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  • I got through about half of it. It’s a PR piece, that’s for sure. Another good topic htown.

    My position is we’re all on the train, and we have some degree of steering it, but only so much.

    Whatever economic system we steer towards has to show clear opportunity for younger generations growing up in it. If they can’t see it, then this is the sort of thing they will gravitate towards.

    I grew up poor and carved out a living in our capitalist system. It’s all l know. It seems harder now than when l was younger.

    it’s largely on the current administration to make it crystal clear that there is still opportunity under the current system. Of course they gotta work for it, that’s how this works.

    But if younger people can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, we might be fucked.

  • the old adage applies - about not knowing history - so history repeats itself. Serious mistakes of the past are not

    learned from, because ignorant corrupt people refuse to teach it, or learn it.

    So those ignorant corrupt people gravitate towards ignorant corrupt promises made to them.

    Free everything, vote for us so we can get all the power. Once socialism fails, the gov has to clamp

    down on individual liberties to quell the outrage at failure. But it's too late to fix it - the gov in power

    has to stay in power, The Utopian promises are broken all too quickly. That is why it has been said - that socialism

    is the necessary step to communism. That is why the corrupt left party is terrified of our 2nd Amendment.

    But like outrageous posturing gets noticed on social media, outrageous hostility to every aspect of our American life gets noticed.

    All these miserable examples of the worst of human beings just hate. They hate our Flag, Constitution, capitalism, our gov, our wealth, our

    family structure, our Christian faith, our military, patriotism.....you name it, they are against it.

    It seems to float their existence. There is nothing they won't ridicule and disrespect. They have so alienated themselves that they want open

    borders so they can have our America flooded with millions of other outsiders like they feel they are.

    And the worst of it - is envy. Like Woodpecker posting about the wealth gap. They FEEL that other's wealth should be theirs because they want it.

    They don't want to work and invest it getting rich - they want it handed to them like most things have been handed to them.

    They keep saying the same garbage - "no public ownership of land", "equal distribution of wealth", "ban all guns" etc etc etc.

    That is typified by the woodpecker's assbird posts. Ole Shep use to whine about "the man" - meaning the rich people.

    Where does it end? like the pet rock fad, it will fade away eventually. But how long and how non-violent it will be til then - is the question.

  • Cal, you are a very ignorant, delusional old man. There's an actual chance here this thread becomes a real discussion, so I'm hesitant to even engage with your moronic ramblings. Especially if it just invites more Facebook spam.

    But a few points:

    • We absolutely should learn from history, but you seem hell bent on learning the wrong lessons

    • I hate to break it to you, but I've worked very hard and am doing very well for myself. I have no desire for free things. But I recognize the massive failures in the current system and I want them fixed. Voting for a con man that replaced the swamp with his own swamp, enriched himself, and furthered the divide in this country is the opposite of what we needed. You may fall for this con, hurting yourself and future generations because you're being led around by the nose with wedge issues. Doing their bidding because you consume nothing but outrage porn. Etc. You've fucked the place up, you continue to fuck it up, and we now need to clean up your mess.

  • I got through about half of it. It’s a PR piece, that’s for sure. Another good topic htown.

    My position is we’re all on the train, and we have some degree of steering it, but only so much.

    Whatever economic system we steer towards has to show clear opportunity for younger generations growing up in it. If they can’t see it, then this is the sort of thing they will gravitate towards.

    I grew up poor and carved out a living in our capitalist system. It’s all l know. It seems harder now than when l was younger.

    it’s largely on the current administration to make it crystal clear that there is still opportunity under the current system. Of course they gotta work for it, that’s how this works.

    But if younger people can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, we might be fucked.

    @ibleedbrown said:

    I got through about half of it. It’s a PR piece, that’s for sure. Another good topic htown.

    My position is we’re all on the train, and we have some degree of steering it, but only so much.

    Whatever economic system we steer towards has to show clear opportunity for younger generations growing up in it. If they can’t see it, then this is the sort of thing they will gravitate towards.

