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Bernie Sanders & The "Tyranny" Of Working For A Living

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Richard Ebeling via EpicTimes.com,

Democratic Party hopeful, Bernie Sanders, recently outlined what it means for him to be a “democratic socialist.” The problem is that the same label might be applied to most of the other candidates running in both the Democratic and Republican parties running to be the nominee for presidency of the United States.

One November 19, 2015, Bernie Sanders delivered a speech in which he outlined what he means when he calls himself a “democratic socialist.” He assured his listeners that he did not advocate government ownership of the means of production.

He said that he supported “private companies that thrive and invest and grow in America instead of shipping and jobs overseas.” And that “innovation, entrepreneurship, and success should be rewarded. But greed for the sake of greed is not something that public policy should support.”

He insisted that he “merely” wanted the wealthy billionaires, the “one-percenters,” to pay their “fair share,” with the belief that if they were taxed sufficiently high then it would be able to finance all the other good things that he would like to see every American have.

FDR and His Economic “Bill of Rights”

So besides a clear desire for a form of regulatory socialism that would see to it that private businesses did not “ship” jobs and profits overseas, and a fiscal socialism that would use the tax code to redistribute wealth from that supposed “one-percent,” what does Bernie Sanders mean by “democratic socialism”?

His playbook, it turns out, is Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s and FDR’s 1944 call for an “economic Bill of Rights.” In the 1930s, Franklin Roosevelt pushed through Social Security legislation, introduced the first federal minimum wage law and tax-funded unemployment insurance, and implemented federal job programs.

Sanders mockingly ridiculed those who called this New Deal agenda “socialism” when it was first being put into affect. “These programs have become the fabric of our nation and the foundation of the middle class,” Sanders says.

He quotes from FDR’s 1944 speech advocating that economic Bill of Rights: “We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. Necessitous men are not free men.”

Sanders then explained the content of FDR’s new Bill of Rights:

“Roosevelt described the economic rights that he believed every American was entitled to: The right to a decent job at decent pay, the right to adequate food, clothing, and time off from work, the right for every business, large and small, to function in an atmosphere free from unfair competition and domination by monopolies. The right of all Americans to have a decent home and decent health care . . . True freedom does not occur without economic security . . . What democratic socialism means to me . . . builds on what Franklin Delano Roosevelt said when he fought for a guaranteed economic bill of rights.”

Sanders Holloween Cartoon

Karl Marx and the “Tyranny” of Working for a Living

Now, in fact, this notion of “true freedom” goes further back than FDR. It is precisely what nineteenth century socialists like Karl Marx insisted were wrong with society. Marx said that no man is free who must devote himself to anything that he does not want to do. If a man takes an axe to a tree for the shear enjoyment of the exercise, then the individual is exemplifying an act of freedom.

But if that same individual is wielding the axe because if he fails to he will not have the wood to keep him warm by the fire, or the necessary logs with which to build a cabin for shelter, then, Marx insisted, this is an “unfree” act.

In other words, any human activity that is an economic means to a desired end or goal is a manifestation of a lack of “real’ freedom. Anything short of a life of playful enjoyment with all the material and related means to that enjoyment being effortlessly available represents man as a slave to his circumstances.

Or as Karl Marx expressed it in his book, The German Ideology (1845):

“In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow; to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind.”

In other words, what Marx was revolting against was the reality of scarcity, that many of the means to achieve and fulfill our purposes are insufficient in either quantity or quality. Our time is scarce; our physical and mental labor is scarce; the material resources and raw materials with which we manufacture and produce desirable and desired goods are scarce.

Robinson Crusoe alone on his island has nothing to eat unless he picks fruit from the trees with his hands or with the use of a stick; or catches fish in the lagoon (after making a spear or a fishing net); or clears away part of the land and makes the tools that will enable him to plant and harvest some crop; or devises a way to design and lay a trap to capture a wild animal to cook meat over a fire.

