Inequality tears societies apart. The concentration of wealth in Western societies is getting out of hand. The fact that our democratic institutions have been bought out and now represent only elite monied opinion bodes ill for society. The sort of inequality represented below represent a great threat to the social fabric of the United States and measures (oh yes, redistribution of wealth and… social-democratic economic reforms) should be reimplemented to lessen the divisions within that society. (All images from Mother Jones)
Update: The American Mainstream may be on the verge of getting a clue…
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
21 comments
August 13, 2011 at 8:13 pm
TheUnrepublican
I agree with wealth redistribution. I believe it is a necessary evil if we wish to combat the severe inequality racking the world, an inequality that is certainly a worse evil than wealth redistribution.
With that said, I do believe that the “kumbaya” vision of modern communists (“Imagine” by John Lennon, for example) is unrealistic.
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August 14, 2011 at 12:31 pm
Alan Scott
The UnRepublican ,
So you do not believe in property rights ?
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August 14, 2011 at 2:30 pm
TheUnrepublican
I believe in property rights (with the exclusion of land) to a degree. I do not believe in the right of inheritance, lest inferior people wield power and prestige (See Bush, G.W).
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August 14, 2011 at 5:36 pm
Alan Scott
The UnRepublican ,
So I can’t leave my vast fortune to my ungrateful kids ? I worked for it, paid taxes on it, yet it does not really belong to me ? My Libertarian heart is seriously offended .
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August 14, 2011 at 9:49 pm
TheUnrepublican
Your responsibility to your kids is ended when they turn 17, at least legally.
Your responsibility to society and it’s overall good is never ending.
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August 16, 2011 at 5:51 am
Alan Scott
The Unrepublican ,
What if I take my fortune, convert it to gold and bury it ? I can leave a treasure map . That way the almighty state can’t steal it. Your duty to your family never ends, not even with the grave .
How about I leave my money to right wing charities ? Maybe I can set up a foundation for right wing causes. Then in a few years it will get taken over by some college educated socialist who will spend it in a politically correct way after taking a cut for himself.
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August 16, 2011 at 9:30 am
TheUnrepublican
Try to be reasonable.
There are people starving, Alan.
And then there are people sitting on money that they could never in a million years get around to using. Your Warren Buffets, Carlos Slims, Donald Trumps, Jim Waltons, and Bill Gates of the world.
Which is worse…
Wealth redistribution.
Or…
Doing absolutely nothing while children around the world die.
Well, Alan…
Which is worse?
Answer it plainly, please.
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August 16, 2011 at 10:27 am
Alan Scott
The Unrepublican ,
The countries with the most wealth redistribution have the most starving people, why ? And compared to a starving guy in Somalia , you are richer than Bill Gates . So the Obama government should take all of your wealth when you die, use a fraction to feed that starving guy, and keep the rest for overhead .
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August 16, 2011 at 12:54 pm
TheUnrepublican
Poor examples of communism do nothing to plead your case, Alan.
In any case, I am NOT a communist – at least not in the modern sense.
With that said, you must admit that not near enough is being done to make the rich accountable, as even in the most socialist of nations there is discrepancy between the rich and the proletariat.
But, to hear you tell it, the more done to help the poor, the more society suffers.
Illogical.
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August 18, 2011 at 5:18 am
Alan Scott
The UnRepublican ,
You believe that the rich are at fault for what ails us . I do not. The rich are not better or worse than the rest of us. There are some who are bad, heck some who are evil . George Soros comes to mind .
So when you have confiscated the wealth of the wealthy and the problems get worse, what will you do next ?
Europe, that heaven of social justice is falling apart, because everything you believe is failing .It cannot defend itself without the United States .
I heard a recent quote, which I do not know the origin , but it makes my point . The challenge for liberals is to prove that their form of government can actually work .
Capitalist countries have their crisis’s also but, left alone they always reset themselves . Class envy is not the answer . Class warfare is not the answer .President Obama has just proven that even he is not smart enough to make them work .
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August 18, 2011 at 6:02 am
TheUnrepublican
One word:
China.
And last I checked, Europe has the highest standard of living in the world. Even greater than ours.
With that said, Europe is does not practice social justice, either.
They just have a few more regulations on how far the wealthy can twist the knife, that’s all.
Also, I not once said that the rich are evil. Just that they are not ACCOUNTABLE. They are not taxed nearly enough, not when the middle class is ever shrinking and yet they still try to line their pockets anyway they can. They control the means of production in this country (borderline fascism, if you ask me), therefore they promote consumerism to the ruin of society and our planet. They promote divisions, through religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, and many more. They buy power, and use that power against the working class. They are effectively destroying the world as we know it, all to line their pockets.
