Venezuela Collapse Horror Show

The collapse in socialist Venezuela has been extremely bad for three years. There has been starvation, hyperinflation and terrible shortages and a dysfunctional socialist economy. About 2 to 3 million Venezuelans have fled to other countries.

People have eaten dogs, zoo animals and garbage.

People are buying rotten meat to survive. There are many power blackouts and no power for refridgeration.

There is an increased death rate from vastly higher murder and suicide rates. There are also more deaths from lack of medicine and medical care.

Venezuela remains one of the world’s most dangerous countries. The deterioration in the quality of life for Venezuelan citizens over the course of 2017 contributes to a dire situation in which over 73 Venezuelans died a violent death every day.

The official crime figures are not released by government officials. The Venezuelan NGO Observatory of Violence (OVV) listed Venezuela as the second most murderous nation after El Salvador. The OVV has tracked violence through police sources and media reporting. OVV stated that Venezuela had over 26,616 homicides in 2017, a rate of 89 per 100,000 inhabitants.

There are now reports of exploding corpses. The morgues are understaffed and without power for refridgeration. There are no gloves so a few workers who remain have to manipulate the corpses with their bare hands.

There is no electricity, there are no masks, there is no chlorine, there are no disinfectants, there are no boots.

There are delays in the collection of the corpses.

The emphysematous phase of decomposition is when bodies can no longer contain the gases and putrid fluids accumulated inside and burst.

Bodies are not removed in time for burial or cremation and do receive adequate treatment.

Those bodies exploded inside the cellar of the morgue. This leaves worms and rotten flesh and fluids everywhere.

Many die of HIV and other infectious diseases. Those who work in the morgue fear they will be nfected because they do have the necessary protective equipment.

Funeral home do not take the old corpses because the government does not pay what it owes.

They often do not have electricity. The elevators of the building out of service. The team have to lower the bodies by hand by the stairs. There is a risk of scratches or wounds.

Sometimes relatives assault them or insult them when they see the treatment their recently deceased loved ones receive.

The morgue should be hermetically closed. They have no power for air conditioning. Doors are left open to air out the morgue.

696 thoughts on “Venezuela Collapse Horror Show”

  1. We are doing perfectly fine here in Scandinavia. But the meaning behind the word socialism is quite different here compared to the US.

  2. Democratic socialism — and recall that Hugo Chavez was genuinely popular for many years — is ultimately no better than undemocratic socialism. Look at the trend lines in California, once the leading light of the US, to see what lies ahead for us.

  3. No socialism means the intention to use the force of government to interfere as necessary with and even extinguish individual rights in favor of the mythical–explicitly impossible given our biology–groupthink called by Rousseau the General Will. We are not ants there is no hive mind there is no inherent legitimacy found in the majority. Only the individual really exists there is no hivemind.The ascent in Europe of the philosophy of Rousseau ended the Enlightenment and began the Endarkenment which made the 1900s–and is looking to also make the 2000s–an abattoir and our future as dystopian as the mob demands. Every nation not adopting Enlightenment principles in it’s government is on the road to become Venezuela however they pause on that road.The only proper thing is to get off that road.

  4. We are doing perfectly fine here in Scandinavia. But the meaning behind the word socialism is quite different here compared to the US.

  5. Democratic socialism — and recall that Hugo Chavez was genuinely popular for many years — is ultimately no better than undemocratic socialism. Look at the trend lines in California once the leading light of the US to see what lies ahead for us.

  6. Well this is what happens when you say no to a private central bank. Why are Venezuela and Iran so hated? Because they’re refusing the private central banks from going into their countries, that’s why they’re targeted to be blown up. Pretty simple really.

  7. That is in Scandinavia limited to small enough (and well-defined enough) sectors of the economy for it to not descend into a Venezuelan death spiral.

  8. No m0ron, they could be no more different that was the Soviet Union, where the grey soul crushing stacks of flats housed people who pretended to work because they only got pretend pay, were crowded together in small rooms with insufficient heat, food, or medicine. It’s the best the organized thievery under threat of murder called communism or socialism can do on it’s own.

  9. Brian Wang predicted with absolute certainty that there will be a military coup in Venezuela before the eodn[sic] of 2018

  10. Brian Wang predicted with absolute certainty that there will be a military coup in Venezuela before the eodn of 2018 Before the end of 2018, and we have still aout two months to go Luca Mazza predicts there will NOT be any coup in Venezuela in 2018

  11. The Scandinavian countries are very competitive and open market economies. Sure, we have fairly high tax rates and welfare systems, and very high government involvement in medicine and education, but in many aspects, corporations enjoy a freer and more competitive environment than they do in the US. The meaning of the word is important, as you indicate. Socialism is really about government ownership of productive resources/companies. That is in Scandinavia limited to small enough (and well-defined enough) sectors of the economy for it to not descend into a Venezuelan death spiral.

  12. Actually, the reality is that socialism cannot be democratic. It’s a not sufficiently well known fact that open access to positions of political power cannot be reliably had without open access to positions of economic power. Once politicans take over the economy, a crucial separation of power is lost and the politicians will start to extract rents. They will then limit access to positions of political power to cement their control over the economy and to be able to continue extracting rents. There’s an emerging body of research on this topic. Google “open access orders”.

  13. Wonder how much of the problems are caused by sanctions. If they were just left alone and not locked down economically, it would be different. Maybe any small nation would collapse regardless of political ideologic leadership if they were cut off from all trade.

  14. No, socialism means the intention to use the force of government to interfere as necessary with and even extinguish individual rights, in favor of the mythical–explicitly impossible, given our biology–groupthink called by Rousseau, the General Will. We are not ants, there is no hive mind, there is no inherent legitimacy found in the majority. Only the individual really exists, there is no hivemind. The ascent in Europe of the philosophy of Rousseau ended the Enlightenment and began the Endarkenment which made the 1900s–and is looking to also make the 2000s–an abattoir and our future as dystopian as the mob demands. Every nation not adopting Enlightenment principles in it’s government is on the road to become Venezuela, however they pause on that road. The only proper thing is to get off that road.

  15. Well this is what happens when you say no to a private central bank.Why are Venezuela and Iran so hated? Because they’re refusing the private central banks from going into their countries that’s why they’re targeted to be blown up.Pretty simple really.

  16. That is in Scandinavia limited to small enough (and well-defined enough) sectors of the economy for it to not descend into a Venezuelan death spiral. “” “””

  17. No m0ron they could be no more different that was the Soviet Union where the grey soul crushing stacks of flats housed people who pretended to work because they only got pretend pay were crowded together in small rooms with insufficient heat food or medicine.It’s the best the organized thievery under threat of murder called communism or socialism can do on it’s own.

  18. Brian Wang predicted with absolute certainty that there will be a military coup in Venezuelabefore the eodn[sic] of 2018 “” “””

  19. Brian Wang predicted with absolute certainty that there will be a military coup in Venezuela before the eodn of 2018 Before the end of 2018 and we have still aout two months to go Luca Mazza predicts there will NOT be any coup in Venezuela in 2018

  20. The Scandinavian countries are very competitive and open market economies. Sure we have fairly high tax rates and welfare systems and very high government involvement in medicine and education but in many aspects corporations enjoy a freer and more competitive environment than they do in the US. The meaning of the word is important as you indicate. Socialism is really about government ownership of productive resources/companies. That is in Scandinavia limited to small enough (and well-defined enough) sectors of the economy for it to not descend into a Venezuelan death spiral.

  21. Actually the reality is that socialism cannot be democratic. It’s a not sufficiently well known fact that open access to positions of political power cannot be reliably had without open access to positions of economic power. Once politicans take over the economy a crucial separation of power is lost and the politicians will start to extract rents. They will then limit access to positions of political power to cement their control over the economy and to be able to continue extracting rents. There’s an emerging body of research on this topic. Google open access orders””.”””

  22. Wonder how much of the problems are caused by sanctions.If they were just left alone and not locked down economically it would be different.Maybe any small nation would collapse regardless of political ideologic leadership if they were cut off from all trade.

  23. Giving away money is what caused this socialist economy to collapse. Your cure is give away more. That’s pathetic. UBI is a “buy the votes” policy.

  24. I am not sure I understand. If I lost a loved one under those conditions, I would personally bury them or cremate them.

  25. “Unconditional basic income” is the recommended cure to what economists call the “resource curse” — a curse besetting Venezuela. Given the disastrous situation in Venezuela, it is a safe bet that if there is a UBI at all, it is trivial compared to the oil resource revenue.

  26. Hard to know as all governments seem to interfere a lot, so we lack examples. One could also debate the depth of non-interference, and the outcome would vary with that. Do we mean only private companies provide care and education, or do we also mean people pay out of pocket with no government involvement in financing at all, or do we also mean that governments withdraw all licensing requirements, compulsory education, standards and so on? The devil is usually in the details, and it’s very possible to partially deregulate with bad outcomes. But one thing that is clearly a “feature” of our single-payer healthcare system in Sweden is the long queues and the meat wall of nurses whose job it is to schedule and prioritize patients and to limit our access to physicians. However, this is not a feature of our animal medicine, since that is left to private enterprise. So our animals get timely care, but humans often do not.

  27. You realize that Venezuela is a food exporter? Why is the US to blame for Venezuela’s inability to grow food? Venezuela isn’t growing food because the farmers are refusing to work The farmers refuse to grow food because the government introduced price controls so the farmers can’t make a profit from selling food So the farmers only grow enough food for themselves while the rest of the country starves its the soviet union 2.0

  28. Umm… no People are starving in Venezuela because the farmers refuse to grow food The farmers refuse to grow food because the government introduced price controls so the farmers can’t make a profit from selling food So the farmers only grow enough food for themselves while the rest of the country starves The existence or non existence of a central bank is irrelevant

  29. No, they weren’t sanctioned at all until very recently, and still is sanctioned quite lightly. The collapse was well under way before sanctions and even before the oil price slump. It’s the iron rule of socialism: Eventually, you have nothing to wipe your butt with than the latest issue of Pravda.

  30. Basically, rebuke and refuse all thinking that is collectivist (e.g. all “the general will”, “the general interest” b.s.), transformative (“humans need to be rebuilt for my system to work!”) or based on appeals to emotion (“my hurt feelings!”), that are mostly used for limiting freedom of action, property, and speech. That is, libertarianism vs all kinds of tyranny, as usual.

  31. Giving away money is what caused this socialist economy to collapse. Your cure is give away more. That’s pathetic. UBI is a buy the votes”” policy.”””

  32. I am not sure I understand. If I lost a loved one under those conditions I would personally bury them or cremate them.

  33. “Unconditional basic income” is the recommended cure to what economists call the “resource curse” — a curse besetting Venezuela. Given the disastrous situation in Venezuela it is a safe bet that if there is a UBI at all it is trivial compared to the oil resource revenue.”

  34. Hard to know as all governments seem to interfere a lot so we lack examples. One could also debate the depth of non-interference and the outcome would vary with that. Do we mean only private companies provide care and education or do we also mean people pay out of pocket with no government involvement in financing at all or do we also mean that governments withdraw all licensing requirements compulsory education standards and so on? The devil is usually in the details and it’s very possible to partially deregulate with bad outcomes.But one thing that is clearly a feature”” of our single-payer healthcare system in Sweden is the long queues and the meat wall of nurses whose job it is to schedule and prioritize patients and to limit our access to physicians. However”” this is not a feature of our animal medicine since that is left to private enterprise. So our animals get timely care”” but humans often do not.”””

  35. You realize that Venezuela is a food exporter? Why is the US to blame for Venezuela’s inability to grow food? Venezuela isn’t growing food because the farmers are refusing to workThe farmers refuse to grow food because the government introduced price controls so the farmers can’t make a profit from selling food So the farmers only grow enough food for themselves while the rest of the country starves its the soviet union 2.0

  36. Umm… noPeople are starving in Venezuela because the farmers refuse to grow foodThe farmers refuse to grow food because the government introduced price controls so the farmers can’t make a profit from selling foodSo the farmers only grow enough food for themselves while the rest of the country starves The existence or non existence of a central bank is irrelevant

  37. No they weren’t sanctioned at all until very recently and still is sanctioned quite lightly. The collapse was well under way before sanctions and even before the oil price slump. It’s the iron rule of socialism: Eventually you have nothing to wipe your butt with than the latest issue of Pravda.

  38. Basically rebuke and refuse all thinking that is collectivist (e.g. all the general will”””” “”””the general interest”””” b.s.)”””” transformative (“”””humans need to be rebuilt for my system to work!””””) or based on appeals to emotion (“”””my hurt feelings!””””)”” that are mostly used for limiting freedom of action property and speech.That is libertarianism vs all kinds of tyranny”” as usual.”””

  39. Why is their currency policy unrealistic? Who controls the world’s fiat currencies? Who is trying to put a private central bank there? *Cough* Bank of International Settlements *Cough* As an extra credit assignment, look at the nations that are under the BiS’s control. Have fun.

  40. That’s not at all surprising. The “resource curse” is a curse precisely because the revenues from the resource are, during times of high profits, “invested” to bloat the the socialist bureaucracies and the private companies. This is bad enough, but when the prices drop, the bloated organizations become starved hence ravenous.

  41. Out of control inflation does not mean you sustain losses if there are no price and/or wage controls. You simply adjust prices to inflation to profit. So the FDR act was band-aid on a government-created problem. To add to Pisa2019s explanation, the Venezuelan government also has an unrealistic currency policy, so not only can companies including farmers not sell at prices they chose, the government has them to buy input goods and machinery from abroad at ridiculous costs. You can’t operate business under such conditions. And then Chavez/Maduro calls it “sabotage” and expropriate the businesses, so that any business still viable need to stop investing money to not have it all expropriated later.

  42. From Stratfor: “Strapped for cash to pay for essentials, embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ordered a restructuring of state oil and gas company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), according to a Sept. 10 report. As part of the restructuring, PDVSA will have to deliver all revenue from its operations to the Central Bank of Venezuela. This leaves no revenue directly in the hands of PDVSA for reinvestment into essential activities, such as maintenance, exploration and procurement.” So the oil production will continue to plummet. Not much money there anymore. Perhaps 1 Mbpd and at a profit of probably only $30/barrel, this is roughly $1/day and capita.

  43. First, since you don’t know the difference between unconditional basic income and a welfare state, you need to read the American Enterprise Institute book “In Our Hands: A Plan To Replace the Welfare State” by Charles Murray. Second, the UBI is the political economic model least vulnerable to exploitation of public choice theory — which can be seen as the science of “buy the votes’.

  44. 1933 – US – Agricultural Adjustment Act FDR paid farmers who refused to grow food because they were sustaining losses due to out of control inflation. Sound familiar?

  45. Why is their currency policy unrealistic? Who controls the world’s fiat currencies? Who is trying to put a private central bank there?*Cough* Bank of International Settlements *Cough*As an extra credit assignment look at the nations that are under the BiS’s control. Have fun.

  46. That’s not at all surprising. The resource curse”” is a curse precisely because the revenues from the resource are”” during times of high profits”” “”””invested”””” to bloat the the socialist bureaucracies and the private companies. This is bad enough”” but when the prices drop”” the bloated organizations become starved hence ravenous.”””

  47. Out of control inflation does not mean you sustain losses if there are no price and/or wage controls. You simply adjust prices to inflation to profit. So the FDR act was band-aid on a government-created problem.To add to Pisa2019s explanation the Venezuelan government also has an unrealistic currency policy so not only can companies including farmers not sell at prices they chose the government has them to buy input goods and machinery from abroad at ridiculous costs. You can’t operate business under such conditions. And then Chavez/Maduro calls it sabotage”” and expropriate the businesses”””” so that any business still viable need to stop investing money to not have it all expropriated later.”””

  48. From Stratfor: Strapped for cash to pay for essentials embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ordered a restructuring of state oil and gas company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) according to a Sept. 10 report. As part of the restructuring PDVSA will have to deliver all revenue from its operations to the Central Bank of Venezuela. This leaves no revenue directly in the hands of PDVSA for reinvestment into essential activities such as maintenance” exploration and procurement.””So the oil production will continue to plummet. Not much money there anymore. Perhaps 1 Mbpd and at a profit of probably only $30/barrel”””” this is roughly $1/day and capita.”””

  49. First since you don’t know the difference between unconditional basic income and a welfare state you need to read the American Enterprise Institute book In Our Hands: A Plan To Replace the Welfare State”” by Charles Murray.Second”””” the UBI is the political economic model least vulnerable to exploitation of public choice theory — which can be seen as the science of “”””buy the votes’.”””

  50. 1933 – US – Agricultural Adjustment ActFDR paid farmers who refused to grow food because they were sustaining losses due to out of control inflation. Sound familiar?

  51. Your argument that “UBI won’t work because it won’t be unconditional” is hardly an argument against the UBI. That wipes out the “First” and “Third” arguments — which are the same argument. The second argument is basically an argument that the UBI isn’t really a “dividend” and hence is more susceptible to what you call, in your last paragraph, “siphoning off wealth”. So at least you understand that a “dividend” is taken from the profit stream of an asset, like a corporation’s profits. That’s good. What you don’t understand is the difference between “wealth” and “income” as evidenced in your phrase “siphoning off wealth parasitically”. Income taxes are parasitic on productivity. Wealth taxes, viewing the state as mutual insurance of last resort for property rights, are insurance premiums. The mutual insurance company has shares. The citizenry of the state are its share holders — or at least the first responders etc who are responsible for placing their flesh blood and bone between chaos and the foundation of civilization: property rights.

  52. I love how conservatives quote the gold standard when it was a conservative faction that made us leave said system.

  53. My goal was to lead you to artificial scarcity and the undending of capitalism itself. You’re there. Whether you want to believe it or not. You have a choice, abundance or scarcity. I assure you this is not destiny, this is a choice.

  54. If fiat currency isn’t the cancer that plagues us, then what is? All rationality leads to the bankers for me, where is it leading you?

  55. Thank you for a worthy post. The banking legions are growing weary right now. They understand that people are picking up on the fractional reserve nightmare that has corrupted civilizations for 100’s of years. In a world bound by money, how is this not about banking? How is money not THE factor?

  56. There is a LOT to say in support of what you are pointing out: Lincoln was assassinated for dissing the Rothchilds during The Civil War. They wanted to charge like 27% interest on war loans AND that included the proviso that we would have to pay off the Confederacy’s war debts should the Union be victorious, too. Lincoln basically told them to fûc% off and printed debt-free Greenbacks to finance the war, instead. Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown in the Bolshevik revolution for the same reasons. The bankers financed the Bolsheviks, too. Tsar Nick opposed setting up a central bank in Russia for years. BUT, I don’t think the problems in VZ are all from that. A contributing factor, yes. A big one. But not the entire story.

  57. No the 1933 act, was to pay farmers NOT TO GROW, because under capitalism farmers grew too much food this led to food prices collapsing because there is a limited amount of food every person can eat. People weren’t starving to death like in Venezuela You are comparing apples to oranges

  58. First, there’s ‘Utopian’ UBI (as described by Murray and others) and what will REALLY be implemented, which Jeff nails it in his post. One of the universal (pardon the pun) features of Utopian UBI is that all schemes replace the existing welfare state with UBI. And THAT right there is NEVER going to happen, kiddies. Or if it does, exemptions and special treatment to specific groups of people (good or bad) will quickly happen thereafter so as to have the entire system end up not being true UBI but de facto welfare, anyway. Which, I repeat again, Jeff nails in his post. Second, no…UBI can be used to buy votes just as well. See how Social Security does exactly that. Both how politicians buy votes via scaring people into believing the other guy will take the checks away and Grandma will have to eat cat food to as well as the ones who take the traditional approach in buying votes for more money distributed straight up. In fact, it is easier to buy the votes simply because the merits of the transaction would be more transparent regarding what goodies people get and who gets the political credit for delivering them as opposed to ‘burying it’ in subsidized housing and food, etc. Third, more about the First, the first thing that will go in any actual implementation is the concept of the U (Universal/Unconditional). There shall be no such thing in reality. There will either be strings attached or members of the population limited/excluded, etc. If you don’t believe this then I have some swamp land on Mars I would love to sell you! It even has a thriving ostrich farm on it! The only thing that would mitigate — but not entirely remove — these problems would be a social wealth fund set up, much like the Alaska Permanent Fund. This would deliver the closest desired results of the promise of UBI w/o it actually being UBI as the fund would be paying out dividends from productive investments instead of siphoning off wealth parasitically as welfare/UBI schemes do. An

  59. Is that why the American Enterprise Institute — perhaps the most prominent conservative if not libertarian think tank in the world — says it can “replace the welfare state”?

  60. Typo: “Bodies are not removed in time for burial or cremation and do receive adequate treatment.” Shouldn’t it read, “…do NOT receive adequate treatment.”? Now for my serious response: THIS is how zombie apocalypses start, people! It’s only a matter of time before a ‘Walker’ virus evolves and then we are gonna be building Trump’s Wall for sure and even Libtards will have no qualms manning it. 🙂

  61. Your argument that UBI won’t work because it won’t be unconditional”” is hardly an argument against the UBI. That wipes out the “”””First”””” and “”””Third”””” arguments — which are the same argument. The second argument is basically an argument that the UBI isn’t really a “”””dividend”””” and hence is more susceptible to what you call”” in your last paragraph”” “”””siphoning off wealth””””. So at least you understand that a “”””dividend”””” is taken from the profit stream of an asset”””” like a corporation’s profits. That’s good. What you don’t understand is the difference between “”””wealth”””” and “”””income”””” as evidenced in your phrase “”””siphoning off wealth parasitically””””. Income taxes are parasitic on productivity. Wealth taxes”” viewing the state as mutual insurance of last resort for property rights”” are insurance premiums. The mutual insurance company has shares. The citizenry of the state are its share holders — or at least the first responders etc who are responsible for placing their flesh blood and bone between chaos and the foundation of civilization: property rights.”””

  62. I love how conservatives quote the gold standard when it was a conservative faction that made us leave said system.

  63. My goal was to lead you to artificial scarcity and the undending of capitalism itself. You’re there. Whether you want to believe it or not.You have a choice abundance or scarcity. I assure you this is not destiny this is a choice.

