste is sinful. Christ never said to shovel money into the streets for the poor. I don’t know about the UK, but the US has spent trillions of dollars on the War On Poverty, so why do we still have poverty? Until you can answer that, you should refrain from judging others who are asking some legitimate questions.
“If incomes are equalize, they will be equalized at a low level.” – Economist Vilfredo Pareto, c. 1925
S
sedonaman
Guest
The USA cannot support the whole planet and its desires.
“If incomes are equalized, they will be equalized at a low level.” – Economist Vilfredo Pareto, c. 1925
- Status