Communism... opinions?

Poor Castro. All he ever wanted was to be loved.

Uh, I believe most insect hives are predominately female, with the only males being breeding drones. We could go ask Scythe if you like.

Fight smart, not fair.

Wut?

Justice is a joy to the godly, but it terrifies evildoers.Proverbs21:15 FimFiction account.

This is the case for all social hymenoptera, if I am not mistaken, and it is arguably a consequence of their Haplodiploidy - that is, males have only one copy of each chromosome rather than two, and hence "sisters" are more closely related than they would be otherwise.

But, for example, this is not true for termites, which have soldiers and workers of either gender and both "Queens" and "Kings".

edited 12th Sep '10 11:28:59 AM by Carciofus

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

Saw the post in question and now understand why we're talking about insects, you can ignore that last one.

edited 12th Sep '10 12:27:30 PM by Justice4243

Justice is a joy to the godly, but it terrifies evildoers.Proverbs21:15 FimFiction account.

The social insect analogy is clever but necessarily enlightening. It is well known that small hunter-gatherer groups tend to be quite egalitarian (and communal, cooperative, etc.), and this how humans have lived for the vast majority of (pre-)history. Agriculture led to the development of very large groups that were hard to manage in democratic fashion and this led to the development of powerful bureaucrats and so on. This is not "natural" or anything. Communism can work in very small groups (though ordinary size from a historical perspective), but may or may not be able to scale for modern municipalities. I don't have a very high certainty on the feasibility. Regardless I don't think it is fair to blame Utopian idealists for totalitarianism.

edited 12th Sep '10 4:41:09 PM by Id

Totally not viable, any form of socialism.

■Common ownership of the means of production (e.g., factories) precludes markets for capital goods (e.g., factory machinery). Absent market prices emerging from exchange within a framework of private property, there is no profit and loss and thus no rational basis for directing the use of capital goods towards the most urgent consumer demands in the least-cost manner. In contrast, private owners of capital employ property and use market signals (prices, including wages and interest) as guides. Freedom of exchange results in prices that reflect consumer preferences and directs the use of capital toward the most urgent uses, while entrepreneurial judgment contends with constant change. Socialism, which requires a total state, is not a viable option to capitalism. Any step toward socialism is a step toward economic irrationality.

edited 15th Sep '10 9:41:11 AM by secretist

TU NE CEDE MALIS CLASS OF 1971

That's going a bit far. Governments may not effectively price control entire markets, but they can establish regulations and redistribution of wealth. Pure capitalism has no inherent incentive to make good products or promote the general welfare, especially as monopolistic elements emerge.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

Secretist, all systems have downsides. Put down that pitcher of Kool-Aid.

Capitalism: Where those who have power... get more of it!

Flanderizing economic systems of thought is fun!

This post was thumped by the Stick of Post Thumping

TU NE CEDE MALIS CLASS OF 1971

So secretist is talking politics again.

Good. Makes Rott look sane  ^.

I'm convinced that our modern day analogues to ancient scholars are comedians. -0dd1

Edit: Derail thumped. Stay on topic please.

edited 15th Sep '10 2:30:25 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

I move to outlaw corporations.

[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.

As much as I vehemently disagree, rants on how capitalism is better than communism (even fallacious ones) really are part of a topic of one's opinions on communism.

That post was trolling, pure and simple. It offered nothing to advance the discussion and (successfully) caused the topic to derail into a discussion of the post. I recognized this in myself, even.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

Fair enough. I'm just naturally cautious about censorship, even of supposed trolls.

His earlier post was inflammatory but actually capable of being intelligently responded to.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

Experience has shown thus far that free enterprise has been more productive than most known socialist experiments. This may be due to the lack of incentives to produce or it could be due to the poor quality of planning under socialism. A completely unregulated market, however, has its share of failures as well, which is why it must be tempered in some respects. In any case, it is futile to search for a general theory that allows us to say, a priori, that all socialist planning fails. History shows us that some forms of central planning do work. Central bankers engage in planning, as do judges and regulators, and rather successfully so. The desirability of government intervention beyond its role as a rule maker and enforcer will depend upon the severity of market imperfections compared to governmental imperfections.

Is this one any better? (This is Chicago versus the other being Austrian)

TU NE CEDE MALIS CLASS OF 1971

Excluding Medicare, Medicaid, most foreign health care systems in Western Europe, Canada, and let's not forget about all forms of basic infrastructure ranging from transportation, water, power, and in some countries, even telecommunications.

Now, see, that's actually sensible enough that I basically agree with it. Good job!

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

It's from online, though I doubt this is the original source.

[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.

...Good job copying and pasting, then?

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

I am taking this test thingy now!!!!!!!!!

It takes a long time because I am multi-tasking.

39/100

edited 16th Sep '10 9:55:49 AM by TheyCallMeTomu

I got 73/100 on that "Are you an Austrian" quiz thingy.

I'm excellent at macroeconomics and fully realize the Austian school of thought is not correct in 100% of answers.

"Allah may guide their bullets, but Jesus helps those who aim down the sights."