  64. If fiat currency isn’t the cancer that plagues us then what is? All rationality leads to the bankers for me where is it leading you?

  65. Thank you for a worthy post.The banking legions are growing weary right now. They understand that people are picking up on the fractional reserve nightmare that has corrupted civilizations for 100’s of years.In a world bound by money how is this not about banking? How is money not THE factor?

  66. There is a LOT to say in support of what you are pointing out: Lincoln was assassinated for dissing the Rothchilds during The Civil War. They wanted to charge like 27{22800fc54956079738b58e74e4dcd846757aa319aad70fcf90c97a58f3119a12} interest on war loans AND that included the proviso that we would have to pay off the Confederacy’s war debts should the Union be victorious too. Lincoln basically told them to fûc{22800fc54956079738b58e74e4dcd846757aa319aad70fcf90c97a58f3119a12} off and printed debt-free Greenbacks to finance the war instead.Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown in the Bolshevik revolution for the same reasons. The bankers financed the Bolsheviks too. Tsar Nick opposed setting up a central bank in Russia for years.BUT I don’t think the problems in VZ are all from that. A contributing factor yes. A big one. But not the entire story.”

  67. No the 1933 act was to pay farmers NOT TO GROW because under capitalism farmers grew too much food this led to food prices collapsing because there is a limited amount of food every person can eat. People weren’t starving to death like in Venezuela You are comparing apples to oranges

  68. First there’s ‘Utopian’ UBI (as described by Murray and others) and what will REALLY be implemented which Jeff nails it in his post. One of the universal (pardon the pun) features of Utopian UBI is that all schemes replace the existing welfare state with UBI. And THAT right there is NEVER going to happen kiddies. Or if it does exemptions and special treatment to specific groups of people (good or bad) will quickly happen thereafter so as to have the entire system end up not being true UBI but de facto welfare anyway. Which I repeat again Jeff nails in his post.Second no…UBI can be used to buy votes just as well. See how Social Security does exactly that. Both how politicians buy votes via scaring people into believing the other guy will take the checks away and Grandma will have to eat cat food to as well as the ones who take the traditional approach in buying votes for more money distributed straight up.In fact it is easier to buy the votes simply because the merits of the transaction would be more transparent regarding what goodies people get and who gets the political credit for delivering them as opposed to ‘burying it’ in subsidized housing and food etc.Third more about the First the first thing that will go in any actual implementation is the concept of the U (Universal/Unconditional). There shall be no such thing in reality. There will either be strings attached or members of the population limited/excluded etc. If you don’t believe this then I have some swamp land on Mars I would love to sell you! It even has a thriving ostrich farm on it!The only thing that would mitigate — but not entirely remove — these problems would be a social wealth fund set up much like the Alaska Permanent Fund. This would deliver the closest desired results of the promise of UBI w/o it actually being UBI as the fund would be paying out dividends from productive investments instead of siphoning off wealth parasitically as welfare/UBI schemes do. A

  69. Is that why the American Enterprise Institute — perhaps the most prominent conservative if not libertarian think tank in the world — says it can replace the welfare state””?”””

  70. Typo: Bodies are not removed in time for burial or cremation and do receive adequate treatment.””Shouldn’t it read”””” “”””…do NOT receive adequate treatment.””””?Now for my serious response: THIS is how zombie apocalypses start”””” people! It’s only a matter of time before a ‘Walker’ virus evolves and then we are gonna be building Trump’s Wall for sure and even Libtards will have no qualms manning it. :)”””

  71. 11k points, conservatism, admitting fault… We can move forward from here. Anyone with a half a brain knew the last good Republican was Eisenhower and the last good Democrat was Kennedy. That was many decades ago, we need to MOVE ON, WE NEED TO HAVE SOME SOLIDARITY.

  72. You realize that Venezuela is a food exporter?” WAS a food exporter. Just like Zimbabwe used to be. That was what you meant to type, right? 🙂

  73. Nixon? Yeah. But it was only supposed to be temporary too. Reagan almost put us back in but Milton Friedman (a Monetarist) convinced him not to at the last minute. Now, I respect Milton…and his son and grandson. But Milton was wrong about Monetarism, if you ask me.

  74. First of all, fractional reserve banking isn’t limited to just fiat currency systems nor with central banking. It existed in all modern gold standard systems and did so both with and without central banking with said systems. I think currency creation just needs to be removed from central banking. That is the problem. Bulgaria, for example, has a currency board that does not create fiat money but rather 100% reserves of their currency with another. Now that reserve currency is the Euro (a fiat currency). But, it could be gold instead. The lender of last resort functionality of central banks…where a lot of fractional reserve banking abuses happens, is provided by an FDIC-type entity that is SEPARATE from the currency board and can not just create money out of fiat to bail out willy nilly like central banks can. Actually, Bulgaria’s currency board might have some reserves in good quality bonds denominated in either euros or their local currency or have clauses that allow remittance payment in either/or. There is no problem with that in my view as there is a 1:1 asset-to-currency issues ratio even then. And it makes it easier for the Board to inject/remove currency as per MARKET demand for it dictates. The Bulgarian banks themselves — both public and private — operate under their own fractional reserve banking. But they have to cough up the dough to actually loan out on their own, instead of getting some central bank to do so for them. (People think that banks create money. WRONG. Banks create debt, which the central bank can create money to loan out as lender of last resort to the banks…money that has to be paid back to the central bank, which then ‘destroys’ that money). And if a bank gets into trouble under such a decentralized system, it usually gets limited to that bank or banking sector. Not to mention that they can’t get into as much trouble by the time it all goes belly up as banks that get propped up by central banks via the process I

  75. The marine corp is a force designed to protect the wealthy from the poor. It always was. Smedly Butler knew this well. He has many famous quotes, most are along the lines of establishing a corporate controlled racket on multiple continents. For the corporation, by the corporation. A marine who challenges corporatism, isn’t a marine for very much longer. Agree or disagree?

  76. Your experience with the “meat wall of nurses whose job it is to… limit… access to physicians” mirrors my experience with VA medicine in the United States. Medical providers serve those who write the paychecks – not the patients. To get proper care, you must either be useful or capable of causing problems. This will never describe the vast majority of people. Private medicine, on the other hand, offers the exact services required in a timely manner; I need only pay them.

  77. If I remember they were stupid enough to advocate a from of Obamacare… ” perhaps the most prominent conservative if not libertarian think tank in the world ” So perhaps very much not.

  78. Your argument that “UBI won’t work because it won’t be unconditional” is hardly an argument against the UBI.” Uh, yes it is an argument against it. I am not hear to play games like believing just because words don’t matter to you then they just shouldn’t matter at all. “Wealth taxes, viewing the state as mutual insurance of last resort for property rights, are insurance premiums. ” More euphemistic fantasy reality on your part. Sorry, but I am not going to play with made up realities.

  79. Read my post below regarding the difference between ‘Utopian (i.e. Academic) UBI’ vs what would actually be implemented.

  80. I was trained to fight in Iraq by the Marines who fought before me. Their last advice was, “If you find yourself in a situation where you’re going to be captured, fight to the death or save the last bullet for yourself because they’re just going to cut your head off.” I’m confident I can handle your “blood black nothingness”.

  81. Ok. That is a good answer. Particularly the part with the definition of what socialism is. Fascist economics on the other hand, is where ownership of the means of production is still held in private hands. But the control/direction thereof is so extensive as to make the distinction between socialism almost meaningless. The US has been practicing various forms of Democratic Fascism since the 1930s, for example.

  82. Actually, the reality is that socialism cannot be democratic.” Yes it is. The mob decides to take other people’s shyte. That’s democracy: Two wolves and a lamb deciding what to have for dinner. Is it possible you are confusing ‘democracy’ for ‘liberty’? Liberty is when two wolves and a lamb decide what to have for dinner but the lamb shows up with an AK-47 for ‘just in case a recount is needed’.

  83. You realize that Venezuela is a food exporter?”” WAS a food exporter. Just like Zimbabwe used to be. That was what you meant to type”””” right? :)”””

  84. Nixon? Yeah. But it was only supposed to be temporary too. Reagan almost put us back in but Milton Friedman (a Monetarist) convinced him not to at the last minute.Now I respect Milton…and his son and grandson. But Milton was wrong about Monetarism if you ask me.

  85. First of all fractional reserve banking isn’t limited to just fiat currency systems nor with central banking. It existed in all modern gold standard systems and did so both with and without central banking with said systems. I think currency creation just needs to be removed from central banking. That is the problem. Bulgaria for example has a currency board that does not create fiat money but rather 100{22800fc54956079738b58e74e4dcd846757aa319aad70fcf90c97a58f3119a12} reserves of their currency with another. Now that reserve currency is the Euro (a fiat currency). But it could be gold instead. The lender of last resort functionality of central banks…where a lot of fractional reserve banking abuses happens is provided by an FDIC-type entity that is SEPARATE from the currency board and can not just create money out of fiat to bail out willy nilly like central banks can.Actually Bulgaria’s currency board might have some reserves in good quality bonds denominated in either euros or their local currency or have clauses that allow remittance payment in either/or. There is no problem with that in my view as there is a 1:1 asset-to-currency issues ratio even then. And it makes it easier for the Board to inject/remove currency as per MARKET demand for it dictates. The Bulgarian banks themselves — both public and private — operate under their own fractional reserve banking. But they have to cough up the dough to actually loan out on their own instead of getting some central bank to do so for them. (People think that banks create money. WRONG. Banks create debt which the central bank can create money to loan out as lender of last resort to the banks…money that has to be paid back to the central bank which then ‘destroys’ that money). And if a bank gets into trouble under such a decentralized system it usually gets limited to that bank or banking sector. Not to mention that they can’t get into as much trouble by the time it all goes b

  86. The marine corp is a force designed to protect the wealthy from the poor. It always was.Smedly Butler knew this well. He has many famous quotes most are along the lines of establishing a corporate controlled racket on multiple continents. For the corporation by the corporation.A marine who challenges corporatism isn’t a marine for very much longer.Agree or disagree?

  87. since you don’t know the difference between unconditional basic income and a welfare state “” “””

  88. Your experience with the meat wall of nurses whose job it is to… limit… access to physicians”” mirrors my experience with VA medicine in the United States. Medical providers serve those who write the paychecks – not the patients. To get proper care”” you must either be useful or capable of causing problems. This will never describe the vast majority of people. Private medicine on the other hand”” offers the exact services required in a timely manner; I need only pay them.”””

  89. If I remember they were stupid enough to advocate a from of Obamacare… perhaps the most prominent conservative if not libertarian think tank in the world “”So perhaps very much not.”””

  90. Your argument that “”UBI won’t work because it won’t be unconditional”””” is hardly an argument against the UBI.””””Uh”””” yes it is an argument against it. I am not hear to play games like believing just because words don’t matter to you then they just shouldn’t matter at all. “”””Wealth taxes”” viewing the state as mutual insurance of last resort for property rights”” are insurance premiums. “”””More euphemistic fantasy reality on your part. Sorry”””” but I am not going to play with made up realities.”””

  91. Read my post below regarding the difference between ‘Utopian (i.e. Academic) UBI’ vs what would actually be implemented.

  92. I was trained to fight in Iraq by the Marines who fought before me. Their last advice was If you find yourself in a situation where you’re going to be captured”” fight to the death or save the last bullet for yourself because they’re just going to cut your head off.”” I’m confident I can handle your “”””blood black nothingness””””.”””

  93. Ok. That is a good answer. Particularly the part with the definition of what socialism is.Fascist economics on the other hand is where ownership of the means of production is still held in private hands. But the control/direction thereof is so extensive as to make the distinction between socialism almost meaningless.The US has been practicing various forms of Democratic Fascism since the 1930s for example.

  94. Actually” the reality is that socialism cannot be democratic.””Yes it is. The mob decides to take other people’s shyte. That’s democracy: Two wolves and a lamb deciding what to have for dinner.Is it possible you are confusing ‘democracy’ for ‘liberty’? Liberty is when two wolves and a lamb decide what to have for dinner but the lamb shows up with an AK-47 for ‘just in case a recount is needed’.”””

  95. The questions you ask are of that of the leninasts / bolsheviks / red army personal. I admire your courage for even asking said questions in 2018. Globalism isn’t meant for the faint at heart. True revolution isn’t something that is written.

  96. My point was that I’m no stranger to violence and sociopathic behavior. We can discuss harsh realities. Maybe the Marine Corps was designed to protect the wealthy. Maybe it was commandeered for that purpose after the fact. Maybe it’s just another branch of another military. I have no expertise on this matter and, therefore, no opinion. Back to the original question: once a country refuses to cooperate, who decides to oppose them, and what resources do they bring to bear to accomplish that?

  97. Ike wasn’t a Republican. He was barely a RINO. The GOP just grabbed him because they were so desperate after being out of the WH for 16 years, anyone with ‘star power’ would do. “we need to MOVE ON, WE NEED TO HAVE SOME SOLIDARITY. Yes. Like we did after our last Civil War. See, you can get solidarity but usually after one side acknowledges that it has been totally defeated.

  98. The questions you ask are of that of the leninasts / bolsheviks / red army personal. I admire your courage for even asking said questions in 2018.Globalism isn’t meant for the faint at heart. True revolution isn’t something that is written.

  99. My point was that I’m no stranger to violence and sociopathic behavior. We can discuss harsh realities. Maybe the Marine Corps was designed to protect the wealthy. Maybe it was commandeered for that purpose after the fact. Maybe it’s just another branch of another military. I have no expertise on this matter and therefore no opinion. Back to the original question: once a country refuses to cooperate who decides to oppose them and what resources do they bring to bear to accomplish that?

  100. Ike wasn’t a Republican. He was barely a RINO. The GOP just grabbed him because they were so desperate after being out of the WH for 16 years anyone with ‘star power’ would do.we need to MOVE ON” WE NEED TO HAVE SOME SOLIDARITY.Yes. Like we did after our last Civil War. See” you can get solidarity but usually after one side acknowledges that it has been totally defeated.”

  101. 11k points conservatism admitting fault…We can move forward from here. Anyone with a half a brain knew the last good Republican was Eisenhower and the last good Democrat was Kennedy. That was many decades ago we need to MOVE ON WE NEED TO HAVE SOME SOLIDARITY.

  102. The cure will be worse than the disease. If the government collapse everything gets much worse. If the government pulls back things will get worse. What the governments needs to do is sell off assets, and reduces it obligations. The government needs to focus on law and order, rice and beans. And shed everything else. While I am not a rampant capitalist I don’t believe governments should own any means of material production. I believe this because I am pragmatic. It is just much easier to tax than to take the risks of owning and running. When you own and run everything then you are responsible for everything. No one needs that head ache. I will give you an instance. There is a country I know of where the government owns the oil refinery. Every time the price of oil goes up, the price of gasoline goes up and the people riot in the street. The government ends up lowering the price of gasoline and swallowing the losses. Ridiculous.

  103. Not sure that that is on-topic, but I’ll bite. One reason is the realization that evolution hasn’t equipped humanity to handle risk in a large-scale society in a rational manner. (Just look at nuclear power.) So major parts of government and the media feel that the responsible thing to do is to limit exposure to fear-inducing information that will have us over-react and discriminate. Quite selectively, I might add, and overwhelmingly along leftist ideological fault lines. Though I think that the high level of trust we have in Scandinavia has been one of our strengths, I think hiding the truth is misguided and immoral. It seems inevitable that we’ll have a long-term dip in trust going forward and hiding the truth will exacerbate that rather than help.

  104. A gun blowing the brains out of the opposition is not a made up fantasy. It is what happens to civilizations as they age into institutional sclerosis brought on by their tendency to shift the cost of property rights protection onto economic activities. It happens every time, although some civilizations manage to stave off the sclerotic centralization of economic rent longer than others. The Eastern Roman Empire outlasted the Western that way.

  105. Yeah, all governments do that to various degrees. More in certain sectors. Electricy is one of those over which almost all countries/states exert major “fascist” control. Those sectors could be improved greatly by deregulation, but typically they are at least under fairly stable regulatory regimes where governments have self-imposed limits as to what they can do and rent-seeking is regulated and limited. Then damage is limited and other sectors can thrive. As Venezuela shows, damage is unlimited when the governments acts arbitrarily all over the economy. So to me the glass is generally half full. We live in a world that works extraordinarily well, with extraordinary individual freedom, wealth and choice compared to any other time and place in history. I consider myself a libertarian, but I’m not as revolutionary as I once was, because I think it’s obvious that not every route to freedom is a stable one. We need to make sure that we don’t get backlashes to even more primitive forms of government. We have to recognize that most people aren’t ready and that a free world will take time.

  106. I have a wheelbarrel here with paper slips that I’ve printed a lot of zeroes on. You give me all your dollars in exchange.” You ask me why this is unrealistic? Really? I don’t find monetary querulancy very interesting in general, so I’ll let it go soon. I’ll just point out that if we just for the sake of argument accept your conspiracy theory: “Because they’re refusing the private central banks from going into their countries, that’s why they’re targeted to be blown up.” … then obviously the Venezuelan government shouldn’t have refused! How can they possibly get a result that outweighs the suffering described? Whatever they’re trying to accomplish is obviously failing catastrophically and they’ll have to reverse course eventually. I’m a Swede and it seems to me that the standard FRB model is good enough. We run a decently tight ship in fiscal and monetary terms and seem to do just fine.

  107. The cure will be worse than the disease. If the government collapse everything gets much worse. If the government pulls back things will get worse. What the governments needs to do is sell off assets and reduces it obligations. The government needs to focus on law and order rice and beans. And shed everything else. While I am not a rampant capitalist I don’t believe governments should own any means of material production. I believe this because I am pragmatic. It is just much easier to tax than to take the risks of owning and running. When you own and run everything then you are responsible for everything. No one needs that head ache. I will give you an instance. There is a country I know of where the government owns the oil refinery. Every time the price of oil goes up the price of gasoline goes up and the people riot in the street. The government ends up lowering the price of gasoline and swallowing the losses. Ridiculous.

  108. Not sure that that is on-topic but I’ll bite.One reason is the realization that evolution hasn’t equipped humanity to handle risk in a large-scale society in a rational manner. (Just look at nuclear power.) So major parts of government and the media feel that the responsible thing to do is to limit exposure to fear-inducing information that will have us over-react and discriminate. Quite selectively I might add and overwhelmingly along leftist ideological fault lines. Though I think that the high level of trust we have in Scandinavia has been one of our strengths I think hiding the truth is misguided and immoral. It seems inevitable that we’ll have a long-term dip in trust going forward and hiding the truth will exacerbate that rather than help.

  109. A gun blowing the brains out of the opposition is not a made up fantasy. It is what happens to civilizations as they age into institutional sclerosis brought on by their tendency to shift the cost of property rights protection onto economic activities. It happens every time although some civilizations manage to stave off the sclerotic centralization of economic rent longer than others. The Eastern Roman Empire outlasted the Western that way.

  110. Yeah all governments do that to various degrees. More in certain sectors. Electricy is one of those over which almost all countries/states exert major fascist”” control. Those sectors could be improved greatly by deregulation”” but typically they are at least under fairly stable regulatory regimes where governments have self-imposed limits as to what they can do and rent-seeking is regulated and limited. Then damage is limited and other sectors can thrive. As Venezuela shows damage is unlimited when the governments acts arbitrarily all over the economy.So to me the glass is generally half full. We live in a world that works extraordinarily well with extraordinary individual freedom wealth and choice compared to any other time and place in history. I consider myself a libertarian but I’m not as revolutionary as I once was”” because I think it’s obvious that not every route to freedom is a stable one. We need to make sure that we don’t get backlashes to even more primitive forms of government. We have to recognize that most people aren’t ready and that a free world will take time.”””

  111. I have a wheelbarrel here with paper slips that I’ve printed a lot of zeroes on. You give me all your dollars in exchange.”” You ask me why this is unrealistic? Really?I don’t find monetary querulancy very interesting in general”””” so I’ll let it go soon. I’ll just point out that if we just for the sake of argument accept your conspiracy theory: “”””Because they’re refusing the private central banks from going into their countries”””” that’s why they’re targeted to be blown up.””””… then obviously the Venezuelan government shouldn’t have refused! How can they possibly get a result that outweighs the suffering described? Whatever they’re trying to accomplish is obviously failing catastrophically and they’ll have to reverse course eventually.I’m a Swede and it seems to me that the standard FRB model is good enough. We run a decently tight ship in fiscal and monetary terms and seem to do just fine.”””

  112. You are confusing the start of socialism (two wolves and a lamb) with what happens 10 years later: The wolf in charge of lamb “redistribution” realizes that all the lambs have either been eaten or fled the country. So then he starts to notice that those rather weak and unpopular wolves over there are starting to look pretty sheeplike. Which means that they need to lose their votes too. And those other wolves in the corner, they might realize that they would be next on the list. So better make sure they don’t get any votes either. Not real votes. Votes that actually make a difference. And they also note that being in charge of “lamb” redistribution means they get the best choice. And so they don’t want to lose their position. So this young troublemaker here, she might be looking to get my job → “Oh look! She’s a sheepish spy and wrecker!”

  113. The problem in the US is more basic than that. It is the corruption of the constitution, by amendment, and by knowing, and intentional interpretation of the Constitution in ways the framers did not intend. There is now no limit to the central government’s power, which is much worse than the conditions that lead to the revolution of 1776.

  114. The AEI is a bunch of neocons. Neocons are Democrats that condemn sex between consenting adults, and claim to be Republicans.

  115. Remember that before the government destroyed the petroleum industry, Venezuela was the most prosperous nation in South America.

  116. It amazes me that Venezuelans are not burying their loved ones in their back yards, instead of trying to use an institution that no longer functions, and then getting angry. Maybe the people’s dependence on institutions, primarily government, is the whole problem. If there is not a functioning system for handling the dead, I will keep a hole ready in the back yard, for myself, and my loved ones. If there is not a food distribution system, I will at least try to grow my own, and trade for what I don’t grow. Here. I’d say Venezuelans have it pretty good, because their country is well watered, and the growing season lasts the year. No doubt if people try to operate an economy without using the government approved medium of exchange, government will interfere, and it will be rebel, or die. At that point it will be hard for the most faithful socialist to claim government is not the problem.