In a developed society such as our own, a person may choose and try to live a self-sufficient life off the land. Or he can find a niche and role in the social system of division of labor and participate in a collaborative production process to sell a product on the market that enables him to earn the financial means to, then, purchase from others the goods and services he wants to acquire from them.

Liberty, Property and Markets as Liberators from Poverty

Man has never been in a “Garden of Eden” without work or worry. He has always had to apply his mental and physical potentials and capacities to survive and improve his lot. Our quality and standard of living is far superior to that of the “primitive” in the wild, but only because people have found ways to better take advantage of their abilities in a setting of human association.

That is the hallmark of the market economy, and its underlying institutional foundations of individual rights, private property, and freedom of association and exchange in a political setting of limited government under impartial rule of law.

To the extent to which these institutional foundations are recognized, respected, and protected, the greater, over time, has been man’s escape from abject poverty and the natural uncertainties of physical life.

In the blur of material abundance and cultural comfort in Western nations, too many have forgotten that this is not man’s “natural state of affairs.” It is the result of the unique set of ideas and institutions that have enabled prosperity to replace poverty. And it can be maintained and improved upon only to the extent that the same ideas and institutions nurture and foster a future better than today, just as today has been made better than yesterday.

Sanders one-size-fits-all shoes cartoon

Socialist Utopia of a Post-Scarcity World

Yet, as far as Karl Marx was concerned, the only “free” man is one who does not have to work, save and produce to have food, clothing, housing, medical care, education and any of the everyday necessities, amenities and enjoyments of life.

That is precisely why FDR back in 1944 and Bernie Sanders repeats, now, “True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. Necessitous men are not free men.” To have to work for what you want by definition makes you not free.

For FDR and Bernie Sanders, implicitly following Marx, freedom only comes when a person lives in a post-scarcity world with neither work nor worry. A worldly utopia of material plentitude where one only does whatever is viewed as pleasurable. Or as Marx said, you hunt in the morning, you fish in the afternoon, and discuss Marxian philosophy over comradely conversation with your fellow communists after dinner.

Now by society regulating the general production, Karl Marx meant government ownership of the means of production with central planning, the result from which in the view of the socialists and communists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries being a world of material plenty far greater and better than anything that had been possible under profit-oriented capitalist private enterprise.

From Central Planning to the Interventionist-Welfare State

By the 1960s and 1970s and most certainly by the 1980s, a growing number of “democratic socialists” in Western Europe and “progressive liberals” in the United States reluctantly and grudgingly came to the conclusion that Soviet-style socialist central planning was an abject failure as an alternative economic system that could exceed competitive capitalism in successfully “delivering the goods.”

Furthermore, many of these same “democratic socialists” in the West could not deny that with Soviet-style socialist central planning had also come totalitarian dictatorships that denied that very democratic freedoms that wished to combine with socialism.

The harsh, cruel and murderous consequences of life under Comrade Stalin in the Soviet Union and Chairman Mao in Communist China, and indeed everywhere else where the Marxist vision had been fully implemented, could also no longer be brushed aside as mere “anti-communist” propaganda. (See my article, “The Human Cost of Socialism in Power.”)

As a result, by the 1960s and 1970s, most Western European “democratic socialist” parties set aside their insistence upon nationalization of large-scale industry and manufacturing and the goal of implementing all-round central planning.

Instead, they almost all called for the extension and fuller implementation of the interventionist-welfare state. They argued that nationalization and central planning were only advocated as an institutional means to the end of bringing about “social justice,” that is, the redistribution of wealth and the direction of production to serve the end-goal of greater material equality and comprehensive “social services” for the lower income groups in society through “free” provision of those human necessities that FDR spoke about in 1944.

The same end result, the democratic socialists now declared, could be attained by regulating business and industry to confine and direct private sector activities into avenues and forms declared to be more in keeping with the “social” goals and interest of society as a whole, rather than mere private gain by those who owned the private enterprises.

And by using the tax system to redistribute wealth so that greater material equality could be more effectively achieved without completely undermining the incentives that generated the production and industry on the basis of which the welfare state is able to acquire the financial means to provide all those “freedom-providing” entitlement program. (See my article “Barack Obama and the Meaning of Socialism” for a fuller explanation of the shift from central planning socialism to regulatory-redistributive socialism.)

