Addendum .... Besides, socialism is built into our Constitution. The Preamble is often overlooked when reading that great document but a closer slower reading shows that socialism is part and parcel of the Constitution's promise. If I may quote, "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
Most particularly, the phrases 'promote the general Welfare' and 'secure the Blessings of Liberty' pretty much address all socialist issues as well as capitalist ones. Are not the general welfare and the blessings of liberty encompassing of all that has been spoken of above? On Jan 23, 12:21 pm, gruff <[email protected]> wrote: > Francis, I can see no reason at all why a nation -- or the world for > that matter, since we are heading in that direction -- cannot be a > functional hybrid of capitalism and socialism. They are not mutually > exclusive as the examples you cite quite clearly demonstrate. > > Capitalism's largest defect lay in the tendency of humans toward > greed. Socialism's largest defects are a tendency toward fascist or > totalitarian states because there is so much control in government > hands. > > But capitalism creates wealth -- vast amounts of wealth, which if > administered honestly and without corruption can create sufficient > capital to both encourage industry and growth and allow people to > enjoy a level of existence far above anything in the past save for > kings, queens and a few dictators. It follows to my feeble intellect > that any society made wealthy by capitalism and a healthy self > interest would also have the moral and social responsibility of caring > for it's less fortunate members so that none go hungry, none are > homeless, none are without health care, and none are uneducated. > > Because I think capitalism -- the desire and motivation to make > profits -- and socialism -- caring for the basic needs of the people > -- should be able to co-exist and the hybrid dynamic should be able to > spread throughout the world to eliminate poverty, disease, famine and > violence. It is my belief that Obama may be just the man to lead us > there. > > /e > > On Jan 22, 10:27 am, frantheman <[email protected]> wrote: > > > A few comments about the discussion in general. A problem, it seems to > > me, is that US Americans (I explicitly exclude Chris here) tend to > > look at the Soviet model when arguing for the superiority of a > > "capitalist" (=US American?) system over a "socialist" system. They > > seem deaf to the arguments of critics of the capitalist model that the > > Soviet model cannot simply presented as exemplary for socialism. Even > > during most of the 20th. Century many respected Marxist thinkers > > (Gramsci, Djilas, Marcuse, et al.) were deeply sceptical about the > > claims of the Soviet Union to be a genuine expression of true > > socialism. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