  117. Translation: You can’t admit that it is just another form of welfare with just a better euphemistic label. So you resort to that BS.

  118. You are confusing the start of socialism (two wolves and a lamb) with what happens 10 years later: The wolf in charge of lamb redistribution”” realizes that all the lambs have either been eaten or fled the country. So then he starts to notice that those rather weak and unpopular wolves over there are starting to look pretty sheeplike. Which means that they need to lose their votes too. And those other wolves in the corner”””” they might realize that they would be next on the list. So better make sure they don’t get any votes either. Not real votes. Votes that actually make a difference.And they also note that being in charge of “”””lamb”””” redistribution means they get the best choice. And so they don’t want to lose their position. So this young troublemaker here”””” she might be looking to get my job → “”””Oh look! She’s a sheepish spy and wrecker!”””””””””””

  119. The problem in the US is more basic than that. It is the corruption of the constitution by amendment and by knowing and intentional interpretation of the Constitution in ways the framers did not intend. There is now no limit to the central government’s power which is much worse than the conditions that lead to the revolution of 1776.

  120. The AEI is a bunch of neocons. Neocons are Democrats that condemn sex between consenting adults and claim to be Republicans.

  121. Remember that before the government destroyed the petroleum industry Venezuela was the most prosperous nation in South America.

  122. It amazes me that Venezuelans are not burying their loved ones in their back yards instead of trying to use an institution that no longer functions and then getting angry. Maybe the people’s dependence on institutions primarily government is the whole problem.If there is not a functioning system for handling the dead I will keep a hole ready in the back yard for myself and my loved ones. If there is not a food distribution system I will at least try to grow my own and trade for what I don’t grow. Here. I’d say Venezuelans have it pretty good because their country is well watered and the growing season lasts the year.No doubt if people try to operate an economy without using the government approved medium of exchange government will interfere and it will be rebel or die. At that point it will be hard for the most faithful socialist to claim government is not the problem.

  123. Translation: You can’t admit that it is just another form of welfare with just a better euphemistic label. So you resort to that BS.

  124. Reading between the lines: This is not happening where people have back yards available. This is in the cities; in the people’s glorious highrise apartment blocks and there aren’t any yards available, back or otherwise, because private gardens are the work of decadent capitalists. I could further speculate that attempts to take corpses out of the cities are going to be difficult with no private cars, no fuel for the cars that exist, and everyone using a failing public transport system. You going to take grandad’s body to an illegal private burial on the bus? Speculating even further, the government does NOT like private, unauthorised burials. Control of life and death is the last bastion of government power. Even dark ages barbarian lords keep a pretty strict rein on deaths and burials. Because control over death is what it means to be the ruler.

  125. Ape, I think Shigg has some serious problems right now, he is talking about dark depths of the soul and blood and death. I wouldn’t antagonize him right now or he might go off the deep end and hurt himself. Just let him ramble. Now Bowery, he can look after himself. Go wild.

  126. Dude, are you on “something” as you write this? Because you sound like you are having a bad trip. Maybe you should cut back. Go outside. Ride a bike or something. Seriously.

  127. I wonder why Brian always point out things about socialist Venezuela and never about democratic socialist Norway. Why?

  128. Reading between the lines: This is not happening where people have back yards available. This is in the cities; in the people’s glorious highrise apartment blocks and there aren’t any yards available back or otherwise because private gardens are the work of decadent capitalists.I could further speculate that attempts to take corpses out of the cities are going to be difficult with no private cars no fuel for the cars that exist and everyone using a failing public transport system. You going to take grandad’s body to an illegal private burial on the bus?Speculating even further the government does NOT like private unauthorised burials. Control of life and death is the last bastion of government power. Even dark ages barbarian lords keep a pretty strict rein on deaths and burials. Because control over death is what it means to be the ruler.

  129. Ape I think Shigg has some serious problems right now he is talking about dark depths of the soul and blood and death. I wouldn’t antagonize him right now or he might go off the deep end and hurt himself.Just let him ramble.Now Bowery he can look after himself. Go wild.

  130. Dude are you on something”” as you write this? Because you sound like you are having a bad trip. Maybe you should cut back. Go outside. Ride a bike or something.Seriously.”””

  131. I wonder why Brian always point out things about socialist Venezuela and never about democratic socialist Norway. Why?

  132. They could put them in sealed bags and irradiate them. Then they can bury them whenever they get around to it. No bugs and no bacteria as long as the bag stays sealed. Intermittent power should not be a problem unlike using refrigeration.

  133. If people are indeed starving, they will just raid your crops, and you get nothing. You would have to grow indoors or very well hidden. Maybe a mushroom farm? Not complete nutritionally, but something.

  134. Combinatorics, perhaps you need to open your mind a bit. A little research would have shown that cremations started in the stone age. Quote from History of Cremation “Scholars today quite generally agree that cremation probably began in any real sense during the early Stone Age — around 3000 B.C. — and most likely in Europe and the Near East.” Do you suppose those stone age people had elaborate Crematoriums?

  135. Venezuela situation maybe bad, but it is still light years ahead of Iraq after the US led invasion or Afghanistan after 15 years or US supported war. Maybe people rom Venezuela know this

  136. Unfortunately, you are wrong Norway IS a democratic socialist country. You caan google this interesting article by the week “If democratic socialism is so bad, why is Norway so great?” Let’s set aside electoral politics for now and focus solely on democratic socialist policies. Helpfully, we have a country that very closely approximates the democratic socialist ideal. It’s a place that is not only very far from a hellish dystopia, but also considerably more successful than the United States on virtually every social metric one can name. I’m talking about Norway. You need to stop swallow line and sinker and start to think with your own head Do it

  137. Any system that needs humans to be “rebuilt” so that it can “work” will pretty quickly have an urgent need to dispose of many humans.

  138. Nixon was hardly a vanguard of Conservatism. He is easily the most progressive/statist Republican president of the 20th and 21st century. (You can make a very technical case that Lincoln was the greatest statist president ever).

  139. If people are indeed starving they will just raid your crops and you get nothing. You would have to grow indoors or very well hidden. Maybe a mushroom farm? Not complete nutritionally but something.

  140. Combinatorics perhaps you need to open your mind a bit. A little research would have shown that cremations started in the stone age. Quote from History of Cremation Scholars today quite generally agree that cremation probably began in any real sense during the early Stone Age — around 3000 B.C. — and most likely in Europe and the Near East.””Do you suppose those stone age people had elaborate Crematoriums?”””

  141. Venezuela situation maybe bad but it is still light years ahead of Iraq after the US led invasion or Afghanistan after 15 years or US supported war. Maybe people rom Venezuela know this

  142. Unfortunately you are wrong Norway IS a democratic socialist country. You caan google this interesting article by the week If democratic socialism is so bad”” why is Norway so great?””Let’s set aside electoral politics for now and focus solely on democratic socialist policies. Helpfully”” we have a country that very closely approximates the democratic socialist ideal. It’s a place that is not only very far from a hellish dystopia”” but also considerably more successful than the United States on virtually every social metric one can name.I’m talking about Norway.You need to stop swallow line and sinker and start to think with your own head Do it”””

  143. Any system that needs humans to be rebuilt”” so that it can “”””work”””” will pretty quickly have an urgent need to dispose of many humans.”””

  144. Nixon was hardly a vanguard of Conservatism. He is easily the most progressive/statist Republican president of the 20th and 21st century.(You can make a very technical case that Lincoln was the greatest statist president ever).

  145. Low immigration and a lot of per-capita oil wealth combined with an open and competitive market economy makes Norway’s social metrics great. Venezuela has managed to create a bad outcome despite oil wealth, and that’s because of socialist policies. Nothing else.

  146. No, it’s not. Socialism is government control of productive assets. To socialise the economy is exactly to expropriate business. To have high taxes is not socialism. Socialised healthcare is socialism, yes, but that’s a single sector which the broader market economy can carry. Overall, Norway is not socialist. It’s an open and competitive market economy. The hard lefts here in Sweden have until just recently been quick to point out that the Chavez/Maduro governments were democratically elected and made sure the poor got better health care, education, housing and so forth. But now it’s clear that “it sadly wasn’t real socialism this time either”, because it didn’t work out. Except for the apologists that claim it’s western sabotage or collapsing oil prices to blame, of course. It’s never the socialism that is the problem.

  147. Problem is that the government is probably the main problem here, they have an totally failed politic and they cling to power at all cost.

  148. Norwegian here: Main reason is democracy and an democratic tradition. Norway is in fact less socialistic than it was 60 years ago, yes sosial budget is far larger but that is because its richer. 60 years ago the government tried to run much more economy directly, this stopped 30-40 years ago. Democracy has the benefit that then an politic who don’t work well or is unpopular you change government making it pretty self adjusting. No its far from fool proof but it an major help. Now Venezuela went into the standard 3rd world country with natural resources trap and did so with very high style, it also did a lots of ideological mistakes like nationalize the oil industry.

  149. Democratic socialist country High taxes Good welfare state Health insurance for all Democratic socialist does not mean expropriating business, that is Stalinism, suckher wake up dude

  150. Because Norway has a capitalist economy, and its government isn’t expropriating property and businesses. Wake up.

  151. You are forgetting the main problem here – they have no money, and the government has no money. Who do you think is going to buy the bags?

  152. I have own crematorium! Nah, I’m pretty sure Combinatorics was just trolling. … At least, I HOPE that was just trolling, because, if not….well…WOW. lol Let’s go even further back and talk to Homo erectus. Can you imagine what the discovery of cremation would have been like for them? “Guys! GUYS! Dead Ned burn TOO! Don’t just have to leave him! Oh..smell so bad, run away! No no, leave Ned burn, better that way. Bye Ned!” *Gumby run*

  153. xD Yeah for real. I recently re-read World War Z, which is one of my favourite zombie apocalypse books. I mean, truth be told, tge movie Contagion appeared to be realistic in portraying how a virus can crop up in rural areas, and get way the heck out of control quickly. If people in Venezuela need to be worried about something at the moment, it’s sanitation, specifically involving the deceased. I mean it SUCKS to need these discussions, and I hope (yay hope, doesn’t that always work? What? I’m not cynical, shuddup >_> lol) one day we won’t need them– at least not as much as we do now. To hope there will never be strife is cute and stuff, but unrealistic. I would rather not NEED to build walls. That’s a different conversation though. I’d actually love to hear an Oxford style debate on that, why it is or is not necessary and how it can or cannot be avoided. But that could go all the way into “how to fix the entirety of human culture”. I think Oxford style debate is what I’m remembering, two teams of two people, opposing views. Also…just for kicks, why the planet would and would not benefit from a zombie virus!!! Someone call Bruce Campbell!

  154. Wrong wrong You do NOT have a fully open market economy in Norway A lot of the economy in Norway is state owned Hospitals and health care are mostly state owned Schools are mostly state owned You have no clue of what you are talking about

  155. Stoopid comment In venezuela you can run a private business so it is not a wholly stalinist country Countries where you cant run a business are stalinist country USSR was a stalinist country In Venezuela and In Norway you have socialist countries you can have your own business there You are just spreading stoopid propaganda You really are vconfusing socialism with stalinism Different things stop spreading lies

  156. Low immigration and a lot of per-capita oil wealth combined with an open and competitive market economy makes Norway’s social metrics great. Venezuela has managed to create a bad outcome despite oil wealth and that’s because of socialist policies. Nothing else.

  157. No it’s not. Socialism is government control of productive assets. To socialise the economy is exactly to expropriate business. To have high taxes is not socialism. Socialised healthcare is socialism yes but that’s a single sector which the broader market economy can carry. Overall Norway is not socialist. It’s an open and competitive market economy.The hard lefts here in Sweden have until just recently been quick to point out that the Chavez/Maduro governments were democratically elected and made sure the poor got better health care education housing and so forth. But now it’s clear that it sadly wasn’t real socialism this time either””” because it didn’t work out. Except for the apologists that claim it’s western sabotage or collapsing oil prices to blame”” of course. It’s never the socialism that is the problem.”””

  158. Problem is that the government is probably the main problem here they have an totally failed politic and they cling to power at all cost.

  159. Norwegian here: Main reason is democracy and an democratic tradition.Norway is in fact less socialistic than it was 60 years ago yes sosial budget is far larger but that is because its richer. 60 years ago the government tried to run much more economy directly this stopped 30-40 years ago. Democracy has the benefit that then an politic who don’t work well or is unpopular you change government making it pretty self adjusting. No its far from fool proof but it an major help. Now Venezuela went into the standard 3rd world country with natural resources trap and did so with very high style it also did a lots of ideological mistakes like nationalize the oil industry.

  160. Democratic socialist country High taxes Good welfare state Health insurance for all Democratic socialist does not mean expropriating business that is Stalinism suckher wake up dude

  161. Because Norway has a capitalist economy and its government isn’t expropriating property and businesses. Wake up.

  162. You are forgetting the main problem here – they have no money and the government has no money. Who do you think is going to buy the bags?

  163. I have own crematorium! Nah I’m pretty sure Combinatorics was just trolling. … At least I HOPE that was just trolling because if not….well…WOW. lolLet’s go even further back and talk to Homo erectus. Can you imagine what the discovery of cremation would have been like for them? Guys! GUYS! Dead Ned burn TOO! Don’t just have to leave him! Oh..smell so bad” run away! No no leave Ned burn” better that way. Bye Ned!”” *Gumby run*”””

  164. xD Yeah for real. I recently re-read World War Z which is one of my favourite zombie apocalypse books. I mean truth be told tge movie Contagion appeared to be realistic in portraying how a virus can crop up in rural areas and get way the heck out of control quickly. If people in Venezuela need to be worried about something at the moment it’s sanitation specifically involving the deceased. I mean it SUCKS to need these discussions and I hope (yay hope doesn’t that always work? What? I’m not cynical shuddup >_> lol) one day we won’t need them– at least not as much as we do now. To hope there will never be strife is cute and stuff but unrealistic. I would rather not NEED to build walls. That’s a different conversation though. I’d actually love to hear an Oxford style debate on that why it is or is not necessary and how it can or cannot be avoided. But that could go all the way into how to fix the entirety of human culture””. I think Oxford style debate is what I’m remembering”” two teams of two people opposing views. Also…just for kicks”” why the planet would and would not benefit from a zombie virus!!! Someone call Bruce Campbell!”””

  165. They could put them in sealed bags and irradiate them. Then they can bury them whenever they get around to it. No bugs and no bacteria as long as the bag stays sealed.Intermittent power should not be a problem unlike using refrigeration.

  166. Disaster or not, does not mean it is a stalinist country You can open a business in Venezuela , like in Norway If you talk whether the government is good not good Does not matter Venezuela and Norway and Italy are all democratic socialist countries The US is a capitalist country

  167. The Heritage Foundation’s why do you consider it reliable? Which country is sponsoring this? About Venezuela.. If you can open a business it is NOT a communist/stalinist country. It is a democratic socialist countsy .. The site you quote is critical of Venezuela, but it is a UNITED STATES OF AMERICA & ALLIES site, and we know the US does not like Venezuela, right? In any case, it is NOT written Venezuela is a communist or stalinist country This is WHAT we were talking about You can opena business in Venezuela and in Norway Same type of government !!

  168. Do you think they have any civil law? You respectfully take grand paw out back in the road and rub two sticks together and start a fire to cremate him then leave.

  169. Public medicine and schools are common socialist features all over the world, but the rest of the market economy in Norway is rather open, free and competitive, unlike in Venezuela. That’s why Venezuela is a disaster zone.

  170. Norway is in place 23 in Heritage Foundation’s economic freedom index at a 74.3 score. The US is number 18 at a 75.7 score. Venezuela is in 179:th place, next to last, just before North Korea, at a 25.2 score. Norway is mentioned like this: “Norway’s rich endowment of natural resources and vibrant private sector have allowed it to maintain a large state sector and an extensive social safety net without disrupting its stable economy. As oil prices continue to sag, the government’s fiscal and monetary policies are aimed at bolstering other sectors of the economy. Corporate taxes are being cut to attract foreign investors, who will also benefit from Norway’s monetary stability and an independent judicial system that provides strong protection of property rights.” Venezuela’s comment is “Fiscal and monetary policies will remain expansionary, and ad hoc policy interventionism and heavy state control of the economy will persist. Venezuela’s economy has been stifled for years by blatant disregard for the rule of law and principles of limited government.” In the rule of law section: “Property rights have been eviscerated by years of price controls, nationalizations, overregulation, and outright expropriation. Businesses that are not already nationalized face threats if they are deemed to be lacking in commitment to revolutionary goals. The judiciary is highly politicized, and the rule of law as traditionally understood has ceased to exist. Corruption is pervasive amid spiraling rates of violent crime.”

  171. I have a hard time believing you are a Norwegian as you seem to know little about Norway Social budget and being rich have nothing to do with one another In the US you have a lot of rich people still have lots of homeless too You have people starving and homeless in the US because of capitalistic policies In Norway you have democratic socialist policies: public health care, puckish public schools Not because Noway is rich, but as it has democratic socialist policies, same as Italy

  172. Wrong wrong You do NOT have a fully open market economy in Norway A lot of the economy in Norway is state owned Hospitals and health care are mostly state owned Schools are mostly state owned You have no clue of what you are talking about

  173. Stoopid comment In venezuela you can run a private business so it is not a wholly stalinist country Countries where you cant run a business are stalinist country USSR was a stalinist country In Venezuela and In Norway you have socialist countries, you can have your own business there You are just spreading stoopid propaganda You really are vconfusing socialism with stalinism Different things stop spreading lies

  174. Disaster or not does not mean it is a stalinist country You can open a business in Venezuela like in Norway If you talk whether the government is good not good Does not matter Venezuela and Norway and Italy are all democratic socialist countries The US is a capitalist country

  175. The Heritage Foundation’s why do you consider it reliable? Which country is sponsoring this?About Venezuela.. If you can open a business it is NOT a communist/stalinist country. It is a democratic socialist countsy ..The site you quote is critical of Venezuela but it is a UNITED STATES OF AMERICA & ALLIES site and we know the US does not like Venezuela right?In any case it is NOT written Venezuela is a communist or stalinist country This is WHAT we were talking about You can opena business in Venezuela and in Norway Same type of government !!

  176. Do you think they have any civil law? You respectfully take grand paw out back in the road and rub two sticks together and start a fire to cremate him then leave.

  177. Public medicine and schools are common socialist features all over the world but the rest of the market economy in Norway is rather open free and competitive unlike in Venezuela. That’s why Venezuela is a disaster zone.

  178. Norway is in place 23 in Heritage Foundation’s economic freedom index at a 74.3 score. The US is number 18 at a 75.7 score. Venezuela is in 179:th place next to last just before North Korea at a 25.2 score.Norway is mentioned like this: Norway’s rich endowment of natural resources and vibrant private sector have allowed it to maintain a large state sector and an extensive social safety net without disrupting its stable economy. As oil prices continue to sag” the government’s fiscal and monetary policies are aimed at bolstering other sectors of the economy. Corporate taxes are being cut to attract foreign investors” who will also benefit from Norway’s monetary stability and an independent judicial system that provides strong protection of property rights.””Venezuela’s comment is “”””Fiscal and monetary policies will remain expansionary”””” and ad hoc policy interventionism and heavy state control of the economy will persist. Venezuela’s economy has been stifled for years by blatant disregard for the rule of law and principles of limited government.”””” In the rule of law section: “”””Property rights have been eviscerated by years of price controls”” nationalizations overregulation and outright expropriation. Businesses that are not already nationalized face threats if they are deemed to be lacking in commitment to revolutionary goals. The judiciary is highly politicized”” and the rule of law as traditionally understood has ceased to exist. Corruption is pervasive amid spiraling rates of violent crime.”””””””””””

  179. I have a hard time believing you are a Norwegian as you seem to know little about Norway Social budget and being rich have nothing to do with one another In the US you have a lot of rich people still have lots of homeless too You have people starving and homeless in the US because of capitalistic policiesIn Norway you have democratic socialist policies: public health care puckish public schools Not because Noway is rich but as it has democratic socialist policies same as Italy

  180. Yes and that is precisely why the US is doomed to undergo something equivalent to the Venezuelan crisis. 80% of immigrants and their descendents vote for greater centralization of powers, thereby rendering a situation in which everyone must become a supremacist or lose control over their own local community environments in which they raise their children. When it comes to remote powers doing things to their children, people start thinking in terms of force.

  181. In a welfare state, the welfare bureaucracy picks winners in the delivery of social goods. In a UBI the citizens pick winners in the delivery of social goods, hence Murray’s title “In Our Hands”. As for “feet of clay”, you and I agree on that, but there are cogent arguments set forth in Murray’s book and there is the matter of word sense disambiguation in discourse. If you want to say that “welfare state includes a state in which government revenues are distributed to the citizens equally” that’s fine — then we simply need to come up with a term to describe the different kinds of “welfare state”. Politicians will claim they will raise the UBI more than the political competition will, just as in a corporate proxy fight, there will be prospective directors who will claim they will raise the dividend payout more than others. So? If you want to argue about who should be considered a “citizen” aka shareholder in the State, we can have that. But know this: The State exists due to the collective Force necessary to create property rights. The Austrian School of Economics is even more full of it than is the AEI. Property rights are NOT “natural rights”. In nature, if one individual builds something, another individual can (not may) come along and take it; there is no “may” in nature.

  182. Norway and Japan are capitalist market economies, as are Sweden. That’s why they are wealthy enough to choose their levels of safety nets. Venezuela is a socialist country and thus does not produce enough wealth to provide adequate amounts of toilet paper, much less social safety nets.

  183. Nobody has claimed it’s stalinist but you. Venezuela is socialist, with the typical failure of socialism and the typical dictatorship. Norway, Italy and the US are all capitalist.