The entire edifice of totalitarian as well as “democratic” socialism, however, is based on the premise that those who have “too much” relative to others in society have somehow acquired their wealth without really or honestly earning it, and in fact this is what Barack Obama asserted awhile back when he told businessmen that they had not built their enterprises. (See my article, “The Austrian Economists Who Refuted Marx and Obama,” for an explanation as to why Marx and Obama’s claim is false.)

Since they have more than is “just” or “fair,” they should be taxed to an unspecified maximum amount to provide the financial wherewithal so others in society may be “freed” from the reality of scarcity in everyday life.

Marx on Sanders cartoon

“Democratic Socialism” Equals a New Despotism

But the “freedom” about which Bernie Sanders speaks, and before him Franklin Roosevelt, in fact, involves a loss of liberty into an even greater degree of political paternalism.

If government is to assure a “decent job at decent pay,” as well as “adequate” food and clothing, in addition to a “decent home and decent health care,” then inescapably that same government must determine, decide and dictate precisely what each of these guarantees are to represent in terms of qualities, quantities and characteristics to which every individual is to have a “right.”

To be free of having to fully or partly work yourself to earn the income to provide such necessities and amenities of daily life through, now, government provision of them means that it will be the government that determines and decides what is “enough” of each of these freedom-providing “entitlements” and who and under what circumstances people will be eligible for access to the guaranteed amount.

The leveling of society through the redistributive process means both a floor and a ceiling that specifies both the minimum that a person is to be guaranteed and the maximum that will be allowed through the taxing away of income that might have been used to purchase any amount of these things greater than your “fair share.”

The government, therefore, limits all in society to live within a fiscal and regulatory corridor of human existence micromanaged by the regulatory and fiscal constraints imposed, controlled and managed by the politicians enacting the laws and the bureaucrats assigned the task of confining all in society within that corridor of what “social justice” permits.

As one of the remaining net producers of wealth, the government not only restricts how much your may earn, save and accumulate under the tax code, it also dictates what you may produce, where and under what terms through the long arm of the regulatory agencies that strangle the entire supply-side of the economy through a tightly woven spider’s web of commands, prohibitions, and regulations and controls.

As a producer you are a prisoner of the State, because how else shall the government have the access to and control over what some work to produce, so others may have it redistributed to them as the means of “freeing” them from the material and related constraints of everyday life?

And if you are a prisoner of the State as a producer, you are a ward of the State to the extent to which and the form in which you are a recipient of the redistributive largess made available by the political paternalists and their collaborators through the network of “entitlement” programs.

By defining “freedom” as liberation from the material constraints and limits of the human condition, and by demagogically asserting that one man’s material want is the result of another person’s unjust and unjustifiable more material comfort through the interactions of the marketplace, everyone in society is pushed into a forced dependency and compelled obedience to those in power and in charge of the Interventionist-Welfare State.

Political Paternalism Can Break the Will and Spirit of Free Men

Through this we enter into the “soft despotism” about which the famous nineteenth century French political philosopher, Alexis de Tocqueville warned us in his great work, “Democracy in America” back in the 1830s after his extended tour of the, then, still young United States:

“Above those men arises an immense and tutelary power that alone takes charge of assuring their enjoyment and of looking after their fate. It is absolute, detailed, regular, far-sighted and mild. It would resemble paternal power if, like it, it had as a goal to prepare men for manhood; but on the contrary it seeks only to fix them irrevocably in childhood; it likes the citizens to enjoy themselves, provided that they think only about enjoying themselves.

 

“It works willingly for their happiness; but it wants to be the unique agent for it and the sole arbiter; it attends to their security, provides for their needs, facilitates their pleasures, conducts their principal affairs, directs their industry, settles their estates, divides their inheritances; how can it not remove entirely from them the trouble to think and the difficulty of living? . . .