    I grew up poor and carved out a living in our capitalist system. It’s all l know. It seems harder now than when l was younger.

    it’s largely on the current administration to make it crystal clear that there is still opportunity under the current system. Of course they gotta work for it, that’s how this works.

    But if younger people can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, we might be fucked.

    Looking at graphs of income growth against the cost of homes, rent, education, etc and then seeing money control politics, money going to pointless foreign wars instead of our own country, AI taking entry level jobs with no backup plan, data centers and other greed continuing to harm the environment, etc. it is easy to see why younger generations don't see a positive future with the current system.

    Older generations grew up in damn near the best time possible for their own growth of wealth, etc. and they seized that opportunity to squeeze everything they could out of it, refusing to let go of the reigns, making short sighted decisions, and leaving a mess in their wake. There are so many charts and data points that show this.

  • Pareto distribution. On average 20% of the population accounts for 80% of the production. Well documented. Again that's Pareto distribution or principle if you like.

    @htownbrown said:

    Pareto distribution. On average 20% of the population accounts for 80% of the production. Well documented. Again that's Pareto distribution or principle if you like.

    Yes, thank you, I know the pareto principle. What data are you using for your 20% of the population creating 80% of the production claim? What are you defining as "production"? And how does this justify an ever increasing wealth gap over the last handful of decades?

  • I got through about half of it. It’s a PR piece, that’s for sure. Another good topic htown.

    My position is we’re all on the train, and we have some degree of steering it, but only so much.

    Whatever economic system we steer towards has to show clear opportunity for younger generations growing up in it. If they can’t see it, then this is the sort of thing they will gravitate towards.

    I grew up poor and carved out a living in our capitalist system. It’s all l know. It seems harder now than when l was younger.

    it’s largely on the current administration to make it crystal clear that there is still opportunity under the current system. Of course they gotta work for it, that’s how this works.

    But if younger people can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, we might be fucked.

    @ibleedbrown said:

    I got through about half of it. It’s a PR piece, that’s for sure. Another good topic htown.

    My position is we’re all on the train, and we have some degree of steering it, but only so much.

    Whatever economic system we steer towards has to show clear opportunity for younger generations growing up in it. If they can’t see it, then this is the sort of thing they will gravitate towards.

    I grew up poor and carved out a living in our capitalist system. It’s all l know. It seems harder now than when l was younger.

    it’s largely on the current administration to make it crystal clear that there is still opportunity under the current system. Of course they gotta work for it, that’s how this works.

    But if younger people can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, we might be fucked.

    I don't know what you could say to the young people other than the truth. Global economics are shifting to something we have no historical reference to, but no matter what comes out the other end this country will still be leading the world. There will be opportunities, it's just hard to say what they will be now.

    But I would hope they understand that making everything public property means you will own nothing. Everything will become a slum because there are no vested interests.

    The thing about countries that are communist/socialist is there's no room for failure. You will become what society needs you to become. Your skill set doesn't matter as much a necessity. And if you don't comply there will be hell to pay.

  • @htownbrown said:

    Pareto distribution. On average 20% of the population accounts for 80% of the production. Well documented. Again that's Pareto distribution or principle if you like.

    Yes, thank you, I know the pareto principle. What data are you using for your 20% of the population creating 80% of the production claim? What are you defining as "production"? And how does this justify an ever increasing wealth gap over the last handful of decades?

    @mld-woody said:

    Yes, thank you, I know the pareto principle. What data are you using for your 20% of the population creating 80% of the production claim? What are you defining as "production"? And how does this justify an ever increasing wealth gap over the last handful of decades?

    Pareto distribution is AKA the 80/20 rule. It's not right wing horseshit, it was figured out over a 100 years ago in Italy. Read it again because you have forgotten. It will answer all your questions. Economists use it for product allocation and wealth distribution to this day.

    For starters:

    https://dlab.berkeley.edu/news/explaining-80-20-rule-pareto-distribution

  • @mld-woody said:

    Yes, thank you, I know the pareto principle. What data are you using for your 20% of the population creating 80% of the production claim? What are you defining as "production"? And how does this justify an ever increasing wealth gap over the last handful of decades?