  184. You can open a business on Cuba too… There are no absolutes here. All countries in the world have market elements and socialist elements, but not all are “democratic socialist” (which is more or less an oxymoron, btw). Not coincidentally, Venezuela is not a democracy. Venezuela is however socialist enough to call socialist, and socialist enough for the typical socialist economic failure to play out. Norway is not.

  185. Very few in Norway and Sweden Try to go to New York and you will see many more Quality of life is very good in socialist Norway and Japan In the US if you do not have money it is trash

  186. Yes and that is precisely why the US is doomed to undergo something equivalent to the Venezuelan crisis. 80{22800fc54956079738b58e74e4dcd846757aa319aad70fcf90c97a58f3119a12} of immigrants and their descendents vote for greater centralization of powers thereby rendering a situation in which everyone must become a supremacist or lose control over their own local community environments in which they raise their children. When it comes to remote powers doing things to their children people start thinking in terms of force.

  187. In a welfare state the welfare bureaucracy picks winners in the delivery of social goods. In a UBI the citizens pick winners in the delivery of social goods hence Murray’s title In Our Hands””. As for “”””feet of clay”””””” you and I agree on that”” but there are cogent arguments set forth in Murray’s book and there is the matter of word sense disambiguation in discourse. If you want to say that “”””welfare state includes a state in which government revenues are distributed to the citizens equally”””” that’s fine — then we simply need to come up with a term to describe the different kinds of “”””welfare state””””. Politicians will claim they will raise the UBI more than the political competition will”” just as in a corporate proxy fight”” there will be prospective directors who will claim they will raise the dividend payout more than others.So?If you want to argue about who should be considered a “”””citizen”””” aka shareholder in the State”””” we can have that. But know this: The State exists due to the collective Force necessary to create property rights. The Austrian School of Economics is even more full of it than is the AEI. Property rights are NOT “”””natural rights””””. In nature”” if one individual builds something”” another individual can (not may) come along and take it; there is no “”””may”””” in nature.”””

  188. Norway and Japan are capitalist market economies as are Sweden. That’s why they are wealthy enough to choose their levels of safety nets. Venezuela is a socialist country and thus does not produce enough wealth to provide adequate amounts of toilet paper much less social safety nets.

  189. Nobody has claimed it’s stalinist but you. Venezuela is socialist with the typical failure of socialism and the typical dictatorship.Norway Italy and the US are all capitalist.

  190. You can open a business on Cuba too… There are no absolutes here. All countries in the world have market elements and socialist elements but not all are democratic socialist”” (which is more or less an oxymoron”” btw). Not coincidentally Venezuela is not a democracy. Venezuela is however socialist enough to call socialist”” and socialist enough for the typical socialist economic failure to play out. Norway is not.”””

  191. Very few in Norway and Sweden Try to go to New York and you will see many more Quality of life is very good in socialist Norway and Japan In the US if you do not have money it is trash

  192. The government is a large part of the problem. They are not adapting to the situation they find themselves in. When all you eat is bamboo you are in a deep problem when the bamboo dies. What they have to do is decrease their expenses and improve their revenues. All government workers now have unpaid vacation time. All government workers now work three days a week and get paid accordingly. No more purchasing of stuff you don’t need. No more overtime. Start selling assets. Start selling exploration rights. Go down the list of stuff you are doing and cut loose things that are not that important. Triage everything.

  193. The government is a large part of the problem. They are not adapting to the situation they find themselves in. When all you eat is bamboo you are in a deep problem when the bamboo dies. What they have to do is decrease their expenses and improve their revenues. All government workers now have unpaid vacation time. All government workers now work three days a week and get paid accordingly. No more purchasing of stuff you don’t need. No more overtime. Start selling assets. Start selling exploration rights. Go down the list of stuff you are doing and cut loose things that are not that important. Triage everything.

  194. People often find themselves in situations that they caused like the Great Depression, the Great Recession, and the Afghanistan War. But foresight is never 20/20. So yes they may have caused it but also yes they are not adapting to what they cause. Like we are still in Afghanistan.

  195. Here in the US, our wall of meat is in the insurance companies and onerous regulations of the government-published HIPPA guidelines for medical practice. Last June, my internist (Dr.) requested a PET scan to follow on to a CAT scan which I had in March of this year. It wasn’t until another doctor, a lung doctor, pushed for the PET scan which I ultimately had in late September. To make a long story short, the PET scan revealed a very suspicious area in the upper right lung, exactly where the earlier predictive CAT scan showed a spot. A lung biopsy just two weeks ago proved positive for cancer. It was through luck that this condition was caught in time, not the “system”.

    It was by luck and persistence that we fought through the barriers to proper medical service. So the walls are there in all forms of health management, but the worst of them is the “professional” bureaucrats in position of authority who claim knowledge of what is “best” for all and set rules that are generally unnecessary for the most part and often damaging in the large part.

    The surgery will be done November 7th. All predict a successful outcome.

  196. Actually, it was the Germans who caused the farm pricing to collapse worldwide. How, well they “invented”/created nitrogen-fixing fertilizer and sold it around the world. Talk about unintended consequences, that was a most fantastic example. The sudden boom in agricultural output had a massive and calamitous effect, leading directly to the great depression. I strongly believe that no other single cause outweighed this significant event.

  197. Doesn’t it seem self-evident that the UBI “beneficiaries” would vote into power those that promised to increase their allotment? To say otherwise is absolute tom-foolery of the highest order of magnitude.

  198. When the full effects of robotics, AI, ML and even quantum computing come to the fore, UBI may well be a necessary “solution”. At least make-work programs such as planting greenery, cleaning the environment, or creating/building public edifices. I am very much against just handing out money to otherwise capable people. Let’s get something done instead.

  199. Correction. “They are not adapting to the situation they find themselves in.” They didn’t “find” themselves in the position they are in, rather, they CAUSED it.

  200. “I have a hard time believing you are a Norwegian as you seem to know little about Norway ”

    Hey, you do have an attribute beyond that of stupidity, it is arrogance.

  201. “more successful than the United States on virtually every social metric one can name.”
    That’s due to the advantage of oil and the fact that their society is extremely homogeneous, at least for now. Let’s see what the influx of foreigners will do, as they are 80% unemployable and living off the dole, straining the economy. As per every example in history, socialist countries fail a miserable end when the money runs out, as it inevitably does. An economic system based on greed is dead coming out of the gates.

  202. If you are a doctor, for example, you will practice where you are told. You may not open a private practice. Perhaps if you are a hair dresser, you may open a shop where you practice your trade. But if you are an engineer with an idea, you had best forget it and work as told. Only the most trivial examples of freedom are available in Cuba. And many of the so-called freedoms come at the high cost of bribery and extortion from the communist bosses.

  203. It is not that the US does not like Venezuela, it’s that we frequently use it as an example of what socialism leads to: death, starvation, complete loss of freedom and the basic right to property ownership, bankruptcy, and despair. That’s all. No hate. Just observation.

  204. Stoopid, lies…!? Do you care to mention any single business class that has not been expropriated? Ah, I didn’t think so. Oh, wait, a barber shop perhaps. From major industries to grocery stores, from toilet paper manufacturers to corner bodegas, none are exempt from outright confiscation to draconian regulation that is effectively the same. You have neither seen nor appreciated the conditions and governing of Venezuela where pets are not safe, being more likely to be the next meal of a starving family than being petted. Your defense of that style of governing as an apologist for disaster is unnerving to say the least.

  205. “To have high taxes is not socialism. ” And yet, no socialist state has ever existed that does not take/steal/appropriate wealth or the productive apparatus of wealth from the citizenry. It is just as Margaret Thatcher said, “Socialism works great, until it runs out of other people’s money.” No evidence to the contrary has ever existed. Socialism is an ongoing experiment going inevitably wrong, led by greed, basically where the gullible citizens who want something for nothing elect or install politicians who use that message to gain power, usually for nefarious reasons, either power or wealth. But in any event, Socialism is based on greed and cannot and will not persevere.
    Temporary “success” in Scandinavian countries is basically illusion. Their tax rates are in the 60 to 80% range, with nearly every aspect of their lives controlled by the government. They have given up their freedoms for the model of “enlightened government” that they seem to appreciate – but often resent. And finally, the economic model they espouse seems to be coming to an end – they are all on the precipice of major economic difficulty. They are running out of time. Fortunately, for them, they have a homogeneous society, in general, but this is being broken by the influx of immigrants and the strains on society is showing. Good luck to them, but be somewhat cautious when you characterize them as examples of successful socialism. They are not fully socialists, after all.

  206. The government is a large part of the problem. They are not adapting to the situation they find themselves in. When all you eat is bamboo you are in a deep problem when the bamboo dies. What they have to do is decrease their expenses and improve their revenues. All government workers now have unpaid vacation time. All government workers now work three days a week and get paid accordingly. No more purchasing of stuff you don’t need. No more overtime. Start selling assets. Start selling exploration rights. Go down the list of stuff you are doing and cut loose things that are not that important. Triage everything.

  207. The government is a large part of the problem. They are not adapting to the situation they find themselves in. When all you eat is bamboo you are in a deep problem when the bamboo dies. What they have to do is decrease their expenses and improve their revenues. All government workers now have unpaid vacation time. All government workers now work three days a week and get paid accordingly. No more purchasing of stuff you don’t need. No more overtime. Start selling assets. Start selling exploration rights. Go down the list of stuff you are doing and cut loose things that are not that important. Triage everything.

  208. Yes and that is precisely why the US is doomed to undergo something equivalent to the Venezuelan crisis. 80% of immigrants and their descendents vote for greater centralization of powers, thereby rendering a situation in which everyone must become a supremacist or lose control over their own local community environments in which they raise their children. When it comes to remote powers doing things to their children, people start thinking in terms of force.

  209. Yes and that is precisely why the US is doomed to undergo something equivalent to the Venezuelan crisis. 80{22800fc54956079738b58e74e4dcd846757aa319aad70fcf90c97a58f3119a12} of immigrants and their descendents vote for greater centralization of powers thereby rendering a situation in which everyone must become a supremacist or lose control over their own local community environments in which they raise their children. When it comes to remote powers doing things to their children people start thinking in terms of force.

  210. In a welfare state, the welfare bureaucracy picks winners in the delivery of social goods. In a UBI the citizens pick winners in the delivery of social goods, hence Murray’s title “In Our Hands”. As for “feet of clay”, you and I agree on that, but there are cogent arguments set forth in Murray’s book and there is the matter of word sense disambiguation in discourse. If you want to say that “welfare state includes a state in which government revenues are distributed to the citizens equally” that’s fine — then we simply need to come up with a term to describe the different kinds of “welfare state”. Politicians will claim they will raise the UBI more than the political competition will, just as in a corporate proxy fight, there will be prospective directors who will claim they will raise the dividend payout more than others. So? If you want to argue about who should be considered a “citizen” aka shareholder in the State, we can have that. But know this: The State exists due to the collective Force necessary to create property rights. The Austrian School of Economics is even more full of it than is the AEI. Property rights are NOT “natural rights”. In nature, if one individual builds something, another individual can (not may) come along and take it; there is no “may” in nature.

  211. In a welfare state the welfare bureaucracy picks winners in the delivery of social goods. In a UBI the citizens pick winners in the delivery of social goods hence Murray’s title In Our Hands””. As for “”””feet of clay”””””” you and I agree on that”” but there are cogent arguments set forth in Murray’s book and there is the matter of word sense disambiguation in discourse. If you want to say that “”””welfare state includes a state in which government revenues are distributed to the citizens equally”””” that’s fine — then we simply need to come up with a term to describe the different kinds of “”””welfare state””””. Politicians will claim they will raise the UBI more than the political competition will”” just as in a corporate proxy fight”” there will be prospective directors who will claim they will raise the dividend payout more than others.So?If you want to argue about who should be considered a “”””citizen”””” aka shareholder in the State”””” we can have that. But know this: The State exists due to the collective Force necessary to create property rights. The Austrian School of Economics is even more full of it than is the AEI. Property rights are NOT “”””natural rights””””. In nature”” if one individual builds something”” another individual can (not may) come along and take it; there is no “”””may”””” in nature.”””

  212. Norway and Japan are capitalist market economies, as are Sweden. That’s why they are wealthy enough to choose their levels of safety nets. Venezuela is a socialist country and thus does not produce enough wealth to provide adequate amounts of toilet paper, much less social safety nets.

  213. Norway and Japan are capitalist market economies as are Sweden. That’s why they are wealthy enough to choose their levels of safety nets. Venezuela is a socialist country and thus does not produce enough wealth to provide adequate amounts of toilet paper much less social safety nets.

  214. Nobody has claimed it’s stalinist but you. Venezuela is socialist, with the typical failure of socialism and the typical dictatorship. Norway, Italy and the US are all capitalist.

  215. Nobody has claimed it’s stalinist but you. Venezuela is socialist with the typical failure of socialism and the typical dictatorship.Norway Italy and the US are all capitalist.

  216. You can open a business on Cuba too… There are no absolutes here. All countries in the world have market elements and socialist elements, but not all are “democratic socialist” (which is more or less an oxymoron, btw). Not coincidentally, Venezuela is not a democracy. Venezuela is however socialist enough to call socialist, and socialist enough for the typical socialist economic failure to play out. Norway is not.

  217. You can open a business on Cuba too… There are no absolutes here. All countries in the world have market elements and socialist elements but not all are democratic socialist”” (which is more or less an oxymoron”” btw). Not coincidentally Venezuela is not a democracy. Venezuela is however socialist enough to call socialist”” and socialist enough for the typical socialist economic failure to play out. Norway is not.”””

  218. Very few in Norway and Sweden Try to go to New York and you will see many more Quality of life is very good in socialist Norway and Japan In the US if you do not have money it is trash

  219. Very few in Norway and Sweden Try to go to New York and you will see many more Quality of life is very good in socialist Norway and Japan In the US if you do not have money it is trash

  220. Disaster or not, does not mean it is a stalinist country You can open a business in Venezuela , like in Norway If you talk whether the government is good not good Does not matter Venezuela and Norway and Italy are all democratic socialist countries The US is a capitalist country

  221. Disaster or not does not mean it is a stalinist country You can open a business in Venezuela like in Norway If you talk whether the government is good not good Does not matter Venezuela and Norway and Italy are all democratic socialist countries The US is a capitalist country

  222. The Heritage Foundation’s why do you consider it reliable? Which country is sponsoring this? About Venezuela.. If you can open a business it is NOT a communist/stalinist country. It is a democratic socialist countsy .. The site you quote is critical of Venezuela, but it is a UNITED STATES OF AMERICA & ALLIES site, and we know the US does not like Venezuela, right? In any case, it is NOT written Venezuela is a communist or stalinist country This is WHAT we were talking about You can opena business in Venezuela and in Norway Same type of government !!

  223. The Heritage Foundation’s why do you consider it reliable? Which country is sponsoring this?About Venezuela.. If you can open a business it is NOT a communist/stalinist country. It is a democratic socialist countsy ..The site you quote is critical of Venezuela but it is a UNITED STATES OF AMERICA & ALLIES site and we know the US does not like Venezuela right?In any case it is NOT written Venezuela is a communist or stalinist country This is WHAT we were talking about You can opena business in Venezuela and in Norway Same type of government !!

  224. Do you think they have any civil law? You respectfully take grand paw out back in the road and rub two sticks together and start a fire to cremate him then leave.

  225. Do you think they have any civil law? You respectfully take grand paw out back in the road and rub two sticks together and start a fire to cremate him then leave.

  226. Public medicine and schools are common socialist features all over the world, but the rest of the market economy in Norway is rather open, free and competitive, unlike in Venezuela. That’s why Venezuela is a disaster zone.

  227. Public medicine and schools are common socialist features all over the world but the rest of the market economy in Norway is rather open free and competitive unlike in Venezuela. That’s why Venezuela is a disaster zone.

  228. Norway is in place 23 in Heritage Foundation’s economic freedom index at a 74.3 score. The US is number 18 at a 75.7 score. Venezuela is in 179:th place, next to last, just before North Korea, at a 25.2 score. Norway is mentioned like this: “Norway’s rich endowment of natural resources and vibrant private sector have allowed it to maintain a large state sector and an extensive social safety net without disrupting its stable economy. As oil prices continue to sag, the government’s fiscal and monetary policies are aimed at bolstering other sectors of the economy. Corporate taxes are being cut to attract foreign investors, who will also benefit from Norway’s monetary stability and an independent judicial system that provides strong protection of property rights.” Venezuela’s comment is “Fiscal and monetary policies will remain expansionary, and ad hoc policy interventionism and heavy state control of the economy will persist. Venezuela’s economy has been stifled for years by blatant disregard for the rule of law and principles of limited government.” In the rule of law section: “Property rights have been eviscerated by years of price controls, nationalizations, overregulation, and outright expropriation. Businesses that are not already nationalized face threats if they are deemed to be lacking in commitment to revolutionary goals. The judiciary is highly politicized, and the rule of law as traditionally understood has ceased to exist. Corruption is pervasive amid spiraling rates of violent crime.”

  229. Norway is in place 23 in Heritage Foundation’s economic freedom index at a 74.3 score. The US is number 18 at a 75.7 score. Venezuela is in 179:th place next to last just before North Korea at a 25.2 score.Norway is mentioned like this: Norway’s rich endowment of natural resources and vibrant private sector have allowed it to maintain a large state sector and an extensive social safety net without disrupting its stable economy. As oil prices continue to sag” the government’s fiscal and monetary policies are aimed at bolstering other sectors of the economy. Corporate taxes are being cut to attract foreign investors” who will also benefit from Norway’s monetary stability and an independent judicial system that provides strong protection of property rights.””Venezuela’s comment is “”””Fiscal and monetary policies will remain expansionary”””” and ad hoc policy interventionism and heavy state control of the economy will persist. Venezuela’s economy has been stifled for years by blatant disregard for the rule of law and principles of limited government.”””” In the rule of law section: “”””Property rights have been eviscerated by years of price controls”” nationalizations overregulation and outright expropriation. Businesses that are not already nationalized face threats if they are deemed to be lacking in commitment to revolutionary goals. The judiciary is highly politicized”” and the rule of law as traditionally understood has ceased to exist. Corruption is pervasive amid spiraling rates of violent crime.”””””””””””

  230. I have a hard time believing you are a Norwegian as you seem to know little about Norway Social budget and being rich have nothing to do with one another In the US you have a lot of rich people still have lots of homeless too You have people starving and homeless in the US because of capitalistic policies In Norway you have democratic socialist policies: public health care, puckish public schools Not because Noway is rich, but as it has democratic socialist policies, same as Italy

  231. I have a hard time believing you are a Norwegian as you seem to know little about Norway Social budget and being rich have nothing to do with one another In the US you have a lot of rich people still have lots of homeless too You have people starving and homeless in the US because of capitalistic policiesIn Norway you have democratic socialist policies: public health care puckish public schools Not because Noway is rich but as it has democratic socialist policies same as Italy

  232. Wrong wrong You do NOT have a fully open market economy in Norway A lot of the economy in Norway is state owned Hospitals and health care are mostly state owned Schools are mostly state owned You have no clue of what you are talking about

  233. Wrong wrong You do NOT have a fully open market economy in Norway A lot of the economy in Norway is state owned Hospitals and health care are mostly state owned Schools are mostly state owned You have no clue of what you are talking about

  234. Stoopid comment In venezuela you can run a private business so it is not a wholly stalinist country Countries where you cant run a business are stalinist country USSR was a stalinist country In Venezuela and In Norway you have socialist countries, you can have your own business there You are just spreading stoopid propaganda You really are vconfusing socialism with stalinism Different things stop spreading lies

  235. Stoopid comment In venezuela you can run a private business so it is not a wholly stalinist country Countries where you cant run a business are stalinist country USSR was a stalinist country In Venezuela and In Norway you have socialist countries you can have your own business there You are just spreading stoopid propaganda You really are vconfusing socialism with stalinism Different things stop spreading lies

  236. Low immigration and a lot of per-capita oil wealth combined with an open and competitive market economy makes Norway’s social metrics great. Venezuela has managed to create a bad outcome despite oil wealth, and that’s because of socialist policies. Nothing else.

  237. Low immigration and a lot of per-capita oil wealth combined with an open and competitive market economy makes Norway’s social metrics great. Venezuela has managed to create a bad outcome despite oil wealth and that’s because of socialist policies. Nothing else.

  238. No, it’s not. Socialism is government control of productive assets. To socialise the economy is exactly to expropriate business. To have high taxes is not socialism. Socialised healthcare is socialism, yes, but that’s a single sector which the broader market economy can carry. Overall, Norway is not socialist. It’s an open and competitive market economy. The hard lefts here in Sweden have until just recently been quick to point out that the Chavez/Maduro governments were democratically elected and made sure the poor got better health care, education, housing and so forth. But now it’s clear that “it sadly wasn’t real socialism this time either”, because it didn’t work out. Except for the apologists that claim it’s western sabotage or collapsing oil prices to blame, of course. It’s never the socialism that is the problem.

  239. No it’s not. Socialism is government control of productive assets. To socialise the economy is exactly to expropriate business. To have high taxes is not socialism. Socialised healthcare is socialism yes but that’s a single sector which the broader market economy can carry. Overall Norway is not socialist. It’s an open and competitive market economy.The hard lefts here in Sweden have until just recently been quick to point out that the Chavez/Maduro governments were democratically elected and made sure the poor got better health care education housing and so forth. But now it’s clear that it sadly wasn’t real socialism this time either””” because it didn’t work out. Except for the apologists that claim it’s western sabotage or collapsing oil prices to blame”” of course. It’s never the socialism that is the problem.”””

  240. Problem is that the government is probably the main problem here, they have an totally failed politic and they cling to power at all cost.

  241. Problem is that the government is probably the main problem here they have an totally failed politic and they cling to power at all cost.