 

“This is how it makes the use of free will less useful and rarer every day; how it encloses the action of the will within a smaller space and little by little steals from each citizen even the use of himself . . .

 

“After having thus taken each individual one by one into its powerful hands, and having molded him as it pleases, the sovereign power extends its arms over the entire society; it covers the surface of society with a network of small, complicated, minute, and uniform rules, which the most original minds and the most vigorous souls cannot break through to go beyond the crowd; it does not break wills, but it softens them, bends them and directs them; it rarely forces action, but it constantly opposes your acting; it does not destroy, it prevents birth; it does not tyrannize, it hinders, it represses, it enervates, it extinguishes, it stupifies, and finally it reduces each nation to being nothing more than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.

 

“I have always believed that this sort of servitude, regulated, mild and peaceful, of which I have just done the portrait, could be combined better than we imagine with some of the external forms of liberty, and that it would not be impossible for it to be established in the very shadow of the sovereignty of the people.”

Here is the “true freedom” that is the dream and demand of Bernie Sanders and all of the other “democratic socialists” of all political parties who presume that all or at least significant parts of human life need to be micromanaged and controlled by government so people may be liberated from the “tyranny” of not having all they may want without finding effective ways of acquiring it through honest and peaceful work.

 

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Mon, 12/07/2015 - 18:47 | 6890178 InjectTheVenom
InjectTheVenom's picture

>>>  TRUMP   OR

>>>  BERNIE

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:06 | 6890262 FireBrander
FireBrander's picture

I had some respect for Bernie...until his "We're tired of Hillary's emails" comment...he fucked up...showed me he was a believer in ,and a member of, the political class that is above the law...YOU CANNOT come to me promising to fight for me, then turn around and give Hillary a PASS on breaking a law that would PUT ME IN PRISON FOR YEARS!

If Bernie doesn't have the NUTS to take on THE CLINTONS, then he's just as big a pussy/tool as Obama...a little lobbying here, a few threats there and he's selling me out just as fast as Obama...no thanks!

Registered "I" here; going with Trump for now...I just wish Trump was much less of a "bomben" guy...

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:14 | 6890338 NidStyles
NidStyles's picture

He's a Jew, what did you guys expect? It's like none of you have ever actually met a real Jew. 

 

In their mind, they are the only political class, the choosen ones... Think about what that phrase actually means to them. It means they are choosen by their god to lead all of humanity to fullfill their wants and desires.  

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:56 | 6890598 BKbroiler
BKbroiler's picture

Growing up in Italy, I used to hear the same words.. men "have a right to a job", "have a right to a vacation", etc... but from who?  Who provides these rights?  Who pays for them?  They can't be god given rights if you can't send god the tab.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 20:23 | 6890762 Goatboy
Goatboy's picture

Growing up in Italy, I used to hear the same words.. men "have a right to a job", "have a right to a vacation", etc... but from who?  Who provides these rights?  Who pays for them?  They can't be god given rights if you can't send god the tab.

 

That's completely uncontroversial. Would Bill Gates or Donald Trump make billions of dollars if we para-dropped them to the jungle to fend for themselves when they were young? They would both probably be dead in 10 days. So, better question is in reverse to yours: Who made Trump's billions? Our indoctrinators prefer to over-simplify and answer it's all him and his but that cannot be further from the truth.

Every wealth is a social manifestation. Degree to which a society recognizes that unbeatable fact indicates its level of civility and away from division, violence and tyranny. That doesn't mean that everyone has to have exactly the same but what we have today is beyond the pale.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 21:57 | 6891324 Praeda2
Praeda2's picture

Spoken like a broke, nobody.

"Our indoctrinators" < might be a clue there for you dummy. "
over-simplify and answer" the irony... well am glad you have it all figured it out... except how to pay off your student loans hahaha.

You're such a fucking idiot that you can only be mocked. Where do you fucking retards come from? Start the cull already.


 

Tue, 12/08/2015 - 03:07 | 6891375 ZD1
ZD1's picture

"Who made Trump's billions? Our indoctrinators prefer to over-simplify and answer it's all him and his but that cannot be further from the truth. Every wealth is a social manifestation."

