Subj : Socialist "Democrats"
To   : Rob Mccart
From : Mike Powell
Date : Wed Nov 26 2025 08:52:58

  Re: Socialist "Democrats"
  By: Rob Mccart to MIKE POWELL on Wed Nov 26 2025 08:05:00

 > MP> When I was in college, the people who most loudly proclaimed
 >   > that they were "Democrats" were all social/communists.
 > 
 > They always used to say that young people were Liberals and,
 > as they got older, turned into Conservatives..

The ones I have kept "in touch" with (on FB) did not turn conservative.  They were mostly "left" of "Liberal" and still very much are.  ;)
 
 > It's been said (arguably) that Communism is the best form of government
 > but the problem is it relies on total honesty for it to work properly
 > so, knowing humans, it's never going to work.
 > Pretty much all communist countries have a VERY weathy small upper
 > class and a very poor everyone else in a system where everyone is
 > supposed to, in theory, share everything equally.
 
Communism can work if it is voluntary, i.e. one joins a commune and one can leave if one doesn't like it.  As a form of government, it can never really work because it is compulsary and many folks won't like receiving the same reward for hard work while watching others that are rewarded for doing just the bare minimum.  

The only way that communism can work as a government choice is if that government is also authoritarian and "takes care of" desenters like the USSR, China, and North Korea did/do.

 > So, in the end, if working hard gets you nothing extra then the only
 > way to beat the system is to do as little work as you can possibly
 > get away with, then you make the same as your neighbour does while
 > doing less work than they do. Commie countries aren't usually well
 > known for their high production output..

Exactly!  ;)
 
 > 
 > But, that said, extremes are never good. Being too far on the
 > Capitalistic side is abusive to a lot of the population as well.
 > That's how all those nasty unions came about..     B)

IMHO, this is not a problem with capitalism, per se.  It is a problem with the government not properly regulating things.  Overregulation is bad, but so is too little... see what is happening right now with the US Congress and their own insider trading as one example of under-regulation being bad.

Mike
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