    Pareto distribution is AKA the 80/20 rule. It's not right wing horseshit, it was figured out over a 100 years ago in Italy. Read it again because you have forgotten. It will answer all your questions. Economists use it for product allocation and wealth distribution to this day.

    For starters:

    https://dlab.berkeley.edu/news/explaining-80-20-rule-pareto-distribution

    @htownbrown said:

    Pareto distribution is AKA the 80/20 rule. It's not right wing horseshit, it was figured out over a 100 years ago in Italy. Read it again because you have forgotten. It will answer all your questions. Economists use it for product allocation and wealth distribution to this day.

    For starters:

    https://dlab.berkeley.edu/news/explaining-80-20-rule-pareto-distribution

    Yes, again, I know what a pareto distribution is.

    I'm still waiting for your evidence as to why it's a valid rebuttal to what I posted.

    Why is the increasing wealth gap ok? Where is your concrete proof for your statement around productivity? Etc

    And, fyi, the distribution of wealth in this country is more concentrated than 80/20.

  • @htownbrown said:

    Pareto distribution is AKA the 80/20 rule. It's not right wing horseshit, it was figured out over a 100 years ago in Italy. Read it again because you have forgotten. It will answer all your questions. Economists use it for product allocation and wealth distribution to this day.

    For starters:

    https://dlab.berkeley.edu/news/explaining-80-20-rule-pareto-distribution

    Yes, again, I know what a pareto distribution is.

    I'm still waiting for your evidence as to why it's a valid rebuttal to what I posted.

    Why is the increasing wealth gap ok? Where is your concrete proof for your statement around productivity? Etc

    And, fyi, the distribution of wealth in this country is more concentrated than 80/20.

    @mld-woody said:

    Yes, again, I know what a pareto distribution is.

    I'm still waiting for your evidence as to why it's a valid rebuttal to what I posted.

    Why is the increasing wealth gap ok? Where is your concrete proof for your statement around productivity? Etc

    And, fyi, the distribution of wealth in this country is more concentrated than 80/20.

    It's OBSERVED everywhere, naturally, that's the concrete proof. If you're taking what I'm saying to mean it is exactly 80.0000% then I guess I must clarify. The majority, if not vast majority, of wealth, is NATURALLY produced by a small group of individuals in any economic system. 80/20 is an average generalization across all forms of distribution.

    It is not that wage gap doesn't matter, but the real metric here is standard of living. It is entirely possible, and statistically expected, that a large wage gap and high standard of living can/has/will exist simultaneously.

    I am curious on why you think the K shape economy helps your argument? It was a term coined during the lockdown because high income earners were working from home and still consuming, while low income earners were able to do neither. This was only exacerbated by the massive GLOBAL inflation also caused by the lockdown. Nationalization would only add another layer of inflation to this. The reason you think this would be better is because there will no longer be rich Americans outside of "government"? I fail to see that as progress in any way, shape, or form.

    Assume we have a scenario where everything of importance is nationalized and we have a functional co-op. How would the "government" function if it's not profitable, which is probable, and exchanged a tax base for payroll plus benefits plus utilities?

    You're correct, they lower your standard of living because this is the only possible answer.

  • Socialism fails primarily because it abolishes or severely restricts private property, leading to decreased productivity and economic stagnation. Additionally, government-controlled economies struggle with inefficiency and shortages due to their inability to effectively manage complex supply and demand dynamics.

    1. Why Socialism Fails - Psychology Today

      Why does socialism always fail to deliver on its promises? Marx, Lenin, Mao, and many others have sought to establish societies based on equality. They were horrified by the inequities of ...

