Socialism Deux

"schmichael said...
I think you just argued for Obama's tax plan (since we can't exactly mandate what people get paid, all we can do is tax the rich jerks more). :-)While I think Obama is pretty far from being Socialist*, I'm feeling pretty Socialist myself these days. I mean if we're all going to be ruled by a bunch of greedy rich old guys, might as well get to vote on which ones they are."

This is going to be a continuation, musing on, my previous topic and my brother's comment on it.

I agree with Michael's feelings. At heart, I'm a libertarian. I feel that minimal laws and minimal government interference are good things. Unfortunately, I'm also a realist who doesn't believe people are "naturally good." (Note, this does NOT mean I believe we are totally naturally evil, but look where our inclinations head.) I think the current financial crisis should be indication that a "hands off" approach of letting companies police themselves, doesn't work well.

I'm also, because of the current crisis, feeling a bit Socialist. There is apparently zero accountability at the top. You help run a company into the ground, you get bought out and have fun with your millions. You help drive the world economy into the tank, well, since you didn't technically break any laws, you take your money and run.

Now, the problem is, the government is notoriously inefficient at doing things as well. So, I'm not a socialist. I do think we need to find a more middle ground. I don't have a problem with people making lots of money. Especially people like doctors, engineers, etc. Even the financial guys to a certain extent. But, as the market bounces like a yo-yo run by a meth-freak I've pretty much decided they don't know much more than I do in practical terms. (Practical, not theoretical.)

I guess, I'm still in my multi-party mode. We need a couple of Socialists in Congress. We need some libertarians. We need some old school liberals. We need some old-school fiscal conservatives. BADLY!!! We need term limits. BADLY!!!

I suppose what I'm saying in all this is, while I don't think anything is drastically going to change, I don't see how giving the rich more money has helped us out much. I'd be willing to see a little more of the burden get shouldered onto them.

Am I a Socialist/Communist now?

Ok, thankfully, by next Wednesday all this will be done. Well, at least the election part. With any luck 50% of the country will do themselves in after the election and those of us with a brain will still be around. (Note, I hope this no matter who wins. Really, we could use about 50% less idiots right now.)

This rant is in response to the Florida anchorman who asked Joe Biden if Barack Obama was basically Karl Marx. I might be wrong, but wouldn't a little bit of redistribution be a good thing?

I mean, I'm not saying Communism here. But people, the bosses at AIG were standing to get 10s of millions in bonuses after running the company into the ground. Yes AFTER the bailout. Now, the government says, no, they can't have that money, but would those 10s of millions not be better spent investing in jobs for the average American?

They say its too expensive to make stuff here anymore. We can do it cheaper overseas. Well, how many Americans could we employ for $10 million dollars at a living wage? Lets see.

We'll make this simple math and therefore highly inaccurate, but just an idea. Thirty thousand. Multiply by two to county the costs of health insurance, taxes, etc. So, 60,000.

Ten million would be able to pay for 166 people's jobs at $30,000 a year. Before you go all nuts, I understand, that's just salary, but remember, that was just one guy's bonus too.

It is a problem when the top 1% controls 90%+ of the wealth. I'm all for redistributing some of that. Executive pay MUST start being tied to actual company production. Golden parachute plans need to be banned. Things need to start changing at the top.

I'm not saying we need to produce everything here. That would be silly. But we need to have jobs that produce a product. We must. And they need to pay a living wage. I'm not saying $30 an hour to put widget A on widget B. But $15-20/hour, plus health insurance? Yes, I think that could happen.

I don't know. Maybe we'll go Socialist if Obama gets elected. But after the way things have been run, I'm almost welcome to trying something completely different. The system is broken, and if anyone honestly believes the current people we are sending to Washington are going to change things, you're living in a pipe dream.

Until we have actual choice, more than just 2 canidates to chose from, things are not going to change. We need to break the 2 party system and the laws that make dissenting voices impossible to be heard at the polls. It really might be our only hope to stay a leading voice in the world.