 

"You didn't build that!" says Obama who has had everything handed to him his entire life.

Our socialist indoctrinators want us to believe that wealth belongs to society and that they are the ones who are needed to confiscate wealth and distribute it as they see fit.

 

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 22:11 | 6891397 greenskeeper carl
greenskeeper carl's picture

That's kind of a stupid comparison. If you dropped almost anyone into the jungle, they would be dead in a lot more than 10 days. The better question is if you took away their billions and made them start from scratch in present day America, would they end up rich again?

And as to the rest of it, you sound like you are implying that yes, someone owes you vacation, a house, etc. obviously those people you mention had people that were working for them, and without them neither gates nor trump not any of them would have made their billions. But, they were PAID for their work. It wasn't forced servitude, slavery, or coercion. That's how capitalism works. You do work for someone at a pay rate you both agree upon. If you don't think you are treated fairly because the guy at the top makes too much more than you, you should then be free to go work somewhere else

Tue, 12/08/2015 - 00:14 | 6891920 juangrande
juangrande's picture

Where is that somewhere else? Idealogy doesn't pay, either. No one owes anyone anything, but for 35 yrs. the political class has been enabling the oligarchal class. Capitalistic principles have never existed in a vacuum!

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 22:22 | 6891467 sp0rkovite
sp0rkovite's picture

Everybody in the world has the right to trade a days hard labor for a bowl of rice. As long as slave labor is part of the "market" this is the trade off we give to our kids...

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:21 | 6890345 FireBrander
FireBrander's picture

Here is the “true freedom” that is the dream and demand of the Right and all of the other “Capitalists” of all political parties who presume that all or at least significant parts of human life need to be micromanaged and controlled by Corporations via Government lobbying so people may be liberated from the “tyranny” of not having all they may want THROUGH A JOB that pays for these things...instead, acquiring "all they may want" by committing themselves to debt slavery or poverty and spending their welfare checks in Corporate stores..

Even the slightest push to roll back SNAP even the tiniest bit results in an uproar of opposition from...wait for it...Wal-Mart...what does that tell you about who is the true beneficiary of SNAP?

I didn't see a single SNAP recipient marching on DC...but Wal-Mart spent millions.

Food Stamp Inc.: How SNAP Benefits Enrich Crony Capitalists

"Large retailers are also cashing in on SNAP benefits. Stocking the shelves with food stamp-approved foods, Wal-Mart made about half a billion dollars in SNAP purchases in two years just from the state of Oklahoma. That is a significant returns for Wal-Mart’s lobbying effort in the 2007 Farm Bill, where Wal-Mart lobbied for five provisions, all having to do with food stamps."

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2012/07/19/food-stamps-inc/

 

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:49 | 6890562 cpgone
cpgone's picture

I didn't see a single SNAP recipient marching on DC"

So you have interviewed all of them?

Those with jobs and keyboards really like to  kick the poor when down. Feel superior and better ,now?

Karma be a bitch.

Average CEO to worker 800 to 1. Im glad the masses are rising up

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 22:14 | 6891405 ZD1
ZD1's picture

 

 

 

Karma be a bitch for leftist pigs in power who pander to the masses promising "free" shit.

We're glad that many in the middle and working classes are waking up and rising up against the socialist pigs who confiscate wealth and distribute it to their free shit army.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:22 | 6890412 nmewn
nmewn's picture

"Democratic Party hopeful, Bernie Sanders, recently outlined what it means for him to be a “democratic socialist.”

Ahem, note to author, that National Democratic Socialist, there is a difference ;-)

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:24 | 6890420 847328_3527
847328_3527's picture

Work makes my head hurt, bernie.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:33 | 6890465 nmewn
nmewn's picture

Everything should be Farrreee!...lol.

Farrreee! college education! Oh yeah, well how do the administrators & tenured professors get paid? One assumes "the state". How's that workin out for the indoctrination cam...errr, public schools?