  242. Norwegian here: Main reason is democracy and an democratic tradition. Norway is in fact less socialistic than it was 60 years ago, yes sosial budget is far larger but that is because its richer. 60 years ago the government tried to run much more economy directly, this stopped 30-40 years ago. Democracy has the benefit that then an politic who don’t work well or is unpopular you change government making it pretty self adjusting. No its far from fool proof but it an major help. Now Venezuela went into the standard 3rd world country with natural resources trap and did so with very high style, it also did a lots of ideological mistakes like nationalize the oil industry.

  243. Norwegian here: Main reason is democracy and an democratic tradition.Norway is in fact less socialistic than it was 60 years ago yes sosial budget is far larger but that is because its richer. 60 years ago the government tried to run much more economy directly this stopped 30-40 years ago. Democracy has the benefit that then an politic who don’t work well or is unpopular you change government making it pretty self adjusting. No its far from fool proof but it an major help. Now Venezuela went into the standard 3rd world country with natural resources trap and did so with very high style it also did a lots of ideological mistakes like nationalize the oil industry.

  244. The government is a large part of the problem. They are not adapting to the situation they find themselves in. When all you eat is bamboo you are in a deep problem when the bamboo dies. What they have to do is decrease their expenses and improve their revenues. All government workers now have unpaid vacation time. All government workers now work three days a week and get paid accordingly. No more purchasing of stuff you don’t need. No more overtime. Start selling assets. Start selling exploration rights. Go down the list of stuff you are doing and cut loose things that are not that important. Triage everything.

  245. Democratic socialist country High taxes Good welfare state Health insurance for all Democratic socialist does not mean expropriating business, that is Stalinism, suckher wake up dude

  246. Democratic socialist country High taxes Good welfare state Health insurance for all Democratic socialist does not mean expropriating business that is Stalinism suckher wake up dude

  247. Because Norway has a capitalist economy, and its government isn’t expropriating property and businesses. Wake up.

  248. Because Norway has a capitalist economy and its government isn’t expropriating property and businesses. Wake up.

  249. You are forgetting the main problem here – they have no money, and the government has no money. Who do you think is going to buy the bags?

  250. You are forgetting the main problem here – they have no money and the government has no money. Who do you think is going to buy the bags?

  251. I have own crematorium! Nah, I’m pretty sure Combinatorics was just trolling. … At least, I HOPE that was just trolling, because, if not….well…WOW. lol Let’s go even further back and talk to Homo erectus. Can you imagine what the discovery of cremation would have been like for them? “Guys! GUYS! Dead Ned burn TOO! Don’t just have to leave him! Oh..smell so bad, run away! No no, leave Ned burn, better that way. Bye Ned!” *Gumby run*

  252. I have own crematorium! Nah I’m pretty sure Combinatorics was just trolling. … At least I HOPE that was just trolling because if not….well…WOW. lolLet’s go even further back and talk to Homo erectus. Can you imagine what the discovery of cremation would have been like for them? Guys! GUYS! Dead Ned burn TOO! Don’t just have to leave him! Oh..smell so bad” run away! No no leave Ned burn” better that way. Bye Ned!”” *Gumby run*”””

  253. xD Yeah for real. I recently re-read World War Z, which is one of my favourite zombie apocalypse books. I mean, truth be told, tge movie Contagion appeared to be realistic in portraying how a virus can crop up in rural areas, and get way the heck out of control quickly. If people in Venezuela need to be worried about something at the moment, it’s sanitation, specifically involving the deceased. I mean it SUCKS to need these discussions, and I hope (yay hope, doesn’t that always work? What? I’m not cynical, shuddup >_> lol) one day we won’t need them– at least not as much as we do now. To hope there will never be strife is cute and stuff, but unrealistic. I would rather not NEED to build walls. That’s a different conversation though. I’d actually love to hear an Oxford style debate on that, why it is or is not necessary and how it can or cannot be avoided. But that could go all the way into “how to fix the entirety of human culture”. I think Oxford style debate is what I’m remembering, two teams of two people, opposing views. Also…just for kicks, why the planet would and would not benefit from a zombie virus!!! Someone call Bruce Campbell!

  254. xD Yeah for real. I recently re-read World War Z which is one of my favourite zombie apocalypse books. I mean truth be told tge movie Contagion appeared to be realistic in portraying how a virus can crop up in rural areas and get way the heck out of control quickly. If people in Venezuela need to be worried about something at the moment it’s sanitation specifically involving the deceased. I mean it SUCKS to need these discussions and I hope (yay hope doesn’t that always work? What? I’m not cynical shuddup >_> lol) one day we won’t need them– at least not as much as we do now. To hope there will never be strife is cute and stuff but unrealistic. I would rather not NEED to build walls. That’s a different conversation though. I’d actually love to hear an Oxford style debate on that why it is or is not necessary and how it can or cannot be avoided. But that could go all the way into how to fix the entirety of human culture””. I think Oxford style debate is what I’m remembering”” two teams of two people opposing views. Also…just for kicks”” why the planet would and would not benefit from a zombie virus!!! Someone call Bruce Campbell!”””

  255. They could put them in sealed bags and irradiate them. Then they can bury them whenever they get around to it. No bugs and no bacteria as long as the bag stays sealed. Intermittent power should not be a problem unlike using refrigeration.

  256. They could put them in sealed bags and irradiate them. Then they can bury them whenever they get around to it. No bugs and no bacteria as long as the bag stays sealed.Intermittent power should not be a problem unlike using refrigeration.

  257. If people are indeed starving, they will just raid your crops, and you get nothing. You would have to grow indoors or very well hidden. Maybe a mushroom farm? Not complete nutritionally, but something.

  258. If people are indeed starving they will just raid your crops and you get nothing. You would have to grow indoors or very well hidden. Maybe a mushroom farm? Not complete nutritionally but something.

  259. Combinatorics, perhaps you need to open your mind a bit. A little research would have shown that cremations started in the stone age. Quote from History of Cremation “Scholars today quite generally agree that cremation probably began in any real sense during the early Stone Age — around 3000 B.C. — and most likely in Europe and the Near East.” Do you suppose those stone age people had elaborate Crematoriums?

  260. Combinatorics perhaps you need to open your mind a bit. A little research would have shown that cremations started in the stone age. Quote from History of Cremation Scholars today quite generally agree that cremation probably began in any real sense during the early Stone Age — around 3000 B.C. — and most likely in Europe and the Near East.””Do you suppose those stone age people had elaborate Crematoriums?”””

  261. Venezuela situation maybe bad, but it is still light years ahead of Iraq after the US led invasion or Afghanistan after 15 years or US supported war. Maybe people rom Venezuela know this

  262. Venezuela situation maybe bad but it is still light years ahead of Iraq after the US led invasion or Afghanistan after 15 years or US supported war. Maybe people rom Venezuela know this

  263. Yes and that is precisely why the US is doomed to undergo something equivalent to the Venezuelan crisis. 80% of immigrants and their descendents vote for greater centralization of powers, thereby rendering a situation in which everyone must become a supremacist or lose control over their own local community environments in which they raise their children. When it comes to remote powers doing things to their children, people start thinking in terms of force.

  264. In a welfare state, the welfare bureaucracy picks winners in the delivery of social goods. In a UBI the citizens pick winners in the delivery of social goods, hence Murray’s title “In Our Hands”.
    As for “feet of clay”, you and I agree on that, but there are cogent arguments set forth in Murray’s book and there is the matter of word sense disambiguation in discourse. If you want to say that “welfare state includes a state in which government revenues are distributed to the citizens equally” that’s fine — then we simply need to come up with a term to describe the different kinds of “welfare state”.
    Politicians will claim they will raise the UBI more than the political competition will, just as in a corporate proxy fight, there will be prospective directors who will claim they will raise the dividend payout more than others.

    So?

    If you want to argue about who should be considered a “citizen” aka shareholder in the State, we can have that. But know this: The State exists due to the collective Force necessary to create property rights. The Austrian School of Economics is even more full of it than is the AEI. Property rights are NOT “natural rights”. In nature, if one individual builds something, another individual can (not may) come along and take it; there is no “may” in nature.

  265. Unfortunately, you are wrong Norway IS a democratic socialist country. You caan google this interesting article by the week “If democratic socialism is so bad, why is Norway so great?” Let’s set aside electoral politics for now and focus solely on democratic socialist policies. Helpfully, we have a country that very closely approximates the democratic socialist ideal. It’s a place that is not only very far from a hellish dystopia, but also considerably more successful than the United States on virtually every social metric one can name. I’m talking about Norway. You need to stop swallow line and sinker and start to think with your own head Do it

  266. Unfortunately you are wrong Norway IS a democratic socialist country. You caan google this interesting article by the week If democratic socialism is so bad”” why is Norway so great?””Let’s set aside electoral politics for now and focus solely on democratic socialist policies. Helpfully”” we have a country that very closely approximates the democratic socialist ideal. It’s a place that is not only very far from a hellish dystopia”” but also considerably more successful than the United States on virtually every social metric one can name.I’m talking about Norway.You need to stop swallow line and sinker and start to think with your own head Do it”””

  267. Any system that needs humans to be “rebuilt” so that it can “work” will pretty quickly have an urgent need to dispose of many humans.

  268. Any system that needs humans to be rebuilt”” so that it can “”””work”””” will pretty quickly have an urgent need to dispose of many humans.”””

  269. Nixon was hardly a vanguard of Conservatism. He is easily the most progressive/statist Republican president of the 20th and 21st century. (You can make a very technical case that Lincoln was the greatest statist president ever).

  270. Nixon was hardly a vanguard of Conservatism. He is easily the most progressive/statist Republican president of the 20th and 21st century.(You can make a very technical case that Lincoln was the greatest statist president ever).

  271. Norway and Japan are capitalist market economies, as are Sweden. That’s why they are wealthy enough to choose their levels of safety nets. Venezuela is a socialist country and thus does not produce enough wealth to provide adequate amounts of toilet paper, much less social safety nets.

  272. You can open a business on Cuba too… There are no absolutes here. All countries in the world have market elements and socialist elements, but not all are “democratic socialist” (which is more or less an oxymoron, btw). Not coincidentally, Venezuela is not a democracy. Venezuela is however socialist enough to call socialist, and socialist enough for the typical socialist economic failure to play out. Norway is not.

  273. Reading between the lines: This is not happening where people have back yards available. This is in the cities; in the people’s glorious highrise apartment blocks and there aren’t any yards available, back or otherwise, because private gardens are the work of decadent capitalists. I could further speculate that attempts to take corpses out of the cities are going to be difficult with no private cars, no fuel for the cars that exist, and everyone using a failing public transport system. You going to take grandad’s body to an illegal private burial on the bus? Speculating even further, the government does NOT like private, unauthorised burials. Control of life and death is the last bastion of government power. Even dark ages barbarian lords keep a pretty strict rein on deaths and burials. Because control over death is what it means to be the ruler.

  274. Reading between the lines: This is not happening where people have back yards available. This is in the cities; in the people’s glorious highrise apartment blocks and there aren’t any yards available back or otherwise because private gardens are the work of decadent capitalists.I could further speculate that attempts to take corpses out of the cities are going to be difficult with no private cars no fuel for the cars that exist and everyone using a failing public transport system. You going to take grandad’s body to an illegal private burial on the bus?Speculating even further the government does NOT like private unauthorised burials. Control of life and death is the last bastion of government power. Even dark ages barbarian lords keep a pretty strict rein on deaths and burials. Because control over death is what it means to be the ruler.

  275. Ape, I think Shigg has some serious problems right now, he is talking about dark depths of the soul and blood and death. I wouldn’t antagonize him right now or he might go off the deep end and hurt himself. Just let him ramble. Now Bowery, he can look after himself. Go wild.

  276. Ape I think Shigg has some serious problems right now he is talking about dark depths of the soul and blood and death. I wouldn’t antagonize him right now or he might go off the deep end and hurt himself.Just let him ramble.Now Bowery he can look after himself. Go wild.

  277. Very few in Norway and Sweden
    Try to go to New York and you will see many more
    Quality of life is very good in socialist Norway and Japan
    In the US if you do not have money it is trash

  278. Disaster or not, does not mean it is a stalinist country
    You can open a business in Venezuela , like in Norway
    If you talk whether the government is good not good
    Does not matter
    Venezuela and Norway and Italy are all democratic socialist countries
    The US is a capitalist country

  279. The Heritage Foundation’s why do you consider it reliable?
    Which country is sponsoring this?
    About Venezuela..
    If you can open a business it is NOT a communist/stalinist country.
    It is a democratic socialist countsy
    ..
    The site you quote is critical of Venezuela, but it is a UNITED STATES OF AMERICA & ALLIES site, and we know the US does not like Venezuela, right?
    In any case, it is NOT written Venezuela is a communist or stalinist country
    This is WHAT we were talking about
    You can opena business in Venezuela and in Norway
    Same type of government !!

  280. Dude, are you on “something” as you write this? Because you sound like you are having a bad trip. Maybe you should cut back. Go outside. Ride a bike or something. Seriously.

  281. Dude are you on something”” as you write this? Because you sound like you are having a bad trip. Maybe you should cut back. Go outside. Ride a bike or something.Seriously.”””

  282. I wonder why Brian always point out things about socialist Venezuela and never about democratic socialist Norway. Why?

  283. I wonder why Brian always point out things about socialist Venezuela and never about democratic socialist Norway. Why?

  284. You are confusing the start of socialism (two wolves and a lamb) with what happens 10 years later: The wolf in charge of lamb “redistribution” realizes that all the lambs have either been eaten or fled the country. So then he starts to notice that those rather weak and unpopular wolves over there are starting to look pretty sheeplike. Which means that they need to lose their votes too. And those other wolves in the corner, they might realize that they would be next on the list. So better make sure they don’t get any votes either. Not real votes. Votes that actually make a difference. And they also note that being in charge of “lamb” redistribution means they get the best choice. And so they don’t want to lose their position. So this young troublemaker here, she might be looking to get my job → “Oh look! She’s a sheepish spy and wrecker!”

  285. You are confusing the start of socialism (two wolves and a lamb) with what happens 10 years later: The wolf in charge of lamb redistribution”” realizes that all the lambs have either been eaten or fled the country. So then he starts to notice that those rather weak and unpopular wolves over there are starting to look pretty sheeplike. Which means that they need to lose their votes too. And those other wolves in the corner”””” they might realize that they would be next on the list. So better make sure they don’t get any votes either. Not real votes. Votes that actually make a difference.And they also note that being in charge of “”””lamb”””” redistribution means they get the best choice. And so they don’t want to lose their position. So this young troublemaker here”””” she might be looking to get my job → “”””Oh look! She’s a sheepish spy and wrecker!”””””””””””

  286. ” Social budget and being rich have nothing to do with one another ” <-- Oh of course they do. If you were a rich nation, that means you can be more socialist for longer before the mass death starts. You know what the main difference between free and socialist countries are? In the socialist countries, you get drastic wealth inequality that socialists approve of, Trabant != Zil...

  287. The problem in the US is more basic than that. It is the corruption of the constitution, by amendment, and by knowing, and intentional interpretation of the Constitution in ways the framers did not intend. There is now no limit to the central government’s power, which is much worse than the conditions that lead to the revolution of 1776.

  288. The problem in the US is more basic than that. It is the corruption of the constitution by amendment and by knowing and intentional interpretation of the Constitution in ways the framers did not intend. There is now no limit to the central government’s power which is much worse than the conditions that lead to the revolution of 1776.

  289. The AEI is a bunch of neocons. Neocons are Democrats that condemn sex between consenting adults, and claim to be Republicans.

  290. The AEI is a bunch of neocons. Neocons are Democrats that condemn sex between consenting adults and claim to be Republicans.

  291. Remember that before the government destroyed the petroleum industry, Venezuela was the most prosperous nation in South America.

  292. Remember that before the government destroyed the petroleum industry Venezuela was the most prosperous nation in South America.

  293. It amazes me that Venezuelans are not burying their loved ones in their back yards, instead of trying to use an institution that no longer functions, and then getting angry. Maybe the people’s dependence on institutions, primarily government, is the whole problem. If there is not a functioning system for handling the dead, I will keep a hole ready in the back yard, for myself, and my loved ones. If there is not a food distribution system, I will at least try to grow my own, and trade for what I don’t grow. Here. I’d say Venezuelans have it pretty good, because their country is well watered, and the growing season lasts the year. No doubt if people try to operate an economy without using the government approved medium of exchange, government will interfere, and it will be rebel, or die. At that point it will be hard for the most faithful socialist to claim government is not the problem.

  294. It amazes me that Venezuelans are not burying their loved ones in their back yards instead of trying to use an institution that no longer functions and then getting angry. Maybe the people’s dependence on institutions primarily government is the whole problem.If there is not a functioning system for handling the dead I will keep a hole ready in the back yard for myself and my loved ones. If there is not a food distribution system I will at least try to grow my own and trade for what I don’t grow. Here. I’d say Venezuelans have it pretty good because their country is well watered and the growing season lasts the year.No doubt if people try to operate an economy without using the government approved medium of exchange government will interfere and it will be rebel or die. At that point it will be hard for the most faithful socialist to claim government is not the problem.

  295. Translation: You can’t admit that it is just another form of welfare with just a better euphemistic label. So you resort to that BS.

  296. Translation: You can’t admit that it is just another form of welfare with just a better euphemistic label. So you resort to that BS.

  297. Public medicine and schools are common socialist features all over the world, but the rest of the market economy in Norway is rather open, free and competitive, unlike in Venezuela. That’s why Venezuela is a disaster zone.

  298. Norway is in place 23 in Heritage Foundation’s economic freedom index at a 74.3 score. The US is number 18 at a 75.7 score. Venezuela is in 179:th place, next to last, just before North Korea, at a 25.2 score.

    Norway is mentioned like this: “Norway’s rich endowment of natural resources and vibrant private sector have allowed it to maintain a large state sector and an extensive social safety net without disrupting its stable economy. As oil prices continue to sag, the government’s fiscal and monetary policies are aimed at bolstering other sectors of the economy. Corporate taxes are being cut to attract foreign investors, who will also benefit from Norway’s monetary stability and an independent judicial system that provides strong protection of property rights.”

    Venezuela’s comment is “Fiscal and monetary policies will remain expansionary, and ad hoc policy interventionism and heavy state control of the economy will persist. Venezuela’s economy has been stifled for years by blatant disregard for the rule of law and principles of limited government.” In the rule of law section: “Property rights have been eviscerated by years of price controls, nationalizations, overregulation, and outright expropriation. Businesses that are not already nationalized face threats if they are deemed to be lacking in commitment to revolutionary goals. The judiciary is highly politicized, and the rule of law as traditionally understood has ceased to exist. Corruption is pervasive amid spiraling rates of violent crime.”

  299. The cure will be worse than the disease. If the government collapse everything gets much worse. If the government pulls back things will get worse. What the governments needs to do is sell off assets, and reduces it obligations. The government needs to focus on law and order, rice and beans. And shed everything else. While I am not a rampant capitalist I don’t believe governments should own any means of material production. I believe this because I am pragmatic. It is just much easier to tax than to take the risks of owning and running. When you own and run everything then you are responsible for everything. No one needs that head ache. I will give you an instance. There is a country I know of where the government owns the oil refinery. Every time the price of oil goes up, the price of gasoline goes up and the people riot in the street. The government ends up lowering the price of gasoline and swallowing the losses. Ridiculous.

  300. The cure will be worse than the disease. If the government collapse everything gets much worse. If the government pulls back things will get worse. What the governments needs to do is sell off assets and reduces it obligations. The government needs to focus on law and order rice and beans. And shed everything else. While I am not a rampant capitalist I don’t believe governments should own any means of material production. I believe this because I am pragmatic. It is just much easier to tax than to take the risks of owning and running. When you own and run everything then you are responsible for everything. No one needs that head ache. I will give you an instance. There is a country I know of where the government owns the oil refinery. Every time the price of oil goes up the price of gasoline goes up and the people riot in the street. The government ends up lowering the price of gasoline and swallowing the losses. Ridiculous.

  301. I have a hard time believing you are a Norwegian as you seem to know little about Norway
    Social budget and being rich have nothing to do with one another
    In the US you have a lot of rich people still have lots of homeless too
    You have people starving and homeless in the US because of capitalistic policies
    In Norway you have democratic socialist policies: public health care, puckish public schools
    Not because Noway is rich, but as it has democratic socialist policies, same as Italy

  302. Wrong wrong
    You do NOT have a fully open market economy in Norway
    A lot of the economy in Norway is state owned
    Hospitals and health care are mostly state owned
    Schools are mostly state owned
    You have no clue of what you are talking about

  303. Stoopid comment
    In venezuela you can run a private business so it is not a wholly stalinist country
    Countries where you cant run a business are stalinist country
    USSR was a stalinist country
    In Venezuela and In Norway you have socialist countries, you can have your own business there
    You are just spreading stoopid propaganda
    You really are vconfusing socialism with stalinism
    Different things stop spreading lies

  304. Low immigration and a lot of per-capita oil wealth combined with an open and competitive market economy makes Norway’s social metrics great. Venezuela has managed to create a bad outcome despite oil wealth, and that’s because of socialist policies. Nothing else.

  305. No, it’s not. Socialism is government control of productive assets. To socialise the economy is exactly to expropriate business. To have high taxes is not socialism. Socialised healthcare is socialism, yes, but that’s a single sector which the broader market economy can carry. Overall, Norway is not socialist. It’s an open and competitive market economy.

    The hard lefts here in Sweden have until just recently been quick to point out that the Chavez/Maduro governments were democratically elected and made sure the poor got better health care, education, housing and so forth. But now it’s clear that “it sadly wasn’t real socialism this time either”, because it didn’t work out. Except for the apologists that claim it’s western sabotage or collapsing oil prices to blame, of course. It’s never the socialism that is the problem.

  306. Not sure that that is on-topic, but I’ll bite. One reason is the realization that evolution hasn’t equipped humanity to handle risk in a large-scale society in a rational manner. (Just look at nuclear power.) So major parts of government and the media feel that the responsible thing to do is to limit exposure to fear-inducing information that will have us over-react and discriminate. Quite selectively, I might add, and overwhelmingly along leftist ideological fault lines. Though I think that the high level of trust we have in Scandinavia has been one of our strengths, I think hiding the truth is misguided and immoral. It seems inevitable that we’ll have a long-term dip in trust going forward and hiding the truth will exacerbate that rather than help.