    2. www.learnliberty.org.ico

      Learn Liberty

      https://www.learnliberty.org › blog › top-five-reasons-why-socialism-doesnt-work

      The top five reasons why socialism doesn't work - Learn Liberty

      Further reading For more content on socialism, capitalism, and economic systems more broadly, be sure to also check out the following articles: Socialism: the failed idea that never dies What is capitalism? Why modernity is unthinkable without capitalism Don't be fooled, life in the Soviet Union was awful Socialism requires cult-like dedication

    1. www.adamsmith.org.ico

      Adam Smith Institute

      https://www.adamsmith.org › blog › why-socialism-doesnt-work

      Why socialism doesn't work — Adam Smith Institute

      Apr 29, 2025Why socialism doesn't work Socialism, when implemented as a political and economic system, has historically led to tyranny and persecution for several reasons: Socialism typically abolishes or severely restricts private property.

    2. frederickrsmith.substack.com.ico

      frederickrsmith.substack.com

      https://frederickrsmith.substack.com › p › why-socialism-still-fails

      Why Socialism Still Fails - by Frederick R Smith

      Nov 12, 2025If socialism fails so consistently, why does it always return? Because it appeals to our moral imagination, it sounds righteous to say no one should go hungry or live in poverty. Its emotional power is immense. Modern advocates often rebrand the idea — calling it democratic socialism, equity economics, or citing Scandinavian models.

    3. www.thecornellreview.org.ico

      The Cornell Review

      https://www.thecornellreview.org › yes-real-socialism-has-been-tried-and-it-has-failed-every-time

      Yes, Real Socialism Has Been Tried—And It Has Failed Every Time

      Socialism was implemented in the Soviet Union, East Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, Maoist China, Chavez-Maduro's Venezuela, and other places. In every one of these places, it has failed.

    1. www.hoover.org.ico

      Hoover Institution

      https://www.hoover.org › research › why-socialism-fails

      Why Socialism Fails - Hoover Institution

      Gorbachev failed because the core of the Soviet planned system was rotten Despite his reform inclinations, he remained a believer in socialism. He was determined to save Soviet socialism by making it more like capitalism.

    2. www.linkedin.com.ico

      LinkedIn

      https://www.linkedin.com › pulse › why-socialism-fails-large-scale-capitalism-despite-lidia-ler4f

      Why Socialism Fails on a Large Scale, and Why Capitalism ... - LinkedIn

      Jul 17, 2025Socialism, in theory, promises equality and fairness for all. But in practice, especially when applied on a large, national scale, it has repeatedly failed to deliver sustainable prosperity ...

    3. fee.org.ico

      Foundation for Economic Education

      https://fee.org › articles › why-socialism-doesnt-work

      Why Socialism Fails - FEE

      May 4, 2026Under socialism, the abolition of private property in the means of production destroys the very concept of capital as a calculable value. When the state owns all higher-order goods (machines, land, and raw materials), there are no exchanges between private owners for these items. Consequently, there are no market prices for capital goods.

    1. Foundation for Economic Education

      https://fee.org › articles › why-socialism-failed

      Why Socialism Failed - Foundation for Economic Education

      Socialism fails because it kills and destroys the human spirit. By their failure to foster, promote, and nurture the potential of their people through incentive-enhancing institutions, centrally planned economies deprive the human spirit of full development.

    2. www.aei.org.ico

      American Enterprise Institute - AEI

      https://www.aei.org › carpe-diem › why-socialism-always-fails

      Why Socialism Always Fails - American Enterprise Institute - AEI

      Slightly more than 20 years, I wrote the article "Why Socialism Failed" and it appeared in 1995 in The Freeman, the flagship publication of the Foundation for Economic Education. I think it ...

    3. mises.org.ico

      Mises Institute

      https://mises.org › mises-wire › 4-reasons-why-socialism-fails

      4 Reasons Why Socialism Fails - Mises Institute

      Socialism fails because it suffers from four fundamental design defects. First, socialism eradicates private property and markets and thus eliminates rational calculation.

    4. www.independent.org.ico

      Independent Institute

      https://www.independent.org › article › 2025 › 10 › 29 › socialism-is-not-the-solution-it-is-the-problem

      Socialism Is Not the Solution. It Is the Problem.

      Oct 29, 2025Socialism may sound good in campus speeches and TikTok clips, but it always ends in poverty and repression. Capitalism has its blemishes because it evolves organically from market interactions of flawed human beings; and that is precisely why socialism is not the solution.