Farrreee! healthcare! I can't bear to list the insolvencies happening right now in that space thanks to ObamaCare.

Fucking socialists, they never "Change" you have to beat it out of them.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 22:14 | 6891421 greenskeeper carl
greenskeeper carl's picture

Yes. Everytime I hear democratic socialist, and especially hear him talk about it, the word 'national' pops into my head in front of it. I really wish someone with the writing skills and time on their hands would do a write up comparing the policies of Bernie sanders with the plans of hitler or Mussolini. I bet there would be a lot of similarities.

Tue, 12/08/2015 - 05:00 | 6892347 Seahorse
Seahorse's picture

Sanders true character on display..

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBIKP4W50-I

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:43 | 6890517 Eeyores Enigma
Eeyores Enigma's picture

Only rich people should get money for nothing.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:50 | 6890564 nmewn
nmewn's picture

Like who?

Buffet, Soros, Gates...

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 20:44 | 6890917 Occams_Chainsaw
Occams_Chainsaw's picture

Have to agree with you.  He serves on his knees instead of standing on his feet.  I had hoped for better from him.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 18:47 | 6890183 TeamDepends
TeamDepends's picture

Wrong, Bernie. Our rights are enumerated in the Bill of Rights. No, you are not guaranteed a job, or free healthcare, or free college, or an X-box, or groceries, or diapers....

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 18:52 | 6890206 nuubee
nuubee's picture

Actually, still wrong. Our rights are that which we claim in our living. What is enumerated in the bill of rights is the limits by which any government underneath it is allowed to infringe on or alter those rights. The "Bill of Rights" is actually a "Bill of Limits" on all governments subject to it.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 18:52 | 6890186 falak pema
falak pema's picture

from hunter gatherer to civilization is a trail of trade offs based on knowledge acquistion that feeds the power meme. The more people know relative to others the more powerful they get. Together we are stronger if we share power via legal and political constructs. Thats the human timeline.

But urban living in "civilization" means loss of certain liberties. In order to keep others. In civilization there is "civil".

Trade offs are contractual in private sector and "base line" humanitarian in government sector that ensures nation state cohesion.

You want total liberty? You get total despotism. Anarchy always leads to despotism.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:44 | 6890526 nmewn
nmewn's picture

"But urban living in "civilization" means loss of certain liberties."

Well, I'm sorry for your luck but I don't live in a city so don't try to impose a one size fits all mindset from "on-high" onto everyone who doesn't.

You could always move while they'll still "let you" exercise that liberty ;-)

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 22:17 | 6891440 greenskeeper carl
greenskeeper carl's picture

I don't either. Not do I care what a bunch of statists who live in cities think about my liberties. Nor do I care if a majority of sheep in this country vote to take them away. Neither my rights nor liberties are up for debate.

Democracy is so overrated.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 18:53 | 6890209 The Pope
The Pope's picture

A jew telling me what to do. QUEL SURPRISE! (we have enough of them already here in the Vatican).

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 18:58 | 6890240 DontWorry
DontWorry's picture

I dont think thats what Bernie says.  Right now an academic study just proved we no longer have a functioning democracy, but an oligolopoly.  Is that what you want?  If no, then what do YOU propose we change?

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:02 | 6890277 cheech_wizard
cheech_wizard's picture

>Right now an academic study just proved we no longer have a functioning democracy, but an oligolopoly.

Actually, they declared it was an oligarchy.

But while their initial premise was fundamentally flawed (for mere correctness sake, a functioning representative republic) the end result was the same.

Standard Disclaimer: What is this mob rule you speak of?

Tue, 12/08/2015 - 02:55 | 6892250 TimmyB
TimmyB's picture

Of course it isn't what Sanders says. This article is completely fabricated bullshit. The oligarchy is tightening its grip. Sanders is the only candidate speaking out against it.

And Trunp earned his money by being born to the right parents. He won the genetic lottery. He's such a shitty business person, he'd be many times richer if he invested the money his dad left him in the S&P 500, instead of squandering his time and daddy's money in real estate.

