I disagree with that, because protectionism is more or less just poor economic policy for long term growth in a world that can support it. (I’m not anti globalist because “de took er jobs”, I’m anti globalist because the “leaders” of the “movement” tend to be elitist douchebags who think they know better than anyone and everyone.)
Socialism is undeniably the removal of personal freedom. It’s morally indefensible and just a first step into totalitarianism.
So the former removes your economic freedom, the later all your freedom. I’d say the later is worse. Which doesn’t mean the former is good by any stretch. I’m just saying they are on different planes of “bad” here.
That’s a good point and I will have to give it more thought. I’m no expert on economic theory but I have lived and traveled all over Europe and they are in a stage of socialism that seems to be working for them. Most of them that I talked with are willing to sacrifice some personal freedom for comfort and security, and they have a much different work ethic. I know because I was the butt of more than a few jokes regarding my commitment to the company. It will interesting to see what happens next.
This is the only thing I will disagree with in your post. Otherwise, well said.
I think you and Pat are giving waaaay to much credit to the general public. To me and a lot of us here, we see the giant hypocrisy and dangerous ideology in the Bernie narrative. The public sees “free stuff” and a “decent guy” running against the pussy grabber.Again, the democrats couldn’t have picked a worse candidate and Bernie is no where near as corrupt as the Clintons.
Really though. this is all a mute point. Who the hell knows ha. Trump may have just been unstoppable.
these are all great points and I don’t disagree. Europe my crumble under its own
weight and I would not be surprised at all. I was referring more to their willingness to sacrifice personal freedom.
They aren’t socialist though. They are massive bloated welfare states who need the US and it’s sucker tax slaves to subsides their “way of life”.
Without NATO and us paying for the bulk of medical costs (as they impose price ceilings) they would be in ruins by now with a new Hitler on the rise once again, and likely again from Germany.
How people can have the castles and other historic facts that show why it is insane to give up freedom to the government within eyesight everywhere and still be that stupid is beyond me.
Compared to Hillary, though? A potato could have ran and been more likable. When you have the two worst candidates running against each other, I think likability would go a long way in this election. That is basically it for me. This was a crazy election and I believe that would take the cake.
I don’t disagree here but she also got slaughtered by wiki leaks after the primaries.
But hey, I think we can all agree it was a good thing he didn’t win.
Agree with the last part. He isn’t corrupt, just a filthy commie. I’d almost take corruption over it.
But he was only “decent” because he hadn’t been exposed yet, and was just running to energize the alt-left anyway. So he was treated with kid gloves. Under the harsh watchful eye of a general election, you’d see him melt down (as he is apt to do) and would have made trump look presidential in comparison.
They would have shown his (and I can’t believe I’m about to use this word) cuck reaction to BLM taking over his speech over and over and over, and people would have seen someone who can be bullied and will just sit there like a bitch with his head hung low, a coward.
I wonder where that number is coming from/?
US Defense budget was about that amount (give or take a few Billion haha).
Nevertheless the US spending almost 22 Trillion on defense since WWII and not including other forms of aid, interest free loans, and outright bookkeeping chicanery (like money to rebuild Iraq); the whole damn world should be set up fine for socialism.
The entire First World and part of the Third found themselves one fat and stupid Sugar Daddy.
I think that might be what they’re doing, as I remember the NATO proper budget being like 300 some odd Billion.
It’s not exactly genuine, but it’s not exactly wrong either–seeing as an asinine amount of our actual manpower and equipment goes to areas that protect them and we’re a member state, well pretty much arguable that it is an acceptable stat to use.
I can’t speak for them, but most that I talked with think big government is not bad as long as it’s good government. I don’t think they are as individualistic as us Americans so the needs of the collective out weigh individual liberty. Maybe some Europeans on this forum could chime in. They do some things really well. Public transportation is great especially the trains. I love the roundabouts, and all the bike lanes so maybe they have more freedom to travel. I did not see many fat asses over there so that was nice.
The fat asses thing I think is cultural more than anything, and I would hope their services are in great shape, we subside their way of life. They don’t have to pay the true costs of defense or medical care…
We also have like 47 of the top 50 universities too, so we pay for their fucking college too.