And why?
Because we, the american sheeple, let them.
That’s what I mean when I say no accountability.
Are you blind, man?
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August 18, 2011 at 9:43 am
The Arbourist
The challenge for liberals is to prove that their form of government can actually work .
You mean like the New Deal?
Class envy is not the answer . Class warfare is not the answer
The rich are currently kicking the butt of the middle and poor class in the US. From the tone of your posts, I’m thinking you are okay with class warfare in that direction, because the rich are gaming the system in their favour and have been doing it at an accelerating rate since the 1970’s through deregulation and loopholes and buying their preferences in the law making bodies of the US. So class war is the answer and seems to be okay with as long as its you who is getting the shaft. This rallying of the poor to the cause of the rich is a tribute to how effective the propaganda is down there in the US.
President Obama has just proven that even he is not smart enough to make them work
Your statement comes with the implicit assumption that Obama is somehow trying to make grand social changes in the US and that his extreme left social policies are being foisted on the American people. Outside the crazy funhouse of political perceptions that is the US, the rest of the world can see Obama for what he is, a centerist politician at best with strong ties to the oligarchy and a continued commitment to further consolidating the hold of the rich on American Society.
It is the inequality in the US that will bring the nation down, and it is through social democratic policies that you address said imbalance. Redistribution of wealth, universal social programs are features of successful, humane societies.
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August 18, 2011 at 6:32 pm
Alan Scott
The Arbourist ,
Always glad to have your input . What was it you said ? Ah yes, The New Deal . So you believe the New Deal was successful ? It was successfully sold to the American public as an answer to the depression. It is true , it helped people get through hard times, but it did not reverse the depression . Most of the rest of the world did not have the New Deal and they got out of the Depression, years ahead of America .
” The rich are currently kicking the butt of the middle and poor class in the US. From the tone of your posts, I’m thinking you are okay with class warfare in that direction, because the rich are gaming the system in their favour and have been doing it at an accelerating rate since the 1970′s through deregulation and loopholes and buying their preferences in the law making bodies of the US. So class war is the answer and seems to be okay with as long as its you who is getting the shaft. This rallying of the poor to the cause of the rich is a tribute to how effective the propaganda is down there in the US. ”
Comrade Arbourist, I will give you one thing . You are the most consistent leftist I have come across. Most of your brethren are easy to catch in hypocrisy , but you are a true class warrior . I have this answer, there is class mobility within American capitalism . Many of today’s evil rich were once part of the great unwashed, noble savages you so champion .
But the real question is the lower classes welfare . Which works better, what you believe or what I believe. You interpret history differently than me . But what matters is what the American public believes . Only someone left of Vladimir Lenin, could call Obama a centrist . President Obama is perceived as the most left wing chief executive in American history . Not just by me, by most Americans . His failure economically will set back liberal economic policies for decades . His older followers are dispirited . The younger ones who really bought into the myth won’t show up for him in 2012.
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August 19, 2011 at 12:51 am
TheUnrepublican
Alan Scott:
…Most of the rest of the world did not have the New Deal and they got out of the Depression, years ahead of America .
Nazi Germany is the only developed nation that comes to mind, and they achieved that only by thievery.
Also, keep in mind the rest of the world joined the war before america, and war opens jobs.
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August 19, 2011 at 5:05 pm
The Arbourist
. Only someone left of Vladimir Lenin, could call Obama a centrist
Source
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August 19, 2011 at 9:38 pm
TheUnrepublican
Wow, I love that test.
I took that very same political compass quiz, and I ranked about 3 squares from the top, 3 squares from the left. The only thing that kept me from being full blown authoritarian leftist is my belief in God.
My boyfriend took the same test and ranked dead even with Gandhi. Libertarian/left.
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August 20, 2011 at 12:04 am
The Arbourist
Where I stand… :>
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August 20, 2011 at 12:30 pm
Alan Scott
And how can I take this test ?
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August 20, 2011 at 12:33 pm
The Arbourist
Go here—–>http://www.politicalcompass.org/index
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August 20, 2011 at 7:44 pm
Samuel Rosenbalm
I was wrong. I took the test again and here is where I stand.
http://www.politicalcompass.org/printablegraph?ec=-7.25&soc=3.95
BTW, it seems that you are a libertarian, through and through.
My boyfriend is in the same ballpark as you.
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August 20, 2011 at 8:46 pm
Alan Scott
I am 5,5 on the x axis and -0.21 on the y axis . Fairly accurate, I’d say . Or 5.5 economic left/right. -0.21 social libertarian/authoritarian .
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