  307. Not sure that that is on-topic but I’ll bite.One reason is the realization that evolution hasn’t equipped humanity to handle risk in a large-scale society in a rational manner. (Just look at nuclear power.) So major parts of government and the media feel that the responsible thing to do is to limit exposure to fear-inducing information that will have us over-react and discriminate. Quite selectively I might add and overwhelmingly along leftist ideological fault lines. Though I think that the high level of trust we have in Scandinavia has been one of our strengths I think hiding the truth is misguided and immoral. It seems inevitable that we’ll have a long-term dip in trust going forward and hiding the truth will exacerbate that rather than help.

  308. A gun blowing the brains out of the opposition is not a made up fantasy. It is what happens to civilizations as they age into institutional sclerosis brought on by their tendency to shift the cost of property rights protection onto economic activities. It happens every time, although some civilizations manage to stave off the sclerotic centralization of economic rent longer than others. The Eastern Roman Empire outlasted the Western that way.

  309. A gun blowing the brains out of the opposition is not a made up fantasy. It is what happens to civilizations as they age into institutional sclerosis brought on by their tendency to shift the cost of property rights protection onto economic activities. It happens every time although some civilizations manage to stave off the sclerotic centralization of economic rent longer than others. The Eastern Roman Empire outlasted the Western that way.

  310. Yeah, all governments do that to various degrees. More in certain sectors. Electricy is one of those over which almost all countries/states exert major “fascist” control. Those sectors could be improved greatly by deregulation, but typically they are at least under fairly stable regulatory regimes where governments have self-imposed limits as to what they can do and rent-seeking is regulated and limited. Then damage is limited and other sectors can thrive. As Venezuela shows, damage is unlimited when the governments acts arbitrarily all over the economy. So to me the glass is generally half full. We live in a world that works extraordinarily well, with extraordinary individual freedom, wealth and choice compared to any other time and place in history. I consider myself a libertarian, but I’m not as revolutionary as I once was, because I think it’s obvious that not every route to freedom is a stable one. We need to make sure that we don’t get backlashes to even more primitive forms of government. We have to recognize that most people aren’t ready and that a free world will take time.

  311. Yeah all governments do that to various degrees. More in certain sectors. Electricy is one of those over which almost all countries/states exert major fascist”” control. Those sectors could be improved greatly by deregulation”” but typically they are at least under fairly stable regulatory regimes where governments have self-imposed limits as to what they can do and rent-seeking is regulated and limited. Then damage is limited and other sectors can thrive. As Venezuela shows damage is unlimited when the governments acts arbitrarily all over the economy.So to me the glass is generally half full. We live in a world that works extraordinarily well with extraordinary individual freedom wealth and choice compared to any other time and place in history. I consider myself a libertarian but I’m not as revolutionary as I once was”” because I think it’s obvious that not every route to freedom is a stable one. We need to make sure that we don’t get backlashes to even more primitive forms of government. We have to recognize that most people aren’t ready and that a free world will take time.”””

  312. Norwegian here: Main reason is democracy and an democratic tradition.
    Norway is in fact less socialistic than it was 60 years ago, yes sosial budget is far larger but that is because its richer.
    60 years ago the government tried to run much more economy directly, this stopped 30-40 years ago. Democracy has the benefit that then an politic who don’t work well or is unpopular you change government making it pretty self adjusting.

    No its far from fool proof but it an major help.

    Now Venezuela went into the standard 3rd world country with natural resources trap and did so with very high style, it also did a lots of ideological mistakes like nationalize the oil industry.

  313. I have a wheelbarrel here with paper slips that I’ve printed a lot of zeroes on. You give me all your dollars in exchange.” You ask me why this is unrealistic? Really? I don’t find monetary querulancy very interesting in general, so I’ll let it go soon. I’ll just point out that if we just for the sake of argument accept your conspiracy theory: “Because they’re refusing the private central banks from going into their countries, that’s why they’re targeted to be blown up.” … then obviously the Venezuelan government shouldn’t have refused! How can they possibly get a result that outweighs the suffering described? Whatever they’re trying to accomplish is obviously failing catastrophically and they’ll have to reverse course eventually. I’m a Swede and it seems to me that the standard FRB model is good enough. We run a decently tight ship in fiscal and monetary terms and seem to do just fine.

  314. I have a wheelbarrel here with paper slips that I’ve printed a lot of zeroes on. You give me all your dollars in exchange.”” You ask me why this is unrealistic? Really?I don’t find monetary querulancy very interesting in general”””” so I’ll let it go soon. I’ll just point out that if we just for the sake of argument accept your conspiracy theory: “”””Because they’re refusing the private central banks from going into their countries”””” that’s why they’re targeted to be blown up.””””… then obviously the Venezuelan government shouldn’t have refused! How can they possibly get a result that outweighs the suffering described? Whatever they’re trying to accomplish is obviously failing catastrophically and they’ll have to reverse course eventually.I’m a Swede and it seems to me that the standard FRB model is good enough. We run a decently tight ship in fiscal and monetary terms and seem to do just fine.”””

  315. The questions you ask are of that of the leninasts / bolsheviks / red army personal. I admire your courage for even asking said questions in 2018. Globalism isn’t meant for the faint at heart. True revolution isn’t something that is written.

  316. The questions you ask are of that of the leninasts / bolsheviks / red army personal. I admire your courage for even asking said questions in 2018.Globalism isn’t meant for the faint at heart. True revolution isn’t something that is written.

  317. Democratic socialist country
    High taxes
    Good welfare state
    Health insurance for all
    Democratic socialist does not mean expropriating business, that is Stalinism, suckher wake up dude

  318. My point was that I’m no stranger to violence and sociopathic behavior. We can discuss harsh realities. Maybe the Marine Corps was designed to protect the wealthy. Maybe it was commandeered for that purpose after the fact. Maybe it’s just another branch of another military. I have no expertise on this matter and, therefore, no opinion. Back to the original question: once a country refuses to cooperate, who decides to oppose them, and what resources do they bring to bear to accomplish that?

  319. My point was that I’m no stranger to violence and sociopathic behavior. We can discuss harsh realities. Maybe the Marine Corps was designed to protect the wealthy. Maybe it was commandeered for that purpose after the fact. Maybe it’s just another branch of another military. I have no expertise on this matter and therefore no opinion. Back to the original question: once a country refuses to cooperate who decides to oppose them and what resources do they bring to bear to accomplish that?

  320. Ike wasn’t a Republican. He was barely a RINO. The GOP just grabbed him because they were so desperate after being out of the WH for 16 years, anyone with ‘star power’ would do. “we need to MOVE ON, WE NEED TO HAVE SOME SOLIDARITY. Yes. Like we did after our last Civil War. See, you can get solidarity but usually after one side acknowledges that it has been totally defeated.

  321. Ike wasn’t a Republican. He was barely a RINO. The GOP just grabbed him because they were so desperate after being out of the WH for 16 years anyone with ‘star power’ would do.we need to MOVE ON” WE NEED TO HAVE SOME SOLIDARITY.Yes. Like we did after our last Civil War. See” you can get solidarity but usually after one side acknowledges that it has been totally defeated.”

  322. 11k points, conservatism, admitting fault… We can move forward from here. Anyone with a half a brain knew the last good Republican was Eisenhower and the last good Democrat was Kennedy. That was many decades ago, we need to MOVE ON, WE NEED TO HAVE SOME SOLIDARITY.

  323. 11k points conservatism admitting fault…We can move forward from here. Anyone with a half a brain knew the last good Republican was Eisenhower and the last good Democrat was Kennedy. That was many decades ago we need to MOVE ON WE NEED TO HAVE SOME SOLIDARITY.

  324. You realize that Venezuela is a food exporter?” WAS a food exporter. Just like Zimbabwe used to be. That was what you meant to type, right? 🙂

  325. You realize that Venezuela is a food exporter?”” WAS a food exporter. Just like Zimbabwe used to be. That was what you meant to type”””” right? :)”””

  326. Nixon? Yeah. But it was only supposed to be temporary too. Reagan almost put us back in but Milton Friedman (a Monetarist) convinced him not to at the last minute. Now, I respect Milton…and his son and grandson. But Milton was wrong about Monetarism, if you ask me.

  327. Nixon? Yeah. But it was only supposed to be temporary too. Reagan almost put us back in but Milton Friedman (a Monetarist) convinced him not to at the last minute.Now I respect Milton…and his son and grandson. But Milton was wrong about Monetarism if you ask me.

  328. First of all, fractional reserve banking isn’t limited to just fiat currency systems nor with central banking. It existed in all modern gold standard systems and did so both with and without central banking with said systems. I think currency creation just needs to be removed from central banking. That is the problem. Bulgaria, for example, has a currency board that does not create fiat money but rather 100% reserves of their currency with another. Now that reserve currency is the Euro (a fiat currency). But, it could be gold instead. The lender of last resort functionality of central banks…where a lot of fractional reserve banking abuses happens, is provided by an FDIC-type entity that is SEPARATE from the currency board and can not just create money out of fiat to bail out willy nilly like central banks can. Actually, Bulgaria’s currency board might have some reserves in good quality bonds denominated in either euros or their local currency or have clauses that allow remittance payment in either/or. There is no problem with that in my view as there is a 1:1 asset-to-currency issues ratio even then. And it makes it easier for the Board to inject/remove currency as per MARKET demand for it dictates. The Bulgarian banks themselves — both public and private — operate under their own fractional reserve banking. But they have to cough up the dough to actually loan out on their own, instead of getting some central bank to do so for them. (People think that banks create money. WRONG. Banks create debt, which the central bank can create money to loan out as lender of last resort to the banks…money that has to be paid back to the central bank, which then ‘destroys’ that money). And if a bank gets into trouble under such a decentralized system, it usually gets limited to that bank or banking sector. Not to mention that they can’t get into as much trouble by the time it all goes belly up as banks that get propped up by central banks via the process I

  329. First of all fractional reserve banking isn’t limited to just fiat currency systems nor with central banking. It existed in all modern gold standard systems and did so both with and without central banking with said systems. I think currency creation just needs to be removed from central banking. That is the problem. Bulgaria for example has a currency board that does not create fiat money but rather 100{22800fc54956079738b58e74e4dcd846757aa319aad70fcf90c97a58f3119a12} reserves of their currency with another. Now that reserve currency is the Euro (a fiat currency). But it could be gold instead. The lender of last resort functionality of central banks…where a lot of fractional reserve banking abuses happens is provided by an FDIC-type entity that is SEPARATE from the currency board and can not just create money out of fiat to bail out willy nilly like central banks can.Actually Bulgaria’s currency board might have some reserves in good quality bonds denominated in either euros or their local currency or have clauses that allow remittance payment in either/or. There is no problem with that in my view as there is a 1:1 asset-to-currency issues ratio even then. And it makes it easier for the Board to inject/remove currency as per MARKET demand for it dictates. The Bulgarian banks themselves — both public and private — operate under their own fractional reserve banking. But they have to cough up the dough to actually loan out on their own instead of getting some central bank to do so for them. (People think that banks create money. WRONG. Banks create debt which the central bank can create money to loan out as lender of last resort to the banks…money that has to be paid back to the central bank which then ‘destroys’ that money). And if a bank gets into trouble under such a decentralized system it usually gets limited to that bank or banking sector. Not to mention that they can’t get into as much trouble by the time it all goes b

  330. The marine corp is a force designed to protect the wealthy from the poor. It always was. Smedly Butler knew this well. He has many famous quotes, most are along the lines of establishing a corporate controlled racket on multiple continents. For the corporation, by the corporation. A marine who challenges corporatism, isn’t a marine for very much longer. Agree or disagree?

  331. The marine corp is a force designed to protect the wealthy from the poor. It always was.Smedly Butler knew this well. He has many famous quotes most are along the lines of establishing a corporate controlled racket on multiple continents. For the corporation by the corporation.A marine who challenges corporatism isn’t a marine for very much longer.Agree or disagree?

  332. since you don’t know the difference between unconditional basic income and a welfare state “” “””

  333. If I remember they were stupid enough to advocate a from of Obamacare… ” perhaps the most prominent conservative if not libertarian think tank in the world ” So perhaps very much not.

  334. If I remember they were stupid enough to advocate a from of Obamacare… perhaps the most prominent conservative if not libertarian think tank in the world “”So perhaps very much not.”””

  335. Your experience with the “meat wall of nurses whose job it is to… limit… access to physicians” mirrors my experience with VA medicine in the United States. Medical providers serve those who write the paychecks – not the patients. To get proper care, you must either be useful or capable of causing problems. This will never describe the vast majority of people. Private medicine, on the other hand, offers the exact services required in a timely manner; I need only pay them.

  336. Your experience with the meat wall of nurses whose job it is to… limit… access to physicians”” mirrors my experience with VA medicine in the United States. Medical providers serve those who write the paychecks – not the patients. To get proper care”” you must either be useful or capable of causing problems. This will never describe the vast majority of people. Private medicine on the other hand”” offers the exact services required in a timely manner; I need only pay them.”””

  337. Your argument that “UBI won’t work because it won’t be unconditional” is hardly an argument against the UBI.” Uh, yes it is an argument against it. I am not hear to play games like believing just because words don’t matter to you then they just shouldn’t matter at all. “Wealth taxes, viewing the state as mutual insurance of last resort for property rights, are insurance premiums. ” More euphemistic fantasy reality on your part. Sorry, but I am not going to play with made up realities.

  338. Your argument that “”UBI won’t work because it won’t be unconditional”””” is hardly an argument against the UBI.””””Uh”””” yes it is an argument against it. I am not hear to play games like believing just because words don’t matter to you then they just shouldn’t matter at all. “”””Wealth taxes”” viewing the state as mutual insurance of last resort for property rights”” are insurance premiums. “”””More euphemistic fantasy reality on your part. Sorry”””” but I am not going to play with made up realities.”””

  339. Read my post below regarding the difference between ‘Utopian (i.e. Academic) UBI’ vs what would actually be implemented.

  340. Read my post below regarding the difference between ‘Utopian (i.e. Academic) UBI’ vs what would actually be implemented.

  341. I was trained to fight in Iraq by the Marines who fought before me. Their last advice was, “If you find yourself in a situation where you’re going to be captured, fight to the death or save the last bullet for yourself because they’re just going to cut your head off.” I’m confident I can handle your “blood black nothingness”.

  342. I was trained to fight in Iraq by the Marines who fought before me. Their last advice was If you find yourself in a situation where you’re going to be captured”” fight to the death or save the last bullet for yourself because they’re just going to cut your head off.”” I’m confident I can handle your “”””blood black nothingness””””.”””

  343. Ok. That is a good answer. Particularly the part with the definition of what socialism is. Fascist economics on the other hand, is where ownership of the means of production is still held in private hands. But the control/direction thereof is so extensive as to make the distinction between socialism almost meaningless. The US has been practicing various forms of Democratic Fascism since the 1930s, for example.

  344. Ok. That is a good answer. Particularly the part with the definition of what socialism is.Fascist economics on the other hand is where ownership of the means of production is still held in private hands. But the control/direction thereof is so extensive as to make the distinction between socialism almost meaningless.The US has been practicing various forms of Democratic Fascism since the 1930s for example.

  345. Actually, the reality is that socialism cannot be democratic.” Yes it is. The mob decides to take other people’s shyte. That’s democracy: Two wolves and a lamb deciding what to have for dinner. Is it possible you are confusing ‘democracy’ for ‘liberty’? Liberty is when two wolves and a lamb decide what to have for dinner but the lamb shows up with an AK-47 for ‘just in case a recount is needed’.

  346. Actually” the reality is that socialism cannot be democratic.””Yes it is. The mob decides to take other people’s shyte. That’s democracy: Two wolves and a lamb deciding what to have for dinner.Is it possible you are confusing ‘democracy’ for ‘liberty’? Liberty is when two wolves and a lamb decide what to have for dinner but the lamb shows up with an AK-47 for ‘just in case a recount is needed’.”””

  347. Your argument that “UBI won’t work because it won’t be unconditional” is hardly an argument against the UBI. That wipes out the “First” and “Third” arguments — which are the same argument. The second argument is basically an argument that the UBI isn’t really a “dividend” and hence is more susceptible to what you call, in your last paragraph, “siphoning off wealth”. So at least you understand that a “dividend” is taken from the profit stream of an asset, like a corporation’s profits. That’s good. What you don’t understand is the difference between “wealth” and “income” as evidenced in your phrase “siphoning off wealth parasitically”. Income taxes are parasitic on productivity. Wealth taxes, viewing the state as mutual insurance of last resort for property rights, are insurance premiums. The mutual insurance company has shares. The citizenry of the state are its share holders — or at least the first responders etc who are responsible for placing their flesh blood and bone between chaos and the foundation of civilization: property rights.

  348. Your argument that UBI won’t work because it won’t be unconditional”” is hardly an argument against the UBI. That wipes out the “”””First”””” and “”””Third”””” arguments — which are the same argument. The second argument is basically an argument that the UBI isn’t really a “”””dividend”””” and hence is more susceptible to what you call”” in your last paragraph”” “”””siphoning off wealth””””. So at least you understand that a “”””dividend”””” is taken from the profit stream of an asset”””” like a corporation’s profits. That’s good. What you don’t understand is the difference between “”””wealth”””” and “”””income”””” as evidenced in your phrase “”””siphoning off wealth parasitically””””. Income taxes are parasitic on productivity. Wealth taxes”” viewing the state as mutual insurance of last resort for property rights”” are insurance premiums. The mutual insurance company has shares. The citizenry of the state are its share holders — or at least the first responders etc who are responsible for placing their flesh blood and bone between chaos and the foundation of civilization: property rights.”””

  349. I love how conservatives quote the gold standard when it was a conservative faction that made us leave said system.

  350. I love how conservatives quote the gold standard when it was a conservative faction that made us leave said system.

  351. My goal was to lead you to artificial scarcity and the undending of capitalism itself. You’re there. Whether you want to believe it or not. You have a choice, abundance or scarcity. I assure you this is not destiny, this is a choice.

  352. My goal was to lead you to artificial scarcity and the undending of capitalism itself. You’re there. Whether you want to believe it or not.You have a choice abundance or scarcity. I assure you this is not destiny this is a choice.

  353. If fiat currency isn’t the cancer that plagues us, then what is? All rationality leads to the bankers for me, where is it leading you?

  354. If fiat currency isn’t the cancer that plagues us then what is? All rationality leads to the bankers for me where is it leading you?

  355. Thank you for a worthy post. The banking legions are growing weary right now. They understand that people are picking up on the fractional reserve nightmare that has corrupted civilizations for 100’s of years. In a world bound by money, how is this not about banking? How is money not THE factor?

  356. Thank you for a worthy post.The banking legions are growing weary right now. They understand that people are picking up on the fractional reserve nightmare that has corrupted civilizations for 100’s of years.In a world bound by money how is this not about banking? How is money not THE factor?

  357. There is a LOT to say in support of what you are pointing out: Lincoln was assassinated for dissing the Rothchilds during The Civil War. They wanted to charge like 27% interest on war loans AND that included the proviso that we would have to pay off the Confederacy’s war debts should the Union be victorious, too. Lincoln basically told them to fûc% off and printed debt-free Greenbacks to finance the war, instead. Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown in the Bolshevik revolution for the same reasons. The bankers financed the Bolsheviks, too. Tsar Nick opposed setting up a central bank in Russia for years. BUT, I don’t think the problems in VZ are all from that. A contributing factor, yes. A big one. But not the entire story.

  358. There is a LOT to say in support of what you are pointing out: Lincoln was assassinated for dissing the Rothchilds during The Civil War. They wanted to charge like 27{22800fc54956079738b58e74e4dcd846757aa319aad70fcf90c97a58f3119a12} interest on war loans AND that included the proviso that we would have to pay off the Confederacy’s war debts should the Union be victorious too. Lincoln basically told them to fûc{22800fc54956079738b58e74e4dcd846757aa319aad70fcf90c97a58f3119a12} off and printed debt-free Greenbacks to finance the war instead.Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown in the Bolshevik revolution for the same reasons. The bankers financed the Bolsheviks too. Tsar Nick opposed setting up a central bank in Russia for years.BUT I don’t think the problems in VZ are all from that. A contributing factor yes. A big one. But not the entire story.”

