f***ing low wages low hours... f*ck capitalism

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I wish I had been born in more of a socialist country.

Yeah, man, I hear ya. "Country" from 1984 with Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard was a downer too, especially when Sam's character tried to talk his friend out of shooting himself (his friend's farm was being foreclosed on and he was sitting in the barn holding a rifle while petting his cat) but was unsuccessful as he saw the cat run out and his friend shot himself.

don't think it is capitalism per-se but more of a crony capitalism where big business and big government are in bed with each other and that created an unsustainable system to where it will come crashing down on the current path we are on.

big business in bed with government=corporatism.

I admit the side of that in me too. I'm caring for Mom with stage IV breast cancer, she and myself are determined to fight it, it is an uphill battle, but people have lived with stage IV for years an years with a fairly good quality of life. I pray she's one of them and my aunt and I are doing research on various way to do so. I can't really hold a job unless I have help in caring for her but I need to earn money on the other hand plus, God forbid, there will be a day I need to provide for myself. Between this and my Asperger's, this puts a lot of hurdles in my path, especially the latter. Heck, my father thinks I'm a loser. There are times I do wish I could get disability and screw it all to be honest. I do have a mercenary side of me, I'll do what it takes to survive, if need to take welfare, I would for the time. At this time right now with my problems, there are times I do wish we were more like Europe, I do believe they have provisions to help caregivers financially unlike here. I do think there should be a welfare system to help those help themselves but what we have is that there are times it is better to stay on it than work for low wages.

I think a huge problem is that we had a period of unbridled prosperity from 1945 to 200x although some rot started in the 1970's onward with the closure of many mills and factories. First, we were the only major power from WWII that had an intact country and industry. The UK was beaten up, Russia took a lot of lumps and more, Italy, Japan and Germany were totally blown to smithereens and more and so on. We had no rivals so we were king of the hill for the longest time. The world did not really catch up to us until the 1970s/1980's, Germany did not recover fully until the 1980's really. So we had a lot of competition plus a lax trading policy so we lost a lot of our manufacturing base and the blue collar workers suffered. We had a computer boom and Reagan's policies that kept things going at least for the white collar workers until the economic crash of 2007/8 or so. The world has caught up to us and in some cases, passing us.

I see two possible futures. One, we need to protect our industries like most other nations do. I know this goes against many of my conservative and libertarian brethern, but what is worse, cheap stuff n one can buy if they have no jobs, or stuff that costs a little more but you have most people working? I'd say the former. People need jobs if they are to live in our society as it is set up right now. Idle hands are the Devil's Workshop as the saying goes. Two, like in Star Trek, or as Milton Friedman advocated, a negative income tax or a guaranteed wage for every citizen. It would be enough for basic house, a basic car and perhaps some things and if you want more, then you can work for it or find your passion and make money that way.

Agreed.

that would save lots of money in the long run.

I might upset some of my more conservative brethern, but I'm beginning to warm up to this idea unless we find some way to improve the job situation in general and for us here as well.

this country has got to disenthrall itself with its short-term financial focus at both the gov't and business levels.

The cruelest part about life in America is the medical system. Many of the people in this forum could really benefit from therapy, but it's extremely expensive. I'm insured, and I still can't afford the co-pays.

As for the "terrors of socialist medicine", every industrialized nation on Earth except America has a nationalized healthcare system. I don't see them stumbling all over themselves to change it to what we've got.

the dynamic going on in America was best described by author john Steinbeck, when he wrote, “Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”
also-
"Don't forget that most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich than face the reality of being poor." - John Dickinson ("1776")
in America, health care is still seen by the middle and upper classes as a privilege of wealth and not a basic human right for every citizen as it is seen in every other western advanced nation. the American working class is widely considered to be mere disposable cogs in the upper class' money-making machine, nothing more than that. we americans still have a lot to learn about common decency.

Reading the recent posts on this thread elicits what I find to be a poignant observation: The worst enemies of capitalism are the capitalists themselves. Unlike socialism, which makes almost everybody poor, capitalism does have the power to lift all boats. The problem is with the greed of the elites in government and big business, which I would argue are one and the same.

Agree with the point here and add immediate results have overtaken long term planning as the prime motivator in business and American life in general.

I agree. One anecdote I find very telling about the short-sighted thinking of liberals is an exchange that allegedly occurred in 1972 between Chou en Lai and Kissinger. Kissinger asked Chou what he thought about the French Revolution, and Chou replied that it is too soon to tell. Modern liberals, of either the left or right varieties can't see beyond the next quarter's profits, or the next election. And it is killing us. It's time for a real change.

Agreed. Both are in bed with each other.

China is more capitalist than the US. If we are going by the economic liberalist definition in this thread.
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Capitalism really is all about the capitalists, everything else that happens are just funny side effects.