11

Socialism Explained

Posted by mdk2608 10 years, 6 months ago to The Gulch: General
87 comments | Share | Flag

The older I get the more I realize that some of my best thoughts come while I am on my lawn mower cutting my grass. It gives me time to think. This past weekend in Wisconsin was one of those nice warm sunny fall days that probably will not be seen again till spring. It was also a day cutting my lawn allowed me to release some creative thought once again. In those thoughts, deep in my privacy of my own mind, I have fixed the problems of the world and society. Obama is tried and convicted of treason and deported back to Kenya while the free world rejoices. Hillary is exposed as a fraud and discredited. I develop new medication to help liberals properly develop the left side of their brains while being surrounded by cheering like-minded friends as I accept the Nobel Peace Prize. Granted many of those thoughts on how I solve our nation’s political divide are pure fantasy and best kept private so as not to create a never ending thread of discussion on this site. Even more thoughts I keep private because don’t much like the idea being apprehended by federal agents wearing white coats driving white vans.
Watching a few of these humorous somewhat sad but true animations makes me appreciate the author’s creativity and how they take it upon themselves to think up ideas to put in a short presentation. The internet is filled with some really creative thoughts. Like the industrials who helped build America, the people who come up with some of these animated expressions possibly, in their own small way, might help save American by getting important points of view expressed that might otherwise be stifled. Granted some of the animations may have been produced at the spur of the moment just for fun, while others probably produced in some dorm room at 2:00 am., while others produced out of general frustration. Then again maybe there is a greater purpose. Some of the points are humorous and make us laugh, some remind us of conversations we’ve had with people in our life, but they also make us think. As my zero turn mower is making its turn around a large prickly Colorado spruce with needles painfully bushing against my face reminding me of liberals creating pain in another part of my body, I begin thinking about the truly innovative, intelligent people on Galt’s Gulch who love our country and the intent of the founding fathers. I remind myself how I love reading the many insightful articles that producers take the time to post as I mow lines that are straight and true.
It’s been fun following the production of the Atlas Shrugged series and is the issue that binds us together. How long can this Galt’s Gulch survive in its present form? How could we improve this site and bring others to it? As I am filling my mower with gas for the final stretch, the thought occurs to me that with the insights, wisdom and genius of my fellow Gulchers it would be pure bliss to have a contest among us using online software and come up our own animated version of our various thoughts and positions. This could be another way for us to communicate issues to the public. Atlas Distributing might also want to think about publishing short clips, animated or real life, that can express the issues dear to us all. They have us to come up with some of the ideas while they distribute the content. It would be fascinating watching the creative minds of fellow Gulchers put together stories that express contemporary thought. We have so many fantastic people out there I bet some videos could go viral if publically released and might over time change the world or possibly one or two minds. If one man can create one video that sends the Arab world in an outrage resulting in a destroyed embassy imagine what Gulchers could produce. While logistically challenging, it would be interesting to have available on this site or elsewhere, the ability to come up with some creating animated videos of our own similar to the I am John Galt videos but made easier to produce quickly. An animated version of Atlas Shrugged might enlighten more people and be more reasonable to produce. At this point in my thinking, it’s time to power wash the mower and make it clean for a new journey next week and hope I can still use my mower and not the snow blower.






All Comments

  • Posted by CircuitGuy 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    "Unfortunately for us, Keynes' "ideas" don't work all that well in ours. "
    There should be two words for Keynesian economics, one for the notion taught in school (i.e. paying off debt during expansions and borrowing during recessions to avoid idle productive capacity) and another for the completely different notion most Keynesian critics use (i.e. excessively loose monetary policy and fiscal policies aimed at propping up politically connected industries.)
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Comment hidden due to member score or comment score too low. View Comment
  • Posted by Robbie53024 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    1) Detroit is doing a pretty good job itself of destroying the decay - they're tearing down buildings at a record pace.

    2) The entire Japanese economy and industry was devastated during WWII. We make a big deal about the 2 nukes, but we had been carpet bombing the industrial centers for much of the war, certainly the last year. This ended up being a "good" thing for Japan, as their steel industry had to be totally rebuilt from the ground up, and they did so with modern methods and technologies. MacArthur brought in Dr. Deming to teach them quality methods (after Detroit had rejected his approach, by the way - how ironic). And the Japanese culture is one of incessant incremental improvement. They are never satisfied and always looking to make it just a bit better.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by $ blarman 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Good luck finding any group of people who conform to your descriptions. When you take away the desire for the individual to pursue their own interests - their wants and desires - you essentially relegate them to slavery/roboticism. You co-opt free will and destroy the market. You chain up the free mind, because no one could then benefit from his own expression or invention.

    That and the minor little detail of finding leaders who aren't draw to power like a moth to flame.

