Jump to content

hpslugga

Legacy Members
  • Posts

    3453
  • Joined

Posts posted by hpslugga

  1. 42 minutes ago, Johnny Sack said:

    Of course their economies would be even better and their poors would be wealthier under capitalism.    

    You don’t know that, nor have you any evidence to support this silly-assed claim. You only know what you want to believe.

  2. 10 hours ago, DalTxHornFan said:

    The cited 30% number not withstanding, it isn't much of a private sector when there are government imposed price controls, currency controls, rationing, confiscation, political and government control over imports and distribution, among other policy trainwrecks.  That's what "go full Venezuela" means.

    That wasn't the argument, though. The "go full Venezuela" phrase was used in conjunction with the oft-repeated myth that Venezuela is a socialist state. That little laundry list you just composed does absolutely nothing to advance that argument because it has absolutely nothing to do with socialism.

    "Socialism" is not defined as "when capitalism ceases to run unchecked and unfettered." That description only appropriately indicates that a country isn't some whackjob Ayn Rand/Milton Friedman, anarcho-capitalist nightmare.

    Socialism is, as has been explained numerous times before (including here), defined as "workers' control over production." Do we see this in Venezuela? The lot of you that are trying to advance this case that Venezuela is somehow a "socialist state" can't seem to even say the words "no, Venezuela does not facilitate workers' control over production." Their leaders talked the line about it, but they did next to nothing to usher in that sort of economic order. Mere political rhetoric does not define an economic/political system. Regardless of how restricted their private industry is, it does exist and they do control the means of production in 70% of the economy. And in the 30% areas where the state controls it, that's still not socialism. "Workers" and "the state" are not synonyms, taxonomically or otherwise.

    It's kinda like if I were to play golf in Norway during the winter and the entire course was covered with ice and it's damn near impossible to knock the ball into the holes, that's still not hockey...even if I were to trot out there with ice skates, helmet, pads and a stick with a blade.

  3. 2 hours ago, Enchubben said:

    Let’s start with nationalizing industries like healthcare or oil and gas.

    They nationalized oil well before Chavez. They did all that in 1976 when Hugo was just barely discovering what his political leanings were as a 22 year old, Maduro was barely a teenager, and for the US it was a non-issue.

    Besides, nationalizing a single resource does not a socialist nation make. Same goes for healthcare. Does anyone here think Israel is a socialist state? How about the UK? France?

    And even if you choose to answer those questions, we’re wasting each other’s time anyways because Venezuela is not one of the countries of the world that has full-blown universal healthcare. Their healthcare system is a mix of private and public. In fact, really the only major step the so-called Bolivarians took on that issue was inoculations. Other than that, they’ve been a shit show.

    And even if you were completely right in those statements, you’d still have your work cut out for you. Chavez/Maduro neither nationalized the oil (that was done two decades before them) nor healthcare, and even if they did, that still in and of itself does not constitute Venezuela as a socialist state.

    I mentioned earlier that the state owns around 30% of the economy. The reason it’s that much is because Venezuela has very little economic diversity (also a pre-Chavez problem) and that 30% number is almost exclusively from the oil industry. So again, when you say “go full venezuela,” understand that people quite reasonably want to know what that means.

    • Like 1
  4. 39 minutes ago, Enchubben said:

    There is a difference between socialist policies that are public services or safeguards for retirement and socialist policies that directly impact commercial enterprise and healthcare.

    The former in limited amounts act a safeguard for many (those that don’t produce the means for retirement in the case os social security) and nearly all in the case of public services like parks, fire departments etc. 

    The far left would have us believe that because social security and parks are popular, (I don’t say work because it’s unclear that social security is actually effective, and will be around in 30 years) that the US should go full Venezuela. 

    Again, Venezuela’s economy is controlled 70% by the private sector. That inherently negates any claims to socialism. I don’t know why some of you either cannot understand that or will not understand it.

    So when you refer to the US “going full Venezuela,” that would mean the government seizing roughly an additional 15-18 or so % of the US economy.

  5. 1 hour ago, Chrispy said:

    Thankfully you’re in the lunatic fringe. 

    Do you really think people can’t catch on to this assert-the-opposite routine?