  359. No the 1933 act, was to pay farmers NOT TO GROW, because under capitalism farmers grew too much food this led to food prices collapsing because there is a limited amount of food every person can eat. People weren’t starving to death like in Venezuela You are comparing apples to oranges

  360. No the 1933 act was to pay farmers NOT TO GROW because under capitalism farmers grew too much food this led to food prices collapsing because there is a limited amount of food every person can eat. People weren’t starving to death like in Venezuela You are comparing apples to oranges

  361. First, there’s ‘Utopian’ UBI (as described by Murray and others) and what will REALLY be implemented, which Jeff nails it in his post. One of the universal (pardon the pun) features of Utopian UBI is that all schemes replace the existing welfare state with UBI. And THAT right there is NEVER going to happen, kiddies. Or if it does, exemptions and special treatment to specific groups of people (good or bad) will quickly happen thereafter so as to have the entire system end up not being true UBI but de facto welfare, anyway. Which, I repeat again, Jeff nails in his post. Second, no…UBI can be used to buy votes just as well. See how Social Security does exactly that. Both how politicians buy votes via scaring people into believing the other guy will take the checks away and Grandma will have to eat cat food to as well as the ones who take the traditional approach in buying votes for more money distributed straight up. In fact, it is easier to buy the votes simply because the merits of the transaction would be more transparent regarding what goodies people get and who gets the political credit for delivering them as opposed to ‘burying it’ in subsidized housing and food, etc. Third, more about the First, the first thing that will go in any actual implementation is the concept of the U (Universal/Unconditional). There shall be no such thing in reality. There will either be strings attached or members of the population limited/excluded, etc. If you don’t believe this then I have some swamp land on Mars I would love to sell you! It even has a thriving ostrich farm on it! The only thing that would mitigate — but not entirely remove — these problems would be a social wealth fund set up, much like the Alaska Permanent Fund. This would deliver the closest desired results of the promise of UBI w/o it actually being UBI as the fund would be paying out dividends from productive investments instead of siphoning off wealth parasitically as welfare/UBI schemes do. An

  362. First there’s ‘Utopian’ UBI (as described by Murray and others) and what will REALLY be implemented which Jeff nails it in his post. One of the universal (pardon the pun) features of Utopian UBI is that all schemes replace the existing welfare state with UBI. And THAT right there is NEVER going to happen kiddies. Or if it does exemptions and special treatment to specific groups of people (good or bad) will quickly happen thereafter so as to have the entire system end up not being true UBI but de facto welfare anyway. Which I repeat again Jeff nails in his post.Second no…UBI can be used to buy votes just as well. See how Social Security does exactly that. Both how politicians buy votes via scaring people into believing the other guy will take the checks away and Grandma will have to eat cat food to as well as the ones who take the traditional approach in buying votes for more money distributed straight up.In fact it is easier to buy the votes simply because the merits of the transaction would be more transparent regarding what goodies people get and who gets the political credit for delivering them as opposed to ‘burying it’ in subsidized housing and food etc.Third more about the First the first thing that will go in any actual implementation is the concept of the U (Universal/Unconditional). There shall be no such thing in reality. There will either be strings attached or members of the population limited/excluded etc. If you don’t believe this then I have some swamp land on Mars I would love to sell you! It even has a thriving ostrich farm on it!The only thing that would mitigate — but not entirely remove — these problems would be a social wealth fund set up much like the Alaska Permanent Fund. This would deliver the closest desired results of the promise of UBI w/o it actually being UBI as the fund would be paying out dividends from productive investments instead of siphoning off wealth parasitically as welfare/UBI schemes do. A

  363. Is that why the American Enterprise Institute — perhaps the most prominent conservative if not libertarian think tank in the world — says it can “replace the welfare state”?

  364. Is that why the American Enterprise Institute — perhaps the most prominent conservative if not libertarian think tank in the world — says it can replace the welfare state””?”””

  365. I have own crematorium! Nah, I’m pretty sure Combinatorics was just trolling. … At least, I HOPE that was just trolling, because, if not….well…WOW. lol

    Let’s go even further back and talk to Homo erectus. Can you imagine what the discovery of cremation would have been like for them? “Guys! GUYS! Dead Ned burn TOO! Don’t just have to leave him! Oh..smell so bad, run away! No no, leave Ned burn, better that way. Bye Ned!” *Gumby run*

  366. Typo: “Bodies are not removed in time for burial or cremation and do receive adequate treatment.” Shouldn’t it read, “…do NOT receive adequate treatment.”? Now for my serious response: THIS is how zombie apocalypses start, people! It’s only a matter of time before a ‘Walker’ virus evolves and then we are gonna be building Trump’s Wall for sure and even Libtards will have no qualms manning it. 🙂

  367. Typo: Bodies are not removed in time for burial or cremation and do receive adequate treatment.””Shouldn’t it read”””” “”””…do NOT receive adequate treatment.””””?Now for my serious response: THIS is how zombie apocalypses start”””” people! It’s only a matter of time before a ‘Walker’ virus evolves and then we are gonna be building Trump’s Wall for sure and even Libtards will have no qualms manning it. :)”””

  368. xD Yeah for real. I recently re-read World War Z, which is one of my favourite zombie apocalypse books. I mean, truth be told, tge movie Contagion appeared to be realistic in portraying how a virus can crop up in rural areas, and get way the heck out of control quickly. If people in Venezuela need to be worried about something at the moment, it’s sanitation, specifically involving the deceased.
    I mean it SUCKS to need these discussions, and I hope (yay hope, doesn’t that always work? What? I’m not cynical, shuddup >_> lol) one day we won’t need them– at least not as much as we do now. To hope there will never be strife is cute and stuff, but unrealistic.
    I would rather not NEED to build walls. That’s a different conversation though. I’d actually love to hear an Oxford style debate on that, why it is or is not necessary and how it can or cannot be avoided. But that could go all the way into “how to fix the entirety of human culture”.
    I think Oxford style debate is what I’m remembering, two teams of two people, opposing views.
    Also…just for kicks, why the planet would and would not benefit from a zombie virus!!! Someone call Bruce Campbell!

  369. They could put them in sealed bags and irradiate them. Then they can bury them whenever they get around to it. No bugs and no bacteria as long as the bag stays sealed.

    Intermittent power should not be a problem unlike using refrigeration.

  370. If people are indeed starving, they will just raid your crops, and you get nothing. You would have to grow indoors or very well hidden. Maybe a mushroom farm? Not complete nutritionally, but something.

  371. Why is their currency policy unrealistic? Who controls the world’s fiat currencies? Who is trying to put a private central bank there? *Cough* Bank of International Settlements *Cough* As an extra credit assignment, look at the nations that are under the BiS’s control. Have fun.

  372. Why is their currency policy unrealistic? Who controls the world’s fiat currencies? Who is trying to put a private central bank there?*Cough* Bank of International Settlements *Cough*As an extra credit assignment look at the nations that are under the BiS’s control. Have fun.

  373. Combinatorics, perhaps you need to open your mind a bit. A little research would have shown that cremations started in the stone age. Quote from History of Cremation “Scholars today quite generally agree that cremation probably began in any real sense during the early Stone Age — around 3000 B.C. — and most likely in Europe and the Near East.”
    Do you suppose those stone age people had elaborate Crematoriums?

  374. That’s not at all surprising. The “resource curse” is a curse precisely because the revenues from the resource are, during times of high profits, “invested” to bloat the the socialist bureaucracies and the private companies. This is bad enough, but when the prices drop, the bloated organizations become starved hence ravenous.

  375. That’s not at all surprising. The resource curse”” is a curse precisely because the revenues from the resource are”” during times of high profits”” “”””invested”””” to bloat the the socialist bureaucracies and the private companies. This is bad enough”” but when the prices drop”” the bloated organizations become starved hence ravenous.”””

  376. Out of control inflation does not mean you sustain losses if there are no price and/or wage controls. You simply adjust prices to inflation to profit. So the FDR act was band-aid on a government-created problem. To add to Pisa2019s explanation, the Venezuelan government also has an unrealistic currency policy, so not only can companies including farmers not sell at prices they chose, the government has them to buy input goods and machinery from abroad at ridiculous costs. You can’t operate business under such conditions. And then Chavez/Maduro calls it “sabotage” and expropriate the businesses, so that any business still viable need to stop investing money to not have it all expropriated later.

  377. Out of control inflation does not mean you sustain losses if there are no price and/or wage controls. You simply adjust prices to inflation to profit. So the FDR act was band-aid on a government-created problem.To add to Pisa2019s explanation the Venezuelan government also has an unrealistic currency policy so not only can companies including farmers not sell at prices they chose the government has them to buy input goods and machinery from abroad at ridiculous costs. You can’t operate business under such conditions. And then Chavez/Maduro calls it sabotage”” and expropriate the businesses”””” so that any business still viable need to stop investing money to not have it all expropriated later.”””

  378. From Stratfor: “Strapped for cash to pay for essentials, embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ordered a restructuring of state oil and gas company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), according to a Sept. 10 report. As part of the restructuring, PDVSA will have to deliver all revenue from its operations to the Central Bank of Venezuela. This leaves no revenue directly in the hands of PDVSA for reinvestment into essential activities, such as maintenance, exploration and procurement.” So the oil production will continue to plummet. Not much money there anymore. Perhaps 1 Mbpd and at a profit of probably only $30/barrel, this is roughly $1/day and capita.

  379. From Stratfor: Strapped for cash to pay for essentials embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ordered a restructuring of state oil and gas company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) according to a Sept. 10 report. As part of the restructuring PDVSA will have to deliver all revenue from its operations to the Central Bank of Venezuela. This leaves no revenue directly in the hands of PDVSA for reinvestment into essential activities such as maintenance” exploration and procurement.””So the oil production will continue to plummet. Not much money there anymore. Perhaps 1 Mbpd and at a profit of probably only $30/barrel”””” this is roughly $1/day and capita.”””

  380. First, since you don’t know the difference between unconditional basic income and a welfare state, you need to read the American Enterprise Institute book “In Our Hands: A Plan To Replace the Welfare State” by Charles Murray. Second, the UBI is the political economic model least vulnerable to exploitation of public choice theory — which can be seen as the science of “buy the votes’.

  381. First since you don’t know the difference between unconditional basic income and a welfare state you need to read the American Enterprise Institute book In Our Hands: A Plan To Replace the Welfare State”” by Charles Murray.Second”””” the UBI is the political economic model least vulnerable to exploitation of public choice theory — which can be seen as the science of “”””buy the votes’.”””

  382. 1933 – US – Agricultural Adjustment Act FDR paid farmers who refused to grow food because they were sustaining losses due to out of control inflation. Sound familiar?

  383. 1933 – US – Agricultural Adjustment ActFDR paid farmers who refused to grow food because they were sustaining losses due to out of control inflation. Sound familiar?

  384. Giving away money is what caused this socialist economy to collapse. Your cure is give away more. That’s pathetic. UBI is a “buy the votes” policy.

  385. Giving away money is what caused this socialist economy to collapse. Your cure is give away more. That’s pathetic. UBI is a buy the votes”” policy.”””

  386. I am not sure I understand. If I lost a loved one under those conditions, I would personally bury them or cremate them.

  387. I am not sure I understand. If I lost a loved one under those conditions I would personally bury them or cremate them.

  388. “Unconditional basic income” is the recommended cure to what economists call the “resource curse” — a curse besetting Venezuela. Given the disastrous situation in Venezuela, it is a safe bet that if there is a UBI at all, it is trivial compared to the oil resource revenue.

  389. “Unconditional basic income” is the recommended cure to what economists call the “resource curse” — a curse besetting Venezuela. Given the disastrous situation in Venezuela it is a safe bet that if there is a UBI at all it is trivial compared to the oil resource revenue.”

  390. Hard to know as all governments seem to interfere a lot, so we lack examples. One could also debate the depth of non-interference, and the outcome would vary with that. Do we mean only private companies provide care and education, or do we also mean people pay out of pocket with no government involvement in financing at all, or do we also mean that governments withdraw all licensing requirements, compulsory education, standards and so on? The devil is usually in the details, and it’s very possible to partially deregulate with bad outcomes. But one thing that is clearly a “feature” of our single-payer healthcare system in Sweden is the long queues and the meat wall of nurses whose job it is to schedule and prioritize patients and to limit our access to physicians. However, this is not a feature of our animal medicine, since that is left to private enterprise. So our animals get timely care, but humans often do not.

  391. Hard to know as all governments seem to interfere a lot so we lack examples. One could also debate the depth of non-interference and the outcome would vary with that. Do we mean only private companies provide care and education or do we also mean people pay out of pocket with no government involvement in financing at all or do we also mean that governments withdraw all licensing requirements compulsory education standards and so on? The devil is usually in the details and it’s very possible to partially deregulate with bad outcomes.But one thing that is clearly a feature”” of our single-payer healthcare system in Sweden is the long queues and the meat wall of nurses whose job it is to schedule and prioritize patients and to limit our access to physicians. However”” this is not a feature of our animal medicine since that is left to private enterprise. So our animals get timely care”” but humans often do not.”””

  392. You realize that Venezuela is a food exporter? Why is the US to blame for Venezuela’s inability to grow food? Venezuela isn’t growing food because the farmers are refusing to work The farmers refuse to grow food because the government introduced price controls so the farmers can’t make a profit from selling food So the farmers only grow enough food for themselves while the rest of the country starves its the soviet union 2.0

  393. You realize that Venezuela is a food exporter? Why is the US to blame for Venezuela’s inability to grow food? Venezuela isn’t growing food because the farmers are refusing to workThe farmers refuse to grow food because the government introduced price controls so the farmers can’t make a profit from selling food So the farmers only grow enough food for themselves while the rest of the country starves its the soviet union 2.0

  394. Umm… no People are starving in Venezuela because the farmers refuse to grow food The farmers refuse to grow food because the government introduced price controls so the farmers can’t make a profit from selling food So the farmers only grow enough food for themselves while the rest of the country starves The existence or non existence of a central bank is irrelevant

  395. Umm… noPeople are starving in Venezuela because the farmers refuse to grow foodThe farmers refuse to grow food because the government introduced price controls so the farmers can’t make a profit from selling foodSo the farmers only grow enough food for themselves while the rest of the country starves The existence or non existence of a central bank is irrelevant

  396. No, they weren’t sanctioned at all until very recently, and still is sanctioned quite lightly. The collapse was well under way before sanctions and even before the oil price slump. It’s the iron rule of socialism: Eventually, you have nothing to wipe your butt with than the latest issue of Pravda.

  397. No they weren’t sanctioned at all until very recently and still is sanctioned quite lightly. The collapse was well under way before sanctions and even before the oil price slump. It’s the iron rule of socialism: Eventually you have nothing to wipe your butt with than the latest issue of Pravda.

  398. Basically, rebuke and refuse all thinking that is collectivist (e.g. all “the general will”, “the general interest” b.s.), transformative (“humans need to be rebuilt for my system to work!”) or based on appeals to emotion (“my hurt feelings!”), that are mostly used for limiting freedom of action, property, and speech. That is, libertarianism vs all kinds of tyranny, as usual.

  399. Basically rebuke and refuse all thinking that is collectivist (e.g. all the general will”””” “”””the general interest”””” b.s.)”””” transformative (“”””humans need to be rebuilt for my system to work!””””) or based on appeals to emotion (“”””my hurt feelings!””””)”” that are mostly used for limiting freedom of action property and speech.That is libertarianism vs all kinds of tyranny”” as usual.”””

  400. Venezuela situation maybe bad, but it is still light years ahead of Iraq after the US led invasion or
    Afghanistan after 15 years or US supported war. Maybe people rom Venezuela know this

  401. Unfortunately, you are wrong
    Norway IS a democratic socialist country.
    You caan google this interesting article by the week
    “If democratic socialism is so bad, why is Norway so great?”
    Let’s set aside electoral politics for now and focus solely on democratic socialist policies. Helpfully, we have a country that very closely approximates the democratic socialist ideal. It’s a place that is not only very far from a hellish dystopia, but also considerably more successful than the United States on virtually every social metric one can name.

    I’m talking about Norway.
    You need to stop swallow line and sinker and start to think with your own head
    Do it

  402. Nixon was hardly a vanguard of Conservatism. He is easily the most progressive/statist Republican president of the 20th and 21st century.

    (You can make a very technical case that Lincoln was the greatest statist president ever).

  403. Would you elaborate on the difference? I think it would benefit everyone to hear it – myself included.

  404. Would you elaborate on the difference? I think it would benefit everyone to hear it – myself included.

  405. So they refuse private central banks. After that how are they targeted to be blown up””?”””

  406. Well this is what happens when you say no to a private central bank. Why are Venezuela and Iran so hated? Because they’re refusing the private central banks from going into their countries, that’s why they’re targeted to be blown up. Pretty simple really.

  407. Well this is what happens when you say no to a private central bank.Why are Venezuela and Iran so hated? Because they’re refusing the private central banks from going into their countries that’s why they’re targeted to be blown up.Pretty simple really.

  408. That is in Scandinavia limited to small enough (and well-defined enough) sectors of the economy for it to not descend into a Venezuelan death spiral.

  409. That is in Scandinavia limited to small enough (and well-defined enough) sectors of the economy for it to not descend into a Venezuelan death spiral. “” “””

  410. No m0ron, they could be no more different that was the Soviet Union, where the grey soul crushing stacks of flats housed people who pretended to work because they only got pretend pay, were crowded together in small rooms with insufficient heat, food, or medicine. It’s the best the organized thievery under threat of murder called communism or socialism can do on it’s own.

  411. No m0ron they could be no more different that was the Soviet Union where the grey soul crushing stacks of flats housed people who pretended to work because they only got pretend pay were crowded together in small rooms with insufficient heat food or medicine.It’s the best the organized thievery under threat of murder called communism or socialism can do on it’s own.

  412. Brian Wang predicted with absolute certainty that there will be a military coup in Venezuela before the eodn[sic] of 2018

  413. Brian Wang predicted with absolute certainty that there will be a military coup in Venezuelabefore the eodn[sic] of 2018 “” “””

  414. Brian Wang predicted with absolute certainty that there will be a military coup in Venezuela before the eodn of 2018 Before the end of 2018, and we have still aout two months to go Luca Mazza predicts there will NOT be any coup in Venezuela in 2018

  415. Brian Wang predicted with absolute certainty that there will be a military coup in Venezuela before the eodn of 2018 Before the end of 2018 and we have still aout two months to go Luca Mazza predicts there will NOT be any coup in Venezuela in 2018

  416. The Scandinavian countries are very competitive and open market economies. Sure, we have fairly high tax rates and welfare systems, and very high government involvement in medicine and education, but in many aspects, corporations enjoy a freer and more competitive environment than they do in the US. The meaning of the word is important, as you indicate. Socialism is really about government ownership of productive resources/companies. That is in Scandinavia limited to small enough (and well-defined enough) sectors of the economy for it to not descend into a Venezuelan death spiral.

  417. The Scandinavian countries are very competitive and open market economies. Sure we have fairly high tax rates and welfare systems and very high government involvement in medicine and education but in many aspects corporations enjoy a freer and more competitive environment than they do in the US. The meaning of the word is important as you indicate. Socialism is really about government ownership of productive resources/companies. That is in Scandinavia limited to small enough (and well-defined enough) sectors of the economy for it to not descend into a Venezuelan death spiral.

  418. Reading between the lines: This is not happening where people have back yards available. This is in the cities; in the people’s glorious highrise apartment blocks and there aren’t any yards available, back or otherwise, because private gardens are the work of decadent capitalists.

    I could further speculate that attempts to take corpses out of the cities are going to be difficult with no private cars, no fuel for the cars that exist, and everyone using a failing public transport system. You going to take grandad’s body to an illegal private burial on the bus?

    Speculating even further, the government does NOT like private, unauthorised burials. Control of life and death is the last bastion of government power. Even dark ages barbarian lords keep a pretty strict rein on deaths and burials. Because control over death is what it means to be the ruler.

  419. Ape, I think Shigg has some serious problems right now, he is talking about dark depths of the soul and blood and death. I wouldn’t antagonize him right now or he might go off the deep end and hurt himself.
    Just let him ramble.

    Now Bowery, he can look after himself. Go wild.

  420. Actually, the reality is that socialism cannot be democratic. It’s a not sufficiently well known fact that open access to positions of political power cannot be reliably had without open access to positions of economic power. Once politicans take over the economy, a crucial separation of power is lost and the politicians will start to extract rents. They will then limit access to positions of political power to cement their control over the economy and to be able to continue extracting rents. There’s an emerging body of research on this topic. Google “open access orders”.

  421. Actually the reality is that socialism cannot be democratic. It’s a not sufficiently well known fact that open access to positions of political power cannot be reliably had without open access to positions of economic power. Once politicans take over the economy a crucial separation of power is lost and the politicians will start to extract rents. They will then limit access to positions of political power to cement their control over the economy and to be able to continue extracting rents. There’s an emerging body of research on this topic. Google open access orders””.”””

  422. Wonder how much of the problems are caused by sanctions. If they were just left alone and not locked down economically, it would be different. Maybe any small nation would collapse regardless of political ideologic leadership if they were cut off from all trade.

  423. Wonder how much of the problems are caused by sanctions.If they were just left alone and not locked down economically it would be different.Maybe any small nation would collapse regardless of political ideologic leadership if they were cut off from all trade.

  424. Dude, are you on “something” as you write this? Because you sound like you are having a bad trip. Maybe you should cut back.
    Go outside. Ride a bike or something.

    Seriously.

  425. You are confusing the start of socialism (two wolves and a lamb) with what happens 10 years later:

    The wolf in charge of lamb “redistribution” realizes that all the lambs have either been eaten or fled the country. So then he starts to notice that those rather weak and unpopular wolves over there are starting to look pretty sheeplike. Which means that they need to lose their votes too.

    And those other wolves in the corner, they might realize that they would be next on the list. So better make sure they don’t get any votes either. Not real votes. Votes that actually make a difference.

    And they also note that being in charge of “lamb” redistribution means they get the best choice. And so they don’t want to lose their position. So this young troublemaker here, she might be looking to get my job → “Oh look! She’s a sheepish spy and wrecker!”

  426. No, socialism means the intention to use the force of government to interfere as necessary with and even extinguish individual rights, in favor of the mythical–explicitly impossible, given our biology–groupthink called by Rousseau, the General Will. We are not ants, there is no hive mind, there is no inherent legitimacy found in the majority. Only the individual really exists, there is no hivemind. The ascent in Europe of the philosophy of Rousseau ended the Enlightenment and began the Endarkenment which made the 1900s–and is looking to also make the 2000s–an abattoir and our future as dystopian as the mob demands. Every nation not adopting Enlightenment principles in it’s government is on the road to become Venezuela, however they pause on that road. The only proper thing is to get off that road.

  427. No socialism means the intention to use the force of government to interfere as necessary with and even extinguish individual rights in favor of the mythical–explicitly impossible given our biology–groupthink called by Rousseau the General Will. We are not ants there is no hive mind there is no inherent legitimacy found in the majority. Only the individual really exists there is no hivemind.The ascent in Europe of the philosophy of Rousseau ended the Enlightenment and began the Endarkenment which made the 1900s–and is looking to also make the 2000s–an abattoir and our future as dystopian as the mob demands. Every nation not adopting Enlightenment principles in it’s government is on the road to become Venezuela however they pause on that road.The only proper thing is to get off that road.

  428. The problem in the US is more basic than that. It is the corruption of the constitution, by amendment, and by knowing, and intentional interpretation of the Constitution in ways the framers did not intend. There is now no limit to the central government’s power, which is much worse than the conditions that lead to the revolution of 1776.

