tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2464977109229359349.post3825640646712513779..comments2023-10-21T03:54:12.029-04:00Comments on A Gift Universe: Are all communists bad?Sheilahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10853868724554947854noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2464977109229359349.post-60222640735467791182019-01-01T15:30:31.166-05:002019-01-01T15:30:31.166-05:00See, this is why I'm not especially interested...See, this is why I'm not especially interested in the pure form of either system. I'd like to be able to afford both toilet paper AND insulin -- and there's no reason to assume the same distribution system will work best for both.<br /><br />Half a million Americans go bankrupt every year because of medical bills. Anybody who thinks this situation can't be improved upon is delusional or hopelessly out of touch. The problems developed over decades, for complicated reasons, and the solution is also going to be complicated. "Just socialize it/just privatize everything" are both simplistic and will not work.<br /><br />Meanwhile if we honestly want to compare socialism and capitalism, we should stop digging up horror stories and look at the best examples of each. We will find, of course, that the countries with a high standard of living are never the most extreme examples of either. We have capitalist countries with some regulation (like the US) and socialist countries with plenty of private industry (like Finland, say). Also, all these countries are democratic. Bringing in totalitarian regimes will always mess up your results because they are horrible places regardless of their economic structure.Sheilahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10853868724554947854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2464977109229359349.post-13269704050668321052019-01-01T13:46:20.815-05:002019-01-01T13:46:20.815-05:00No I didn't live "behind the iron curtain...No I didn't live "behind the iron curtain" but have you lived in the hyper-capitalist countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras where goverment spending/taxation is so low it would make a teabagger blush? You know, those are the countries where the people in the "caravans" are coming from. <br /><br />Have you lived in some of the hyper-capitalist countries in Africa where kids as young as 8 years old spend entire days mining cobalt? Search youtube for child labor cobalt africa to see the horror for yourself.<br /><br />And it must be nice to say that you'd prefer the US healthcare system.I'm guessing you have insurance and are not worried about literally dying because you have to ration your insulin. Yeah that has actually happened.<br /><br />Nobody is claiming that the Soviet Union was Utopia. What it did was create a much better society for the vast majority of its people than what came before or has come after. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2464977109229359349.post-55293080884136819422019-01-01T09:38:21.458-05:002019-01-01T09:38:21.458-05:00Anon at 6:32 pm, did you actually live in a commun...Anon at 6:32 pm, did you actually live in a communist country or are you just repeating what you read about the communism somewhere? I have actually lived “behind the iron curtain”, experienced the consequences myself and can tell you that “communism” doesn’t work. I am glad the regime toppled in multiple countries. Do you really think that all those people in prisons who were there for simply being religious or people who could not buy basic things (like toilet paper or bread) in the stores because there was always a shortage of something, cared about some satellite in space? And please don’t get me started on free healthcare for all. I will take the current US healthcare system over it every single time. Yes, everyone was equal, but some people were just a little more equal (and less expendable) than everyone else.<br /><br />Calls for a communist/socialist system from people in the western countries who cannot fathom the consequences of what they wish for are completely misguided, naive, and ridiculous.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2464977109229359349.post-37155150015974327182018-12-31T20:45:54.901-05:002018-12-31T20:45:54.901-05:00But then there is the Holodomor. And the Gulag. ...But then there is the Holodomor. And the Gulag. I just can't see any system as a success with a death toll like that.<br /><br />Now I will admit there have been smaller communes that have worked very well. It helps that they did not start with a revolution and carefully avoided totalitarianism. But not the Soviet Union. From a human rights perspective, it sucked.Sheilahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10853868724554947854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2464977109229359349.post-4889624957368228582018-12-31T18:32:12.007-05:002018-12-31T18:32:12.007-05:00It's simply untrue to say that "communism...It's simply untrue to say that "communism" doesn't work. The one place that had the most communism worked the best. That was the Soviet Union which put the first satellite in space, the first dog in space, the first man in space, and the first and only station in space. They built the world's first ICBM something Iran and North Korea are *trying* to do some 60 years later. They ended the drought/flooding situation on the Dnieper river by building one of the largest hydroelectric dams in history. And I'm sure it is well-known how they almost eliminated infant mortality, raised the average lifespan by some 30 years and took a country that had been an illiterate backwater to a nation teeming with scientists, engineers and doctors. Ultimately, the Soviet Union was brought down by Gorbachev who had been a thief in his youth and became fabulously wealthy when he sold out his country to the Western Plutocracy but fundamentally,all of what I just wrote about the Soviet Union are *facts* that simply can't be disputed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com