    And if you really want to say that the American Indians had a life exemplified by the best government, you'll probably want to look into the histories of the wars of those nations. There is a reason they were the largest in people and territory, and it wasn't because of their system of government.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by plusaf 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    True.... in some alternate universe. Unfortunately for us, Keynes' "ideas" don't work all that well in ours.
    :)
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by plusaf 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Yes, FFA, but some folks do point at how Japan's done well after BEING nuked some time back, and make the suggestion that the same catharsis might work in Detroit... :) </joke>
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by plusaf 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Economics In One Lesson covered that one way early in the book. Way true, too, unless you've drunk the Keynesian Kool-Aid.
    Just another cult, with all the trappings. Hayek rocks!
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by CircuitGuy 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    "Too bad that only happens when there’s a World War "
    The Keynes characters wishes there were a way to have a deluge of deficit spending to prime the pump during recessions and surpluses to retire that debt during expansions without the need for war.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Comment hidden due to member score or comment score too low. View Comment
  • Posted by Robbie53024 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    yeah, it's the "one data point" that got me. It's not a data point if it doesn't support the theory. That was my problem. Gov't spending for the war didn't get the US economy out of the depression. It was still in depression at the end of the war and only when the troops started to return home and begin to work, did the economy actually start to take off.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by ddustin 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The Hayek in the video is very anti world war spending working. Instead of saying that outright he is giving the reasons that make it obvious. Here is another section showing that:

    KEYNES
    We could have done better, had we only spent more
    Too bad that only happens when there’s a World War
    You can carp all you want about stats and regression
    Do you deny World War II cut short the Depression?

    HAYEK
    Wow. One data point and you’re jumping for joy
    the Last time I checked, wars only destroy
    There was no multiplier, consumption just shrank
    As we used scarce resources for every new tank

    Pretty perverse to call that prosperity
    Rationed meat, Rationed butter… a life of austerity
    When that war spending ended your friends cried disaster
    yet the economy thrived and grew faster
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by ddustin 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    It can be a little hard to hear the words but the statement Hayek makes is that 100% employment through war leads to people starving. His point is that "employment" is not the goal that matters. Here are the lyrics for reference:

    KEYNES
    You too only see what you want to see
    The spending on war clearly goosed GDP
    Unemployment was over, almost down to zero
    That’s why I’m the master, that’s why I’m the hero

    HAYEK
    Creating employment’s a straightforward craft
    When the nation’s at war, and there’s a draft
    If every worker was staffed in the army and fleet
    We’d have full employment and nothing to eat
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I dread thinking about it too. I did take my lawn funiture and bought new furnace filters. It's coming my friend. Sadly
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by teri-amborn 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That's mostly due in part to availability (or lack thereof) of mobile resources and the battle was about simple survival.
    Pretty honest, wouldn't you say?
    Now we war over "women's issues", drug abuse and various sundry things that are nonsensical and fighting them has the same result of not fighting them.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by jimslag 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I had an aunt and uncle who lived in Waukesha and a cousin in West Allis, so I know the area there. I am 55 myself and left Wisconsin in 1976 and moved to Denver. I agree on the warmer weather, I shoveled more snow than I care to remember. Our concrete driveway was 4 cars long and 2 cars wide, so by the end of December, I was running out places to put it. So my piles got around 6-8 feet high. I was glad when my dad closed in the patio, that way I did not have to shovel that also.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by CircuitGuy 10 years, 5 months ago
    "Granted some of the animations may have been produced at the spur of the moment just for fun, while others probably produced in some dorm room at 2:00 am., while others produced out of general frustration."
    Such things can change the world. I imagine many great ideas started during mundane activities like mowing the lawn and were developed in the middle of the night.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Somehow my mind does not allow me to think of Ayn Rand or her philosophy in witha rap theme
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I own a financial services firm in Pewaukee and am 54. I have heard some good things about Belize and have thought about it. I have never been there but have to make a trip there soon to check it out
    I have 1 son in high school ad a junior.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by jimslag 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Yeah, I still have tons of relatives in the Central Wisconsin area, so I follow things up there still. My mom and stepdad just moved to Belize in February and I think I may be there in a couple of years. They love it down there and only come back to visit every 6 months or so and not during the winter. What area are you in?
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Thanks for sharing you comments. Stevens Point is still a nice place and a nice place to grow up in. It is probably a little more of a university town these days. My goal is to retire in a warmer climate. Wen the weather changes and Daylight Savings Time goes off I can feel the cold in my bones. I envy your climate. Last winter was a difficult one up here
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Comment hidden due to member score or comment score too low. View Comment
  • Posted by Robbie53024 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    These are very well done. I thought the end of the 2nd quite realistic - with Keynes being declared the winner despite all evidence that those theories don't and haven't worked.

    I disagree the statement that the Hayek portrayer makes that WWII was a single point where gov't spending worked - it didn't. Even FDR's own Tres Sec stated that all the gov't spending did nothing to wrench the economy out of the depression.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Comment hidden due to member score or comment score too low. View Comment
  • Posted by Robbie53024 10 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    BUT, there was still warfare between tribes with some forcing others out from where they had resided. This is nothing new - it is part of human history and seemingly the human condition.
    Reply | Permalink  

  • Comment hidden. Undo