: Actually I prefer freedom to equality.
: You can't have both, because
: some people, according
: to REASON and the behavior of most people,
: are less valuable than others.Your "REASON" is not true reason, but a capitalist subversion of it. In capitalism, the value of a person is measured by his/her ability to make money - i.e., his/her ruthlessness. We have the capability, and therefore the duty, to use a more evenhanded definition of reason - why not "a situation in which the most number of people benefit"? Capitalism surely does not fit this description.
: I often tell those who want to save
: the world, to please
: do it with their own effort and money
: and keep their paws out of my pockets
: and their whip off my back.
Is using your money for your own personal gain the only worthwhile way to spend it? What is good for the individual is almost never good for the whole. I am not saying all of your money should go towards common use - but a percentage of everyone's income is needed to level the playing field and improve society, if not save the world.
: Welfare (in any guise: subsidy, food stamps
: regulation, monopoly franchise, inflation
: Medicare and Medicaid, SS, etc.)
: is slave (forced) labor.
It is interesting that you fail to mention corporate welfare, which is infinitely more costly. The difference is that in a capiltalist system, the power lies in big corporations, and politicians aren't stupid - they will lay the blame on defenseless social welfare recipients, for whom very few people care, and avoid the real perpetrators, those who would hide their own schemes in guises like NAFTA or GATT, which are supposed to benefit the working person but instead can only benefit shareholders and protect property rights.
: People who are
: productive (who earn their way) turn
: over their income, by threat of force
: via the IRS and Congress, to people who
: have not (the unearned).
The state should be an instrument of the people. Rights are not something you must earn, and you cannot tell me that basic needs are privileges When most of the people are disadvantaged, the resources must allocate whatever funds they receive towards programs benefiting them if the state wants to be regarded as a democracy.
: That is the evil, the immoral. In America,
: we are born into a contractual "debt" to
: the poor imposed from above.
Imposed from above? Who is above? (And check for sentence fragments.) The answer is corporations, and they are not about to impose anything that loosens their grip on the reigns of power, like welfare. This means that welfare must be begged for, not "imposed," from below, from the people that benefit from it. It is not evil for a democracy to provide for its people in a way that the population deems just.
: What we have is not really capitalism.
: We have built a welfare state, a mixed economy.
: Although in the 1800s we had something
: resembling a free market economy,
: We NEVER had a FREE market system
: in the USA. We never had capitalism.
Imagine the state of affairs if we had!
: We never fully protected private property rights
: in America.
Priorities!!!!!! If you try to think in terms other than monetary, what is really more important? The fence surrounding your yard or the people on the other side of that fence? It is a simple decision - if you had an iota of compassion you must choose the welfare of others.
: Today, we live in a bloated, corrupt, special
: interest, welfare state, suffering under the
: new schemes piled on top of
: the remains of past failed corporate and social
: welfare schemes. All of these new
: ideas for stealing money from
: poeple are medieval even ancient, much like a two-headed
: Sheriff of Knoddingham and Robin Hood creature.
I couldn't agree more. The question is, "What are we going to replace the bloated system with?" (And your use of commas needs work.)
: Over the years we have built such infrastructure
: for corruption in the form of the "progressive"
: tax codes, transfer payments, subsidies,
: the Leviathan of the "great" state.
The only bad thing about these programs is the length of time they take to go into effect - bureaucracy is slowed down remarkably by the "prosperous few" kicking and screaming to keep their boots on the necks of honest people.
: Obviously private property is not respected
: in the United States by the unthinking mob.
Unthinking? I could easier call you unfeeling. Which is worse? Private property seems to be the root of a lot of problems - for one, the "us vs. them" way of thinking that you can't get enough of.
: The government, by rule of the mob and by way of
: well placed lobbyists
: violates our rights,
: and takes what it wants all in the name of
: egalitarianism or progress or
: whatever dunderhead term is the excuse for
: stealing our incomes by the stroke of a
: pen in the middle of the night.
If the "mob" you keep reffering to is supposed to mean the majority, then you are obviously an enemy of democracy.
: Of course, it must be said that
: America is the freest, noblest,
: greatest country on earth whose mixed economy
: has been and is more capitalist than most,
: has produced the very highest
: standard of living in terms of
: both material wealth (even for those who
: don't deserve it)
: and individual liberty (even for
: those who don't know what that it.
Again, I agree - but why stop here?
: We may someday reach that unknown
: ideal of Capitalism, and when we do
: Disneyland will look like a bad rest
: stop in New Jersey in by comparison.
Capitalism cannot be the ideal of a democratic state, because it gives all the power to a few - and these few are in charge not because of their merit, but because of their GREED. (And I'm from New Jersey!)
: A CLUE for you:
: Read ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand.
A better CLUE for you:
Take a look around.
None.