Tue, 12/08/2015 - 03:35 | 6892298 JamaicaJim
JamaicaJim's picture

Fuckin lay up...a bunny

END THE FED

ARREST A SHITLOAD OF BANKERS....TRIALS.....PRISON

FIND JON CORZINE AND ARREST, TRY AND JAIL HIS ASS TOO

BUST THROUGH DODD-FRANK AND GUT THAT PIECE OF SHIT...

REPEAL GRAHAM/BLIELY - RE-INSTATE GLASS/STEAGALL....

for openers....the above could be done in 6 months....

 

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 18:58 | 6890242 Jackagain
Jackagain's picture

You knew this was coming......  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcIK3akktLU

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:03 | 6890264 Grandad Grumps
Grandad Grumps's picture

Work would be great without all of the useless parasites who cannot and will not do anything useful.

Bernie Sanders is one of those parasites... just like the rest of the politicians, who don't have real jobs.

That's OK, bankers and lawyers are non-contributing parasites as well.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:07 | 6890286 JamaicaJim
JamaicaJim's picture

that this aged fucktard is STILL in the conversation tells me..

 

LOTS of people in the U.S. are;

fucked in the head

stupid as fuck

fed up...and would let Hitler lead them out of their own shit...

dumb as fuck....different than stupid....

 

 

I can't even imagine Putin squaring off with this old geezer....

 

Lemme see...

 

A lying, traitorous NAFTA signing cockhound, a douchebag liar/war mongerer/a foreign born Manchurian fraud/puppet/divider/looter/cunt in a blue suit...

 

..and follow it up with this asshat?

 

marvelous....

 

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:35 | 6890431 FireBrander
FireBrander's picture

Bernie is "STILL in the conversation" because Hillary is running for the Democratic nomination....a BIG chunk of DEMOCRATS cannot stand THE CLINTONS...Hillary is THE REASON Obama is President today...Bernie has a shot because a big % of Dems have an ANYBODY BUT HILLARY ATTITUDE...that's why there was  such a HUGE push for Joe...and when Joe backed out, Bernie surged about 9% (as did Hillary, so Joe's 18% split between the two)...Bernie fucked up badly with the "Tired of Hillary's emails" comment...took him 2 WEEKS to figure it out...but he did try to backpedal on that comment...too late Bern...you Burned yourself with that one..

Think about that...Biden had 20% of the vote and he WAS NEVER IN THE RACE! What does that tell you about support for Hillary? As it stands today, Hillary has ~55% support AMONG DEMOCRATS...holy Fuck, that is a disaster! Yeah, that will go 95% when Bernie drops out...but that's not how you win...you've got to get 60% of the "Middle Ground" voters and if 45% of Democrats can't stand the thought of President Hillary, what do you think that number is among the "Middle Ground" folks?

This race is for the Republican to lose!

Tue, 12/08/2015 - 00:21 | 6891940 juangrande
juangrande's picture

Actually Mr. Trump behaves more like Adolph did than Mr. Sanders does. 

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:06 | 6890306 i_call_you_my_base
i_call_you_my_base's picture

There is no hope. I'll vote for anyone who will fuck with the system. Bernie and Trump are better than the others in that regard. But better to vote third party, basically anyone.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:09 | 6890313 geekz_rule
geekz_rule's picture

what a joke. sanders is the only person to call out the fact the world has been colonized, monopolized by a handful of Oligarchs. we all live on their PLANTATION

neo liberal voo doo bs economics monopolized it all.. pretty quickly

1) deregulate  global financial markets ? 

2) deregulate global trade ? 

3) destroy national sovereignties, enslave them with fictitious fiat debt ? 

4) privatize everything. almost there

sanders is no messiah, but hes the only one with a lifetime of serving veterans, and the actual people, instead of the true traitors.. banksters

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:31 | 6890455 Baby Eating Dingo22
Baby Eating Dingo22's picture

EXACTLY

These clowns criticizing him think there's some perfect candidate thet will make everything just right

Bernie wants to end corporate welfare, instead taxing them their fair share and invest some of those funds helping people get educated so we might better compete with other developed nations

Has supported auditing and closing Fed

Has been consistent his entire career

Has been honest

Has supported veterans

 

Donald Trump is a loose cannon

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 22:30 | 6891452 ZD1
ZD1's picture

 

 

Bernie Sanders is an old Jewish putz who has been on the government payroll almost his entire life and couldn't run a hotdog stand without going broke.

