Why socialists are wrong :-)
Many people yearn for equality, forced equality in society. If this is so, then anyone can demand that his/her monthly pay be at least 10% of what Mark Zuckerberg is getting even if they work only 4 hours and complain about work for the next 4 hours each day. And since tens or hundreds of millions will demand the same, then it will mean that Zuckerberg's average monthly income will shrink and continue shrinking because the politics of envy will assault his income and wealth, endlessly via government taxation.
Free people are not equal and equal people are not free. I did not invent that quote of course, but it rings correctly until now.
Now, this quote from Chomsky was circulated by some friends in fb last week. Lousy idea of course.
Compare friendster and
facebook capitalism: costs and rewards, bankruptcy and expansion are privatized
while the benefits -- to us users of these social media, past and present -- are socialized. Friendster went bankrupt while facebook
prospered. And many of us enjoy facebook (and youtube, twitter, google,...)
capitalism, no tears though to friendster capitalism that sank.
Another quote from Churchill. Yes, socialism promises equality... everyone equally poor except the top officials, military generals and business cronies of the communist party or dictatorship.
There is room and role for government in a free enterprise and free market economy of course. Societies need the rule of law function of government if
they want to be stable and prosperous. The poor can work double jobs and come
home late night if they need to without worrying that their houses and little
investments are ransacked by thieves or land grabbers. Or their extra income is eaten by more
taxes and mandatory fees.
Many big capitalists enjoy big money so they
can give away/donate that big money someday. Examples are numerous personal and corporate foundations whose main function is to finance many good community or research projects that will uplift the lives of poor and needy people. Civil society in action, Meanwhile, these rich and highly entrepreneurial people create more
companies, build more structures and new services, create more jobs in the
process.
"Government... favoring some capitalists" and "state bail out of big banks, corporations" are cronyism and statism or state worship as the state picks winners and losers. The state has no business picking winners and losers, picking who should expand or go bankrupt; it's the job of market competition.
Free enterprise capitalism allows bankruptcy and
expansion happening at the same time to many players. But we don't see any free capitalism society in the planet yet. Hong Kong would approximate this society somehow but China communism ultimately
dictates and limits the pace of HK capitalism, not because the commies have the
intellectual and entrepreneurial superiority but simply because they have the
guns, bombs and huge army of soldiers and policemen who are ready-to-harass-people if they question the powers of the communist state.
Money "hoarding" is bad... No. What's hoarding for some is actually savings accumulation for
others. One cannot convert his small variety/"sari-sari" store into a nice, air-con
convenience store unless he/she has sufficient savings accumulation plus loans from friends/family members or banks.
The so-called "late stage capitalism" is characterized more
by bigger, stronger governments who dictate prices (wage control, fare
control, rent control, price control or price caps/ceilings), dictate competition or absence of it
(monopolies created by Congressional franchise or agency franchise), dictate
who should get subsidies and who should not (like wind and solar power firms get
plenty of subsidies).
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See also:
Pol. Ideology 67, Socialism and Venezuela, June 08, 2016
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