Richest 2% own more than half the world - study

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  1. #21

    Capitalism

    I think most people accept that capitalism, putting it politely, is flawed. he best chance we have is adjusting the system we have.

    To be honest I would prefer this than unabated socialism or communism. Some of tthe great economic mistakes has been made during socialist / communist dictatorhsips - for example the Great Leap Forward in China left the country in rack and ruin and millions died of starvation.


  2. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by PDLM:
    You're closer to 20 than to 40 aren't you?
    Not at all. I just haven't stopped caring. That's all.

    Actually I don't think that people who cared at 20 stop caring at 40. It's just that as they get older, most people stop trying to change the system, or expecting the system to change.

    Those who don't care at 40 are people who didn't even care when they were 20. There are plenty of people like that, and I guess that you, howard_roark, etc. are among them...

    matanica66: every year in capitalist countries 10,000,000 children die of preventable diseases. How many people died during the Great Leap Forward in China?

  3. #23

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    Quote Originally Posted by nina_70:
    Yup, that does illustrate it nicely. We're close to 40 and our 2 cats are named Taggart & Rand...nuff said.
    Suddenly a fear strikes - my avatar name could also be used to identify felines!!

  4. #24

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    So, Mr Rastaman, what is your wonderful solution that is better than capitalism?

    Socialism has failed (repeatedly - see Russia, China, Various Central American countries, Cuba, ...)
    Authoritarianism has failed (with teh one exception of a small city called Singapore, and that doesn't scale well)
    ...


  5. #25

    Capitalism with a very strong welfare state, taxes on the trade of currency (as proposed by someone a long time ago, I don't remember whom), true accounting of environmental goods, and various other things to re-distribute resources, including between countries.

    And I am not so sure socialism has failed in Cuba, or that any other central American country except Cuba ever had socialism.

    Yes, I think authoritarianism is wrong, including in Singapore.


  6. #26

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    a heavily welfared state tend to have the system abused by people who wants to take advantage of the freebies.

    how to implement it then ?


  7. #27

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    Quote Originally Posted by PDLM:
    You're closer to 20 than to 40 aren't you?
    i'm forty, so whatever. cliches about age as related to maintaining the status quo are lame and self serving. i still care for those less fortunate than myself. certainly more than arrogant expats who fail to recognize the value of what they have.

  8. #28

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    Quote Originally Posted by punk:
    i'm forty, so whatever. cliches about age as related to maintaining the status quo are lame and self serving. i still care for those less fortunate than myself. certainly more than arrogant expats who fail to recognize the value of what they have.
    Who said anything about maintaining the status quo? Or not caring about those less fortunate than themselves?

    In my view global trade and capitalism are the least bad system anyone has yet come up with for redistributing wealth. "State managed redistribution systems" have a terrible record and a huge "wastage rate" (i.e. a huge proportion of the sums allegedly being redistributed disappear into the costs of running the system). I suspect that the "commercially managed" funds of people like Gates, Soros, etc. will do somewhat better. Moreover, a very substantial part of the problem in poorer countries is to do with corruption and greed on the part of the powerful people in those countries, and this is totally independent of the political or social system in place.

  9. #29

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    Quote Originally Posted by PDLM:
    This thread does, I suspect, illustrate nicely one of Churchill's excellent sayings:

    "The man who is not a socialist at 20 has no heart, but if he is still a socialist at 40 then he has no brain".
    Not from Churchill, actually:

    An orphan quote sometimes attributed to Georges Clemenceau is:
    Any man who is not a socialist at age 20 has no heart.
    Any man who is still a socialist at age 40 has no head.
    The most likely reason is that Bennet Cerf once reported Clemenceau's response to a visitor's alarm about his son being a communist:
    If he had not become a Communist at 22, I would have disowned him.
    If he is still a Communist at 30, I will do it then.
    George Seldes later quoted Lloyd George as having said:
    A young man who isn't a socialist hasn't got a heart;
    an old man who is a socialist hasn't got a head.
    The earliest known version of this observation is attributed to mid-nineteenth century historian and statesman François Guizot:
    Not to be a republican at 20 is proof of want of heart;
    to be one at 30 is proof of want of head.
    Variations on this theme were later attributed to Disraeli, Shaw, Churchill, and Bertrand Russell. (I misquoted Churchill to this effect for years.)

    Source: "Nice Guys Finish Seventh: False Phrases, Spurious Sayings, and Familiar Misquotations" by Ralph Keyes, 1992.

  10. #30

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    the matter of being compensionate to the underpreviledge is one thing, the matter of jumping around emotionally fighting a confused battle is another.

    a person of 20 tend to be the latter, whereas when you grow to 40 and have seen enough you'd know whether certain things can be done or cannot be done.


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