Venezuelans waiting in line for six hours to buy bread

[fan_since79]

Socialism seems to be working out great for those folks.

 

 

[Blarg]

How's their free healthcare?

[Stradling]

By the time they get bread it will be penicillin, so pretty good on the health care front.

[Blarg]

Brilliant!

[NJHalo]

They are lining up for the rematch between k-Rod and his father in law

[mtangelsfan]

Astute reasoning.

 

Almost hard to believe the media caters to tabloid-craving personalities so much. 

 

Not everyone subscribes to Mother Jones and the Huffington Post

[Adam]

Chicks do.

 

 

And AJ

[red321]

moved to appropriate forum

[Jason]

But ours would be "democratic socialism"

[HeavenlyHalos]

But ours would be "democratic socialism"

 

That political compass website there was a thread on had an interesting depiction... I have never heard the word Galbraithian:

 

"Quite why Sanders is describing himself to the American electorate — of all electorates — as a 'socialist' or 'democratic socialist' isn't clear. His economics are Keynesian or Galbraithian, in common with mainstream parties of the left in the rest of the west — the Labour or Social Democrat parties. Surely 'Social Democrat' would be a more accurate and appealing label for the Sanders campaign to adopt. While Sanders claims to admire particularly the Scandinavian model, he neglects to point out that a characteristic of all social democracies is a low defence budget, reflecting not only a degree of anti-militarism, but also social spending as a priority. Beyond tinkering, though, Sanders has no appetite for significantly cutting the Herculean defence budget or criticising imperial adventures. His urging for the World's most authoritarian country, Saudi Arabia, to assert a stronger military presence in the Middle East is a bizarre position for a social democrat to hold. These odd clusters of attitudes are reflected in our placement of Sanders. Domestically the man is an undoubted progressive — not the least for his courageous attack on corporate campaign funding. But on foreign policy, you could expect a President Sanders to be strikingly similar to his predecessors."

[Stradling]

Socializing "bread" is our current problem. Walmart employees take home 150 billion in food stamps and section 8 while the owners profit 33 billion per year.

American capitalism isn't capitalism at all.

We should probably stop giving out food stamps.

[Jay]

Socializing "bread" is our current problem. Walmart employees take home 150 billion in food stamps and section 8 while the owners profit 33 billion per year.

 

American capitalism isn't capitalism at all.

 

And who are the owners of Walmart? You and me!

 

 

and for the record Walmart's net profit after taxes is about $16 billion: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=WMT+Income+Statement&annual

Edited March 11, 2016 by Jay

[Vegas Halo Fan]

Socialism seems to be working out great for those folks.

 

I don't see too many bread lines in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, etc.

 

Venezuela is heavily dependent upon petroleum sales. The price of oil has been significantly down. This is what happens when the economy isn't sufficiently diversified.

Edited March 12, 2016 by Vegas Halo Fan

[Blarg]

That's because those are Monarchies except for Germany that is a Federal Republic.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

Sorry, I forgot the King of Canada.

[Adam]

We define socialism as successful when there are no bread lines?

[Angelsjunky]

No Adam, but it is good enough to refute the silly view that equates bread lines in Venezuela with socialism in general.

[Blarg]

It's not a silly perspective to those in line, that is for certain.

[Angelsjunky]

Capitalism works awesome, too:

 

 

 

[Glen]

That's different. Those people didn't capitalism hard enough.

[Angelsjunky]

I find it amusing that calscuf liked your post, Glen, probably not understanding that you were being sarcastic.

[Stradling]

Or you know, Cals found it to be funny.

[Blarg]

That's different. Those people didn't capitalism hard enough.

There is plenty of truth to that. Far more than AJs attempt to whitewash the real problems of true socialist nations.

[Angelsjunky]

Eric, now you're being obtuse. I'm not "whitewashing," just pointing out that you can find crappy pictures and shitty stuff going on in any culture, any nation, any economic structure. There are problems with socialism, and there are problems with capitalism.

[Stradling]

Eric, now you're being obtuse. I'm not "whitewashing," just pointing out that you can find crappy pictures and shitty stuff going on in any culture, any nation, any economic structure. There are problems with socialism, and there are problems with capitalism.

Cool, then I'll stick with capitalism, since I seem to be capitalisming pretty well.