Things have to change. Nothing stays the same or stands still in this world. We have to adapt to the changes. We have to recognize what has worked and what has failed and adjust.
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We do not need to fundamentally change America.
Looking at the list of signatories, I suspect that the old idiom "There's nothing new under the sun." applies. The Europeans and others around the world have tried these "new ideas" and they have crashed and burned when they ran out of other people's money and so will we. I know that the usual excuse is "nobody has done socialism correctly" and that is completely true, but the real problem is that planned state socialism goes against human nature. People want to have their own stuff and they want to have the right to be whatever they want to be. If we want something different, lets downsize the federal government and practice Adam Smith's version of capitalism instead of crony capitalism. I'll trust the "invisible hand" over the magic wand of the state any day.
To many civilizations devolved into bread and circus mobocracies. The small study dodo bird devolved into a fat stupid critter to dumb to run from predators. T Rex survived. unfortunately as the main ingredient at KFC. All change isn't good.
There might be some socialist aspects to some of the ideas I have read on this site:
but...it's not true socialism. We have to start thinking outside the box. The way we're doing it now is not sustainable and we can see it all around us. We can't change over night but we have to start taking steps towards making changes that fit the world we live in today.
Originally Posted by direstraits:
To many civilizations devolved into bread and circus mobocracies. The small study dodo bird devolved into a fat stupid critter to dumb to run from predators. T Rex survived. unfortunately as the main ingredient at KFC. All change isn't good.
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But change is inevitable. Whether we like it or not. Not being able to deal with the changes and adapt will be the end of us. Evolution (as you eluded to) is a good example of how we will survive. Adapt and change.
Again, all evolution isn't good -- there are dozens of examples of the genus homo that were dead ends.
Originally Posted by Jankinonya:
There might be some socialist aspects to some of the ideas I have read on this site:
but...it's not true socialism. We have to start thinking outside the box. The way we're doing it now is not sustainable and we can see it all around us. We can't change over night but we have to start taking steps towards making changes that fit the world we live in today.
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What they propose is Syndicalism, a form of socialism that dates to the late 19th and early 20th Century. Again nothing new. Syndicalism is popular with anarchists and is called Anarcho-syndicalism which is both anti-capitalist and anti-government. It was a large bloody part of the the Spanish Civil War.
Syndicalism is a type of proposed economic system, a form of socialism, considered a replacement for capitalism. It suggests that industries be organized into confederations or syndicates. It is "a system of economic organization in which industries are owned and managed by the workers."[1]
Its theory and practice is the advocation of multiple cooperative productive units composed of specialists and representatives of workers in each respective field to negotiate and manage the economy. Syndicalism also refers to the political movement (praxis) and tactics used to bring about this type of system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndicalism
The way America has gone the last 30 years cannot be continued.
Originally Posted by jtdavis:
The way America has gone the last 30 years cannot be continued.
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Jt, there is nothing preventing the employees of a company from buying the company and then as shareholders deciding how to run the company. Well, maybe the banks won't give the employees a loan because of the risk avoidance language of Dudd-Frankenstein. Anyway people owning the means of production can be capitalist if they put up the money themselves rather than the goobermint grabbing the business and giving it to the workers or keeping control of it for itself. As the owners of the business they can decide amongst themselves as to whom they will give political donations.