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Monday, February 07, 2011

It's Hard To Believe A U.S. President Said This

"If we're fighting to reform the tax code and increase exports, the benefits cannot just translate into greater profits and bonuses for those at the top. They have to be shared by American workers, who need to know that opening markets will lift their standard of living as well as your bottom line," President Obama told the Chamber of Commerce on Monday morning.

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12 comments:

Fruitland Generic Citizen said...

Thank God we have a president who actually works to help all Americans, not just the top 0.1% wealthiest. It's about time. America was founded by and for people, not corporations.

McGruff said...

FGC:
Lenin would be proud of both you and the president.

Great minds think alike, eh?

John R said...

This guy is a threat to our Country. He thinks we need to share the wealth with those who lay on their butts, and live off the government. He is so smart, he thinks Joan of Arch is Noahs wife.

Bullard Construction said...

If, as a businessman, I am not allowed to build up a cash fund to carry my business through hard times in order to keep my business healthy, but instead be forced to hand over all the money to my employees as I make it, well there's not much use in risking it all to keep everyone with a steady income.

My past bosses did it, employing me to work on their houses or business properties to keep us employed through lean times, and I am thankful for their abilities to do those things.

I think we can run our businesses all by ourselves, and don't need a non interested party to do it for us.

lastword said...

"I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate (the) grave evils (of capitalism), namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow-men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society."

– Albert Einstein, Why Socialism?, 1949

McGruff said...

Nice pie-in-the-sky idea, lastword, but have you noticed that it n-e-v-e-r works out that way anywhere it's tried?
Know why?
People like Pelosi.
Elites who think they're better than the 'workers' and therefor entitled to more.
This never has worked, and it never will, because of the greed, pride and lust of man.
It always ends up as a permanent underclass as slaves to a group of elites.

lastword said...

Just like it is now?

KDickson said...

Are you kidding me lastword? Tell us where this has ever worked over time. You can't, it has not.

This president knows so little about business it is scary. Telling business how to spend and disribute the fruits of their labor is socialism and it does not work. It is also a job-killer.

Do you really want the executive branch to tell you what you should earn, how you should spend your money. This is the start - recognize it for what it is.

You want a quote....

"....the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn’t so." - Ron Reagan.

lastword said...

It seems that the filthiest word in the United States today is socialism. Politicians can throw around swearwords on the Senate floor with barely a raised eyebrow, but the merest whisper of the S-------- word is grounds
for immediately tossing a representative out of office. The problem, of course, is not one of public opinion, but rather of public education. Due in part to the continuing efforts of a certain major television network that shall remain unnamed, the American people have been grossly misled on what the word socialism actually stands for.

Before we can say what socialism actually is, we need to clear up a few issues on what socialism is not. Firstly, socialism and communism are not equatable, although they are certainly related. Communism can be thought of as socialism taken to its logical conclusion, or perhaps socialism can be thought of as a limited form of communism. This means that socialism and capitalism are not incompatible, whereas communism and capitalism are. Secondly, socialism is a system of economics, not a system of politics. It has nothing whatsoever to say on the subject of censorship, secret police, and gulags. While the Soviet Union was socialist in some ways, by far the dominant trait of that government was totalitarianism, which is a very different thing. Socialism is in no way a slippery slope to a nightmare government such as the USSR.

lastword said...

Now that we have dispelled a few common illusions on the nature of socialism, we can move on to the main question: What exactly does this oft-heard word "socialism" actually mean? The basis behind the idea of
socialism is that we agree to have governments because they improve our quality of life, so therefore, a government's prime duty should be improving its citizens' quality of life. To that effect, governments should provide centralized services for their citizens where appropriate. In the United States, we have a socialized education system. We also have a socialized police and fire department. Social security is socialism, as is Medicaid. You could even say that we have a socialized military, as it is a government run institution, rather than a privately owned entity. Of course, we don't refer to any of those things as socialism, although they're certainly not capitalist systems. In some other countries, they have socialized health care, which by any reasonable measure works better than the corporate nightmare we have here. Socialism is simply when a government runs a program for the benefit of its people, nothing more, nothing less.

Socialism does not even have to be the primary economic system of a country. Here, we have a capitalism with elements of socialism. In some other countries, for example Sweden or Denmark, you could say they have a socialist system with elements of capitalism. Certainly, capitalism can be an extremely effective system, and the principles of competition it is based on are sound. However, there are areas where the prime motive should be something other than profit. For example, it seems that a health care system based on helping people rather than making money would be more effective, at least if you define effectiveness by how much a system improves the lives of the people living in it.

Clearly, the fact that we have government demonstrates that people from all across the political spectrum see a need for it. It seems that if government is required, we should view it as a useful tool, not as a necessary evil. Far from being something to be afraid of, socialism can and has improved the lives of everyone in this country greatly. Anyone who has received a free education from a public school or had their house saved by the public fire department has benefited from socialism, and anyone who has ever been denied insurance coverage or lost a friend due to the lack of a readily available medical procedure that they simply couldn't afford can benefit from it. Mr. Reagan, you are incorrect. Government is, in fact, the solution to this problem, and to many others.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2462010/what_is_socialism_pg2.html?cat=75

lastword said...

Most people, as evidenced by these posters, don't even know what socilism is, let alone what it means.

I'm no expert and I've been taught the same fear as most you have on the issue.

But when I did research on it, it was nothing like what I had been taught.

As this article explains, we already have been using a form of socialism for quite some time and nobody even recognized it.

And there are plenty of countries that still use socialism as much as you want to believe the opposite.

Socialism is run by the people, not the government.

People are paid according to what they contribute.

I know it's a taboo subject, that's why most people don't understand it. And it would probably never completely suceed on its own becasue as someone mentioned, the greed of some people and being power hungry would prevert it.

But at least learn about it so a intelligent debate would occur insted of repeating the evils, fears and lies you were taught.

Doesn't really matter regardless. I don't think anything can save us now. Government has been relied on more than God and the individual. Each type of government has failed us.

Now all that's left are what if's.

lastword said...

And Reagan is the reason we are in this mess in the first place.