    1. Foundation for Economic Education

      https://fee.org › articles › why-socialism-is-the-failed-idea-that-never-dies

      Why Socialism Is the Failed Idea That Never Dies

      Kristian Niemietz's book, "Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies," is an incredible book and should be compulsory reading at schools and universities, where today the song sung by anti-capitalists reigns supreme. Kristian Niemietz, Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies. Institute for Economic Affairs, London 2019, 374 pages. What would you say to an amateur chef who baked a cake ...

    2. www.cis.org.au.ico

      The Centre for Independent Studies

      https://www.cis.org.au › commentary › opinion › why-socialism-always-fails

      Why Socialism always fails - The Centre for Independent Studies

      Without market-determined prices, the prices of inputs and outputs do not reflect scarcity or the intensity of demand. Without the price mechanism, the economy goes up in smoke. Steven Kates is an adjunct scholar at the Centre for Independent Studies and author of I, Mechanical Pencil, on why socialism fails and capitalism succeeds.

    1. American Enterprise Institute - AEI

      https://www.aei.org › research-products › report › why-socialism-fails

      Why Socialism Fails - American Enterprise Institute - AEI

      Socialism is the ultimate big lie. While it falsely promises prosperity, equality, and security, it delivers the exact opposite: poverty, misery, inequality, and tyranny. Equality is achieved ...

    2. mises.org.ico

      Mises Institute

      https://mises.org › mises-wire › mises-explains-why-socialism-fails

      Mises Explains Why Socialism Fails

      So, why does socialism fail? It fails because it's the very negation of the idea of economy —economizing man. Abolishing private ownership for production goods, socialism abolishes the market for them and makes it impossible for market prices to emerge and for costs of production to be computed—thus impairing the profit and loss mechanism.

    3. www.aei.org.ico

      American Enterprise Institute - AEI

      https://www.aei.org › economics › why-socialism-failed-a-2018-update-part-i

      'Why Socialism Failed: A 2018 Update,' Part I - AEI

      In 1995, I wrote an article titled "Why Socialism Failed" and it appeared in The Freeman, the flagship publication of the Foundation for Economic Education. It was one of the first essays or ...

    1. The Heritage Foundation

      https://www.heritage.org › progressivism › commentary › three-nations-tried-socialism-and-rejected-it

      Three Nations That Tried Socialism and Rejected It

      But in truth, socialism has failed in every country in which it has been tried, from the Soviet Union beginning a century ago to three modern countries that tried but ultimately rejected socialism ...

    2. www.forbes.com.ico

      Forbes

      https://www.forbes.com › sites › rainerzitelmann › 2020 › 03 › 16 › socialism-the-failed-idea-that-never-dies

      Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies - Forbes

      Mar 16, 2020Bernie Sanders is a self-avowed socialist—but why is an idea that has failed throughout history still so popular? Why have socialist ideas become so attractive again, despite the fact that ...

    3. crossexamined.org.ico

      CrossExamined.org

      https://crossexamined.org › 10-reasons-why-socialism-fails

      10 Reasons Why Socialism Fails - Cross Examined

      What is socialism and why doesn't it work? In this special podcast, Frank shows that socialism doesn't work because it ignores economics 101 in ten ways.

  • exactly as I've said:

    www.hoover.org.ico

    Hoover Institution

    https://www.hoover.org › research › false-appeal-socialism

    The False Appeal Of Socialism - Hoover Institution

    Authoritarian socialism is lethal because it brooks no dissent. In every implementation of authoritarian socialism, individual freedom has been irrevocably compromised for a utopian and unattainable collective idea. The sheer number of failed socialist experiments raises unavoidable questions about politics, economics, justice, and human nature.

  • losers like the woodpecker FEEL issues, but don't UNDERSTAND issues.

    assbird always gets it wrong.

    Fox News
    No image preview

    El-Sayed campaign backed by over $100,000 from dozens of...

    Abdul El-Sayed's Senate campaign collected over $115,000 from CAIR officials and leaders, including an executive who praised Hamas on Oct. 7.