  429. It amazes me that Venezuelans are not burying their loved ones in their back yards, instead of trying to use an institution that no longer functions, and then getting angry. Maybe the people’s dependence on institutions, primarily government, is the whole problem.
    If there is not a functioning system for handling the dead, I will keep a hole ready in the back yard, for myself, and my loved ones. If there is not a food distribution system, I will at least try to grow my own, and trade for what I don’t grow. Here. I’d say Venezuelans have it pretty good, because their country is well watered, and the growing season lasts the year.
    No doubt if people try to operate an economy without using the government approved medium of exchange, government will interfere, and it will be rebel, or die. At that point it will be hard for the most faithful socialist to claim government is not the problem.

  430. The cure will be worse than the disease. If the government collapse everything gets much worse. If the government pulls back things will get worse. What the governments needs to do is sell off assets, and reduces it obligations. The government needs to focus on law and order, rice and beans. And shed everything else. While I am not a rampant capitalist I don’t believe governments should own any means of material production. I believe this because I am pragmatic. It is just much easier to tax than to take the risks of owning and running. When you own and run everything then you are responsible for everything. No one needs that head ache.

    I will give you an instance. There is a country I know of where the government owns the oil refinery. Every time the price of oil goes up, the price of gasoline goes up and the people riot in the street. The government ends up lowering the price of gasoline and swallowing the losses. Ridiculous.

  431. We are doing perfectly fine here in Scandinavia. But the meaning behind the word socialism is quite different here compared to the US.

  432. We are doing perfectly fine here in Scandinavia. But the meaning behind the word socialism is quite different here compared to the US.

  433. Not sure that that is on-topic, but I’ll bite.

    One reason is the realization that evolution hasn’t equipped humanity to handle risk in a large-scale society in a rational manner. (Just look at nuclear power.) So major parts of government and the media feel that the responsible thing to do is to limit exposure to fear-inducing information that will have us over-react and discriminate. Quite selectively, I might add, and overwhelmingly along leftist ideological fault lines.

    Though I think that the high level of trust we have in Scandinavia has been one of our strengths, I think hiding the truth is misguided and immoral. It seems inevitable that we’ll have a long-term dip in trust going forward and hiding the truth will exacerbate that rather than help.

  434. A gun blowing the brains out of the opposition is not a made up fantasy. It is what happens to civilizations as they age into institutional sclerosis brought on by their tendency to shift the cost of property rights protection onto economic activities. It happens every time, although some civilizations manage to stave off the sclerotic centralization of economic rent longer than others. The Eastern Roman Empire outlasted the Western that way.

  435. Yeah, all governments do that to various degrees. More in certain sectors. Electricy is one of those over which almost all countries/states exert major “fascist” control. Those sectors could be improved greatly by deregulation, but typically they are at least under fairly stable regulatory regimes where governments have self-imposed limits as to what they can do and rent-seeking is regulated and limited. Then damage is limited and other sectors can thrive. As Venezuela shows, damage is unlimited when the governments acts arbitrarily all over the economy.

    So to me the glass is generally half full. We live in a world that works extraordinarily well, with extraordinary individual freedom, wealth and choice compared to any other time and place in history. I consider myself a libertarian, but I’m not as revolutionary as I once was, because I think it’s obvious that not every route to freedom is a stable one. We need to make sure that we don’t get backlashes to even more primitive forms of government. We have to recognize that most people aren’t ready and that a free world will take time.

  436. “I have a wheelbarrel here with paper slips that I’ve printed a lot of zeroes on. You give me all your dollars in exchange.” You ask me why this is unrealistic? Really?

    I don’t find monetary querulancy very interesting in general, so I’ll let it go soon. I’ll just point out that if we just for the sake of argument accept your conspiracy theory: “Because they’re refusing the private central banks from going into their countries, that’s why they’re targeted to be blown up.”

    … then obviously the Venezuelan government shouldn’t have refused! How can they possibly get a result that outweighs the suffering described? Whatever they’re trying to accomplish is obviously failing catastrophically and they’ll have to reverse course eventually.

    I’m a Swede and it seems to me that the standard FRB model is good enough. We run a decently tight ship in fiscal and monetary terms and seem to do just fine.

  437. The questions you ask are of that of the leninasts / bolsheviks / red army personal. I admire your courage for even asking said questions in 2018.

    Globalism isn’t meant for the faint at heart. True revolution isn’t something that is written.

  438. My point was that I’m no stranger to violence and sociopathic behavior. We can discuss harsh realities.

    Maybe the Marine Corps was designed to protect the wealthy. Maybe it was commandeered for that purpose after the fact. Maybe it’s just another branch of another military. I have no expertise on this matter and, therefore, no opinion.

    Back to the original question: once a country refuses to cooperate, who decides to oppose them, and what resources do they bring to bear to accomplish that?

  439. Ike wasn’t a Republican. He was barely a RINO. The GOP just grabbed him because they were so desperate after being out of the WH for 16 years, anyone with ‘star power’ would do.

    “we need to MOVE ON, WE NEED TO HAVE SOME SOLIDARITY.

    Yes. Like we did after our last Civil War. See, you can get solidarity but usually after one side acknowledges that it has been totally defeated.

  440. Democratic socialism — and recall that Hugo Chavez was genuinely popular for many years — is ultimately no better than undemocratic socialism. Look at the trend lines in California, once the leading light of the US, to see what lies ahead for us.

  441. Democratic socialism — and recall that Hugo Chavez was genuinely popular for many years — is ultimately no better than undemocratic socialism. Look at the trend lines in California once the leading light of the US to see what lies ahead for us.

  442. 11k points, conservatism, admitting fault…

    We can move forward from here. Anyone with a half a brain knew the last good Republican was Eisenhower and the last good Democrat was Kennedy. That was many decades ago, we need to MOVE ON, WE NEED TO HAVE SOME SOLIDARITY.

  443. Nixon? Yeah. But it was only supposed to be temporary too. Reagan almost put us back in but Milton Friedman (a Monetarist) convinced him not to at the last minute.

    Now, I respect Milton…and his son and grandson. But Milton was wrong about Monetarism, if you ask me.

  444. First of all, fractional reserve banking isn’t limited to just fiat currency systems nor with central banking.

    It existed in all modern gold standard systems and did so both with and without central banking with said systems.

    I think currency creation just needs to be removed from central banking. That is the problem. Bulgaria, for example, has a currency board that does not create fiat money but rather 100% reserves of their currency with another. Now that reserve currency is the Euro (a fiat currency). But, it could be gold instead. The lender of last resort functionality of central banks…where a lot of fractional reserve banking abuses happens, is provided by an FDIC-type entity that is SEPARATE from the currency board and can not just create money out of fiat to bail out willy nilly like central banks can.

    Actually, Bulgaria’s currency board might have some reserves in good quality bonds denominated in either euros or their local currency or have clauses that allow remittance payment in either/or. There is no problem with that in my view as there is a 1:1 asset-to-currency issues ratio even then. And it makes it easier for the Board to inject/remove currency as per MARKET demand for it dictates.

    The Bulgarian banks themselves — both public and private — operate under their own fractional reserve banking. But they have to cough up the dough to actually loan out on their own, instead of getting some central bank to do so for them. (People think that banks create money. WRONG. Banks create debt, which the central bank can create money to loan out as lender of last resort to the banks…money that has to be paid back to the central bank, which then ‘destroys’ that money).

    And if a bank gets into trouble under such a decentralized system, it usually gets limited to that bank or banking sector. Not to mention that they can’t get into as much trouble by the time it all goes belly up as banks that get propped up by central banks via the process I describe in the preceding paragraph, tend to.

  445. The marine corp is a force designed to protect the wealthy from the poor. It always was.

    Smedly Butler knew this well. He has many famous quotes, most are along the lines of establishing a corporate controlled racket on multiple continents. For the corporation, by the corporation.

    A marine who challenges corporatism, isn’t a marine for very much longer.

    Agree or disagree?

  446. ” since you don’t know the difference between unconditional basic income and a welfare state ” <-- There ain't none. ~ you need to read the Authority Figure with feet of clay I'm holding up like the tablets of Moses ~ <-- Fixed it for you. " the UBI is the political economic model least vulnerable to exploitation of public choice theory -- which can be seen as the science of "buy the votes". " <--- So no politician will ever claim they will raise the UBI more than the political competition will? I used to think of you as someone who could think clearly.

  447. If I remember they were stupid enough to advocate a from of Obamacare…

    ” perhaps the most prominent conservative if not libertarian think tank in the world ”

    So perhaps very much not.

  448. Your experience with the “meat wall of nurses whose job it is to… limit… access to physicians” mirrors my experience with VA medicine in the United States. Medical providers serve those who write the paychecks – not the patients. To get proper care, you must either be useful or capable of causing problems. This will never describe the vast majority of people.

    Private medicine, on the other hand, offers the exact services required in a timely manner; I need only pay them.

  449. “Your argument that “UBI won’t work because it won’t be unconditional” is hardly an argument against the UBI.”

    Uh, yes it is an argument against it. I am not hear to play games like believing just because words don’t matter to you then they just shouldn’t matter at all.

    “Wealth taxes, viewing the state as mutual insurance of last resort for property rights, are insurance premiums. ”

    More euphemistic fantasy reality on your part. Sorry, but I am not going to play with made up realities.

  450. I was trained to fight in Iraq by the Marines who fought before me. Their last advice was, “If you find yourself in a situation where you’re going to be captured, fight to the death or save the last bullet for yourself because they’re just going to cut your head off.”

    I’m confident I can handle your “blood black nothingness”.

  451. Ok. That is a good answer. Particularly the part with the definition of what socialism is.

    Fascist economics on the other hand, is where ownership of the means of production is still held in private hands. But the control/direction thereof is so extensive as to make the distinction between socialism almost meaningless.

    The US has been practicing various forms of Democratic Fascism since the 1930s, for example.

  452. “Actually, the reality is that socialism cannot be democratic.”

    Yes it is. The mob decides to take other people’s shyte. That’s democracy: Two wolves and a lamb deciding what to have for dinner.

    Is it possible you are confusing ‘democracy’ for ‘liberty’? Liberty is when two wolves and a lamb decide what to have for dinner but the lamb shows up with an AK-47 for ‘just in case a recount is needed’.

  453. Your argument that “UBI won’t work because it won’t be unconditional” is hardly an argument against the UBI. That wipes out the “First” and “Third” arguments — which are the same argument.

    The second argument is basically an argument that the UBI isn’t really a “dividend” and hence is more susceptible to what you call, in your last paragraph, “siphoning off wealth”.

    So at least you understand that a “dividend” is taken from the profit stream of an asset, like a corporation’s profits. That’s good. What you don’t understand is the difference between “wealth” and “income” as evidenced in your phrase “siphoning off wealth parasitically”. Income taxes are parasitic on productivity. Wealth taxes, viewing the state as mutual insurance of last resort for property rights, are insurance premiums. The mutual insurance company has shares. The citizenry of the state are its share holders — or at least the first responders etc who are responsible for placing their flesh blood and bone between chaos and the foundation of civilization: property rights.

  454. My goal was to lead you to artificial scarcity and the undending of capitalism itself. You’re there. Whether you want to believe it or not.

    You have a choice, abundance or scarcity. I assure you this is not destiny, this is a choice.

  455. If fiat currency isn’t the cancer that plagues us, then what is? All rationality leads to the bankers for me, where is it leading you?

  456. Thank you for a worthy post.

    The banking legions are growing weary right now. They understand that people are picking up on the fractional reserve nightmare that has corrupted civilizations for 100’s of years.

    In a world bound by money, how is this not about banking? How is money not THE factor?

  457. There is a LOT to say in support of what you are pointing out:

    Lincoln was assassinated for dissing the Rothchilds during The Civil War. They wanted to charge like 27% interest on war loans AND that included the proviso that we would have to pay off the Confederacy’s war debts should the Union be victorious, too. Lincoln basically told them to fûc% off and printed debt-free Greenbacks to finance the war, instead.

    Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown in the Bolshevik revolution for the same reasons. The bankers financed the Bolsheviks, too. Tsar Nick opposed setting up a central bank in Russia for years.

    BUT, I don’t think the problems in VZ are all from that. A contributing factor, yes. A big one. But not the entire story.

  458. No the 1933 act, was to pay farmers NOT TO GROW, because under capitalism farmers grew too much food this led to food prices collapsing because there is a limited amount of food every person can eat.

    People weren’t starving to death like in Venezuela

    You are comparing apples to oranges

  459. First, there’s ‘Utopian’ UBI (as described by Murray and others) and what will REALLY be implemented, which Jeff nails it in his post. One of the universal (pardon the pun) features of Utopian UBI is that all schemes replace the existing welfare state with UBI. And THAT right there is NEVER going to happen, kiddies. Or if it does, exemptions and special treatment to specific groups of people (good or bad) will quickly happen thereafter so as to have the entire system end up not being true UBI but de facto welfare, anyway. Which, I repeat again, Jeff nails in his post.

    Second, no…UBI can be used to buy votes just as well. See how Social Security does exactly that. Both how politicians buy votes via scaring people into believing the other guy will take the checks away and Grandma will have to eat cat food to as well as the ones who take the traditional approach in buying votes for more money distributed straight up.

    In fact, it is easier to buy the votes simply because the merits of the transaction would be more transparent regarding what goodies people get and who gets the political credit for delivering them as opposed to ‘burying it’ in subsidized housing and food, etc.

    Third, more about the First, the first thing that will go in any actual implementation is the concept of the U (Universal/Unconditional). There shall be no such thing in reality. There will either be strings attached or members of the population limited/excluded, etc. If you don’t believe this then I have some swamp land on Mars I would love to sell you! It even has a thriving ostrich farm on it!

    The only thing that would mitigate — but not entirely remove — these problems would be a social wealth fund set up, much like the Alaska Permanent Fund. This would deliver the closest desired results of the promise of UBI w/o it actually being UBI as the fund would be paying out dividends from productive investments instead of siphoning off wealth parasitically as welfare/UBI schemes do. And as such, the same dividend per share corporate shareholder structure will prevent tampering by the politicians to buy votes from certain groups at the expense of everyone else.

  460. Is that why the American Enterprise Institute — perhaps the most prominent conservative if not libertarian think tank in the world — says it can “replace the welfare state”?

  461. Typo: “Bodies are not removed in time for burial or cremation and do receive adequate treatment.”

    Shouldn’t it read, “…do NOT receive adequate treatment.”?

    Now for my serious response: THIS is how zombie apocalypses start, people! It’s only a matter of time before a ‘Walker’ virus evolves and then we are gonna be building Trump’s Wall for sure and even Libtards will have no qualms manning it. 🙂

  462. Why is their currency policy unrealistic? Who controls the world’s fiat currencies? Who is trying to put a private central bank there?

    *Cough* Bank of International Settlements *Cough*

    As an extra credit assignment, look at the nations that are under the BiS’s control. Have fun.

  463. That’s not at all surprising. The “resource curse” is a curse precisely because the revenues from the resource are, during times of high profits, “invested” to bloat the the socialist bureaucracies and the private companies. This is bad enough, but when the prices drop, the bloated organizations become starved hence ravenous.

  464. Out of control inflation does not mean you sustain losses if there are no price and/or wage controls. You simply adjust prices to inflation to profit. So the FDR act was band-aid on a government-created problem.

    To add to Pisa2019s explanation, the Venezuelan government also has an unrealistic currency policy, so not only can companies including farmers not sell at prices they chose, the government has them to buy input goods and machinery from abroad at ridiculous costs. You can’t operate business under such conditions. And then Chavez/Maduro calls it “sabotage” and expropriate the businesses, so that any business still viable need to stop investing money to not have it all expropriated later.

  465. From Stratfor: “Strapped for cash to pay for essentials, embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ordered a restructuring of state oil and gas company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), according to a Sept. 10 report. As part of the restructuring, PDVSA will have to deliver all revenue from its operations to the Central Bank of Venezuela. This leaves no revenue directly in the hands of PDVSA for reinvestment into essential activities, such as maintenance, exploration and procurement.”

    So the oil production will continue to plummet. Not much money there anymore. Perhaps 1 Mbpd and at a profit of probably only $30/barrel, this is roughly $1/day and capita.

  466. First, since you don’t know the difference between unconditional basic income and a welfare state, you need to read the American Enterprise Institute book “In Our Hands: A Plan To Replace the Welfare State” by Charles Murray.

    Second, the UBI is the political economic model least vulnerable to exploitation of public choice theory — which can be seen as the science of “buy the votes’.

  467. 1933 – US – Agricultural Adjustment Act

    FDR paid farmers who refused to grow food because they were sustaining losses due to out of control inflation.

    Sound familiar?

  468. “Unconditional basic income” is the recommended cure to what economists call the “resource curse” — a curse besetting Venezuela. Given the disastrous situation in Venezuela, it is a safe bet that if there is a UBI at all, it is trivial compared to the oil resource revenue.

  469. Hard to know as all governments seem to interfere a lot, so we lack examples. One could also debate the depth of non-interference, and the outcome would vary with that. Do we mean only private companies provide care and education, or do we also mean people pay out of pocket with no government involvement in financing at all, or do we also mean that governments withdraw all licensing requirements, compulsory education, standards and so on? The devil is usually in the details, and it’s very possible to partially deregulate with bad outcomes.

    But one thing that is clearly a “feature” of our single-payer healthcare system in Sweden is the long queues and the meat wall of nurses whose job it is to schedule and prioritize patients and to limit our access to physicians. However, this is not a feature of our animal medicine, since that is left to private enterprise. So our animals get timely care, but humans often do not.

  470. You realize that Venezuela is a food exporter?

    Why is the US to blame for Venezuela’s inability to grow food?

    Venezuela isn’t growing food because the farmers are refusing to work

    The farmers refuse to grow food because the government introduced price controls so the farmers can’t make a profit from selling food

    So the farmers only grow enough food for themselves while the rest of the country starves

    its the soviet union 2.0

  471. Umm… no

    People are starving in Venezuela because the farmers refuse to grow food

    The farmers refuse to grow food because the government introduced price controls so the farmers can’t make a profit from selling food

    So the farmers only grow enough food for themselves while the rest of the country starves

    The existence or non existence of a central bank is irrelevant

  472. No, they weren’t sanctioned at all until very recently, and still is sanctioned quite lightly. The collapse was well under way before sanctions and even before the oil price slump. It’s the iron rule of socialism: Eventually, you have nothing to wipe your butt with than the latest issue of Pravda.

  473. Basically, rebuke and refuse all thinking that is collectivist (e.g. all “the general will”, “the general interest” b.s.), transformative (“humans need to be rebuilt for my system to work!”) or based on appeals to emotion (“my hurt feelings!”), that are mostly used for limiting freedom of action, property, and speech.

    That is, libertarianism vs all kinds of tyranny, as usual.

  474. Well this is what happens when you say no to a private central bank.

    Why are Venezuela and Iran so hated? Because they’re refusing the private central banks from going into their countries, that’s why they’re targeted to be blown up.

    Pretty simple really.

  475. ” That is in Scandinavia limited to small enough (and well-defined enough) sectors of the economy for it to not descend into a Venezuelan death spiral. ” <-- Going so much as one yard down the wrong road is not the best course, even if the view is still pleasant.

  476. No m0ron, they could be no more different that was the Soviet Union, where the grey soul crushing stacks of flats housed people who pretended to work because they only got pretend pay, were crowded together in small rooms with insufficient heat, food, or medicine.

    It’s the best the organized thievery under threat of murder called communism or socialism can do on it’s own.

  477. ” Brian Wang predicted with absolute certainty that there will be a military coup in Venezuela
    before the eodn[sic] of 2018 ” <-- And if there is any mercy tot he universe, it will happen today. Sadly, likely not. There is no more a right to be a socialist (or any other sort of communist) than there is a right to be a thief or murderer.

  478. Brian Wang predicted with absolute certainty that there will be a military coup in Venezuela
    before the eodn of 2018
    Before the end of 2018, and we have still aout two months to go
    Luca Mazza predicts there will NOT be any coup in Venezuela in 2018

  479. The Scandinavian countries are very competitive and open market economies. Sure, we have fairly high tax rates and welfare systems, and very high government involvement in medicine and education, but in many aspects, corporations enjoy a freer and more competitive environment than they do in the US.

    The meaning of the word is important, as you indicate. Socialism is really about government ownership of productive resources/companies. That is in Scandinavia limited to small enough (and well-defined enough) sectors of the economy for it to not descend into a Venezuelan death spiral.

  480. Actually, the reality is that socialism cannot be democratic. It’s a not sufficiently well known fact that open access to positions of political power cannot be reliably had without open access to positions of economic power. Once politicans take over the economy, a crucial separation of power is lost and the politicians will start to extract rents. They will then limit access to positions of political power to cement their control over the economy and to be able to continue extracting rents. There’s an emerging body of research on this topic. Google “open access orders”.

  481. Wonder how much of the problems are caused by sanctions.
    If they were just left alone and not locked down economically, it would be different.
    Maybe any small nation would collapse regardless of political ideologic leadership if they were cut off from all trade.

  482. No, socialism means the intention to use the force of government to interfere as necessary with and even extinguish individual rights, in favor of the mythical–explicitly impossible, given our biology–groupthink called by Rousseau, the General Will. We are not ants, there is no hive mind, there is no inherent legitimacy found in the majority. Only the individual really exists, there is no hivemind.

    The ascent in Europe of the philosophy of Rousseau ended the Enlightenment and began the Endarkenment which made the 1900s–and is looking to also make the 2000s–an abattoir and our future as dystopian as the mob demands. Every nation not adopting Enlightenment principles in it’s government is on the road to become Venezuela, however they pause on that road.

    The only proper thing is to get off that road.

  483. Democratic socialism — and recall that Hugo Chavez was genuinely popular for many years — is ultimately no better than undemocratic socialism.

    Look at the trend lines in California, once the leading light of the US, to see what lies ahead for us.

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