  6. 6 minutes ago, Calihorn said:

    There is, and he is correct. Venezuela hasn't been socialist in a long time. More like a kleptocracy 

    They weren’t even socialist to begin with. When the private sector controls nearly 70% of the economy, it’s beyond wrong to call that socialist regardless of how strongly one wants to believe otherwise. It takes more than an elected president using socialist-sounding phrases in speeches to make a “socialist country.” To believe otherwise is an exercise in superficiality and gullibility.

  7. 10 minutes ago, bolverk said:

    Moreover, Trump's behavior since then, including interfering with the investigation, does not fit the description of an innocent man. 

    I have not put a whole lot of stock in this issue in the grand scheme of things. What the administration has been doing just in Venezuela alone is far worse than the very worst of what he’s been accused in this whole Russia scenario.

    That having been said, the quoted passage is correct. There’s little doubt that his behavior since the investigation has been highly suspect and should make even the simplest of minds dubious of his innocence.

  8. 6 hours ago, Not a cat said:

    Omar is that you?  I feel I'm arguing politics with the underpants gnome

    1.Supports guy that is starving hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans so they hunt rats for food despite sitting on the largest proven oil reserve in the world.

    2.  Accuse others of supporting said starving.

    3.  ??

    4. Profit

     

     

    Oh brother 

  9. 22 hours ago, Fozzz said:

    "Step down and we'll stop killing your country's people."  Fucking terrorists.  

     

     

    It certainly is terrorism, and it’s hilarious that the right wing in particular pretends that constitutions are sacred only when it suits their purposes.

    Bolton’s ilk went out of their fucking minds when Zelaya tried to pass a non-binding referendum simply asking the population if they’d be in favor of a constitutional re-write (the inference being to rid itself of the prohibition against presidents serving more than one term), but when Hernandez just bluntly inserted himself in the 2017 election (despite the constitution not having been changed at all), none of them had any problem with it at all.

    This is how these people behave. They’re just vulgar, partisan hacks that have no respect for decorum and only respect the law when it suits their purposes.

    • Like 1
  10. On 4/29/2019 at 5:55 AM, Asithappens said:

    And I learned the commandment as "Thou shalt not kill". Not "Thou shalt not commit murder."

    The commandments are probably the most misunderstood passage in Judeo-Christian mythology, yet here we are witnessing someone in 2019 trying to use that one as what appears to be a blanket justification for war.

    9 hours ago, F250 said:

    e53d7f8067067a51029cde8260094ff5867b10ab

    He happens to be correct in that assessment. If Ayn Rand had anything meaningful to contribute, we would have read about it already.

  11. 21 minutes ago, happyfunball said:

     


    I love the deregulation troupe. I have never seen a company not invest because of regulation. Regulation only impacts speed of investment in my experience. It is next impossible to prove that deregulation is increasing company investment. And of course all execs will cite it as a driver as their incentive is to sell that lie.

    Regarding tax cuts, it has only stimulating share buy backs and M&A. Even Blackrock despite their spin shows that capex hasn’t really up-ticked on a % basis. See link.

    https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/literature/whitepaper/bii-global-equity-outlook-june-2018.pdf

    If I get bored, Bloomberg did analysis on what companies did with the extra cash from tax savings. It was close to 70% - 80% was used for share buybacks, dividends, and M&A. It overwhelming showed that the tax savings effectively had no impact to reinvestment in the company

     

    You, sir, are interrupting Fairy Tale Time

    • Like 3
  12. 4 hours ago, workswithseed said:

    How do you know what most of Texans interests are?

    Because there are nearly 30 million of us living here and it’s beyond asinine, not to mention impossible, to believe that every single one of them belongs in the top 1% of the US’ income bracket.

    • Like 3
  13. 9 hours ago, 77horn said:

    Well, that would have been the Democrats.

    I said team, not party. Yeah the team was under a different name back in that time, but it’s the same team...just like the Oilers/Titans. Figured that was obvious.

    9 hours ago, workswithseed said:

    They don'tt vote thee way i want them to, so they don't look at politics at all, and are dumb.

    When you consider the sheer volume of people who vote against their interests, not to mention the bewildering inanities that are in the Republican Party platform, it’s very curious that such a statement of obvious fact could make you all butthurt about it.

×
×
  • Create New...