Thread: An Attack Rumor

Originally Posted by Hercuflea

Oh really? Well if it's not socialism, then its straight up communism.

No. Communism involves the withering away of the central state (at least, the more authoritarian leftists believe that, one of which I'm not), so having a large government would be pretty contradictory.


http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx...festo/ch02.htm

The Communist Manifesto was written in 1848, and most leftists (and I don't mean liberals, but actual class-strugglist leftists) don't see it as still completely relevant. Either way, it's not the Bible, why not pick and choose?

Originally Posted by Hercuflea

By the way...the government IS controlling the means of production.

And I'm not advocating that.

Originally Posted by Hercuflea

They just bought the biggest Auto production company in the country! They have been running Amtrak for a long time, and now its broke and nobody rides it, but because the government is by definition a financial parasite it will not get rid of it. The government cannot create production, it can only facilitate it, and thats the best scenario. In all other cases the government is spending more money than is created by its expenditures. It taxes the private sector.

Once again, I agree with that because I'm not arguing for a big government.

Originally Posted by Alric

It is socialism. We have taxes up to 50 percent of our income, when you factor everything in, and the government is trying to get control of most of the economy. Like Hercuflea pointed out, they already own large production companies, and they are trying to get their hands on more.

If you want to call that socialism, then fine, call it socialism. But that isn't what I support.

Originally Posted by Catbus

No. Communism involves the withering away of the central state (at least, the more authoritarian leftists believe that, one of which I'm not), so having a large government would be pretty contradictory.

That is what they say should eventually happen, but it is not part of the definition. Everybody nation that has ever tried "communism" has had an enormously powerful (over its people) government headed by a ruthless dictator. Scaring the bejesus out of the public is the only way they have been able to get anybody to work. Even that has been extremely weak compared to capitalism. When it comes to advancing inventiveness and quality work, there is no substitute for greed. If somebody thinks he/she knows of one, I would love to hear about it.