To Bail or Not to Bail...

[BlackDragon37]

Aren't you confusing socialist for communist?

In Europe there are multiple Socialist governments doing pretty well.

Isn't communism the end and socialism the means to the end?

 

[Marginal]

The economy wasn't left alone during the Great Depression... the situation was fixed with FDR's New Deal... but as I said in my previous post; it didn't really fix the problem; it just postponed it so that the market could crash again a few decades later.

Mainly because of later pressure in FDR's term to also balance the budget.

You think the current economic crisis is because the government left the econmy to itself? WRONG! The current economic crisis is because the government WOULDN'T leave the economy to itself. Government interference is the problem.

That's why they deregulated lending practices etc? In either case IMO it's a weak distinction since they've always regulated the market to some degree. It's never been "free". A free market just gives way to monopolies.

Name me ONCE in the history of the world, where a government rooted in socialism has survived. You can read from my previous statements, that I am completely against socialism. Socialism means MAJOR government intervention; everything is run by the government. When the Iron Curtain of Russia fell; people finally got a clear view of what socialism means; we were all lead to believe that socialism and government intervention leads to a better run country.

Plenty of countries get by just fine with socialism to varying degrees. You muddle it when you confuse socialism with communism.

 

[Archangel]

People don't even know what the hell those words mean. They hear Republicans throw them around a lot and they get scared and go "OH SHIT! SOCIALISM! COMMUNISM! IT'S THE COMING OF THE ANTI-CHRIST!" Meanwhile Obama's like, "Um, can we just get the economy going please?"

 

[iKotomi]

Mainly because of later pressure in FDR's term to also balance the budget.

Umm...we fought a war. The increase in spending from that war was the primary reason why America pulled out of the recession. Not exactly balancing a budget.

That's why they deregulated lending practices etc? In either case IMO it's a weak distinction since they've always regulated the market to some degree. It's never been "free". A free market just gives way to monopolies.

Government is quite honestly the largest reason why there are monopolies. Sure there are some natural monopolies involved with prohibitive start-up costs, but the majority of monopolies exist because of barriers to entry, regulations, and patents. Look at a place like Hong Kong where there are even less regulations of the above sort, and you see that it free markets and monopolies are pretty much mutually exclusive.

 

[Marginal]

Umm...we fought a war. The increase in spending from that war was the primary reason why America pulled out of the recession. Not exactly balancing a budget.

Umm... Kinda tangential. Usually when the new deal is mentioned, it's blamed for only putting problems off, or extending the depression. The balanced budget stuff put in crimp in some of the new deal policies.

Government is quite honestly the largest reason why there are monopolies. Sure there are some natural monopolies involved with prohibitive start-up costs, but the majority of monopolies exist because of barriers to entry, regulations, and patents. Look at a place like Hong Kong where there are even less regulations of the above sort, and you see that it free markets and monopolies are pretty much mutually exclusive.

Ok. So once we do away with intellectual properties (among other pesky noncompetitive practices like anti pollution statutes etc), we'll have a free market for the first time ever?