Chancellor Merkel compares USA under Trump with late USSR

Bingo.

 

Absolutely. The laws of demand and supply, and markets, would not operate in a communist society. Human beings would act consistently in ways we've nit seen.

 

These communes can certainly avoid any competition from Capitalism if they really choose to do so. The Amish have certainly given it a good try.

However it has always been a foolish idea and always will be. Christianity, as a philosophy, is a far superior idea..

 

The Soviet Union and China were two huge disasters visited on human beings in the 20th Century. You'd think we'd learn.

 

So far, it seems we have. There are just a few who are young, naive, whatever, and don't quite get it.

 

No mate, you prefer ideology.

The reality is that communism creates a society riven with hierarchies.
What class was Stalin? Ruling class.

Aristocracy got replaced with "party members".

Gulag class, lol.

 

Yes mate. We think you'd learn.

 

They're the ones who are speaking out but there are many older ones who should know better. We have made incredible advancements in human knowledge but often little in the way of human beliefs.

 

College students, and many others, were carrying Mao's Little Red Book around with them and flaunting their anti Americanism in demonstrations and parades. The only difference now is that they seem less literate.

 

The difference now is that less eye witnesses are able to explain this to them.
The connection between words on paper and reality is becoming lost.

Memories are forgot.

And each new generation is doomed to repeat the errors of the past.

And so we teach our children never to forget. Knowing that in the end, they still will.


Sooner or later some bright spark is going to think what he thinks has never been thought before.
That it wasn't true socialism and that he could do it right.

And then it will start all over again.

 

Ever thus. So much for communism's "new man" who looks a lot like all the others.

I don't know if the famous "checks and balances" are an effective check on the Executive (therein lies the bureaucracy).

Whoa! The Presidency (Executive) is where the bureaucracy resides. The left is trying to strengthen the Executive.

The Middle is getting weaker all the time. What we need to do is strengthen their ability to get a better return for their labor. Some people would suggest beefing up unions, but there are others ways to get to the same place.

Without an adequate income, the Middle increasingly relies on government for basic needs--retirement income, health care, etc.

 

We're unlearning the lesson by blurring the line between liberals and socialists. I submit both sides of the political spectrum contribute to the problem. Sanders calls himsrlf a socialist when in fact he never calls for collectivizing production, while rightwingers are calling anyone who wants to provide a government benefit a "socialist."

 

You don't know me. I've been on a union executive and on the board of a conservative political party.

So who disagrees?

 

Very few college kids carried around Mao's BS back in the day (I was taking university courses during the period). That said, the lessons have to be learned by every generation.

 

"We?" There are other people as stupid as you are in thinking I'm a leftwinger?

 

You are a red pill.
An apologist for socialism. A denier of it's history.
You seek to permeate the ideal and revise it's history.


And no, you don't strike me as right wing, I'm sorry.
Being a unionist might explain your socialist sympathies or chime with them in some way. But really, I don't seek to dissect and rebutt your life.
I'd rather just go on the ideas we have discussed.

 

I taught history for decades and I'm a peer-reviwed historian. I have university training in economics. You have no clue what you're talking about.

I'm not a reactionary like you.

I don't have socialist sympathies. Why are you a reactionary?

 

I react against Socialism because of it's history.
No other reason except the historical results of socialists attempts to bring about a utopian society.

I see where Socialism takes people and it is a place I do not wish to go.

This however is not in any way reactionary. It is the social and political norm worldwide to not wish for socialism.
On the contrary, Socialists are the reactionaries, we are the status quo.


Qualifications
I teach every subject up to GCSE except French, Greek and German.
I am a trained historian and teacher of it also.
The history of socialism is hardly a specialised subject. Almost every one of us has studied it.
I occasionally teach at the world's most prestigious university (also for decades now), and I have studied economics daily for 40 years and not just in a school from books.
Experience trumps college education as you well know. My qualifications on this subject is my investment history. They speak for themselves.

You are under peer review here too.
We all are.