Re: the future long term financial apocalypse of the USA

On Sat, 18 May 2024 20:35:30 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
<dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

On 5/18/2024 5:56 PM, Titus G wrote:

On 19/05/24 01:34, Michael F. Stemper wrote:

On 17/05/2024 15.31, D wrote:
>

I was unaware

 
Ignorance is bliss.
 
  we have anything resembling capitalism. What we have

today is a plan economy with government calling the shots, which is
far from capitalism. Many billionaires are the ones who are the most
cosy with politicians.
>
As for who the wealth belongs to and the benefits for the population
at large, note that we are living at a high peak of civilization
compared with 100 years ago on all scales, infant mortality, wealth,
quality of life etc.

>
The implication of what you're saying is that living at the peak of
civilization is strongly correlated with having a planned economy
rather than capitalism.
>

 
Be careful. You might smear his rose tinted spectacles.

>
One suspects that D is of the opinion that any kind of regulation or
legal restraint immediately makes a given economy "non-capitalist" and a
"planned economy".

One suspects that D is a wanna-be 1%er who is upset that he can't
reach his goal if any laws of any sort, type, or kind exist.

It is clear that his version of "capitalism" includes such features
as: trusts/syndicates/market-cornering/squeezing everybody else,
competition without any restrictions, no labor unions, abundant child
labor, adulteration as need to increase profits, and so on. /That/ is
the "capitalism" he supports.

He also appears to have swallowed the "peak of civilization" "high
culture" /restricted to white Western Europeans/ myth.

This isn't unique, of course. Tillich, after WW2, was appalled at how
quickly Germany, "the most civilized society on Earth", had fallen
into barbarism. He failed to realize that what he called "civilized
behavior" was merely the behavior of the Upper and Upper-Middle
classes (who could afford special clothes for going to plays and
concerts, and the carriages needed to get there and back) -- a
paper-thin covering over the abyss of reality.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"