Bernie cowers little a little girl whenever BlackLiesMatter thugs come calling and he will say anything to appease them.

Bernie is a Democrat clown.

Tue, 12/08/2015 - 08:09 | 6892489 Refuse-Resist
Refuse-Resist's picture

I wonder if his balls were removed with his foreskin?

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 20:13 | 6890689 Not My Real Name
Not My Real Name's picture

FFS. Sanders is a socialist. I applaud his character -- at least he is one of the very few socialists to come straight out and admit it. Most (including many posters here) do everything in their power to deny their true ideology.

The problem with Sanders is his core beliefs, and the policies he espouses, are based upon the continuation of the very poisonous "fictitious fiat debt" you are rightfully railing against. 

Tue, 12/08/2015 - 09:12 | 6892697 Jack's Raging B...
Jack&#039;s Raging Bile Duct's picture

That colonization and monopolization was done through the coersion of The State. Those oligarchs enjoy their status because The State has created barriers to entry and competition which plays favorites to those with the reigns of power. Bernie's solution to dismantling this situation is to further comingle The State with the economy-the very thing which created it.

Read that.

Read it again.

READ IT AGAIN.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:11 | 6890337 alexcojones
alexcojones's picture

I'm 66 and still working, Bernie

And it ain't No Weekend at Bernie's.

But I'd rather be commercial fishing in Alaska than fucking over the country in DC

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:38 | 6890487 will ling
will ling's picture

rootin' for ya dude.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:44 | 6890530 will ling
will ling's picture

rootin' for ya dude.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:17 | 6890380 indio007
indio007's picture

people are desperate to get rid of the criminals. The don't care what they believe in , just as long as the graft and corruption ends. That's why Bernie is still around.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:25 | 6890427 _SILENCER
_SILENCER's picture

No joke - yesterday I saw a Prius positively slathered in Bernie Sanders stickers. "Feel The Bern", etc.

People are goddamned clueless. The prosecution rests, your honor.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:26 | 6890429 Baby Eating Dingo22
Baby Eating Dingo22's picture

----------------------This is a F'd up article---------- 

ZH attacking Bernie Sanders because he wants to repeal Citizens's United, stop bailing out banksters, eliminate the Fed, and for once make Wall Street start doing their part to help Main Street???

 

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:47 | 6890542 calltoaccount
calltoaccount's picture

You are absolutely right.  This article-- and it's author-- are full of shit.  

Pure fear-based oligarch demonization of anthing that would seek to rein in their massive ongoing unpunished theft.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 20:04 | 6890646 jtg
jtg's picture

The ghost of Allen Dulles has returned.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 22:22 | 6891466 greenskeeper carl
greenskeeper carl's picture

When has Bernie sanders ever said he wanted to end the fed? Seriously.

And as to the rest of it, I am not supporting anyone who is going to grow any aspect of the government, and this guy will grow it all.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:36 | 6890479 will ling
will ling's picture

the only good red is a dead red.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:41 | 6890503 conraddobler
conraddobler's picture

Bernie is somewhat on to something simply because there is no way in hell you can let 7 8 9 20 billion people on earth earn their own living while automation and technology are rapidly eclipsing their ability to even earn a meager living.

Yes you can learn skills etc but the pace of technology will overtake even that.

We have concurrent running problems.

On the one hand the old ways are crumbling exposing the old ways for the pyramid scheme fraud they were.

The rise of technology that allows a few people to control more and more stuff relatively easily.

The said rise of technology also is racing against humanity for it to earn it's supper.

At some point jobs are kinda make work because you can't really get the economic value out of them that would be required for the entire population to have enough to live.

I am no socialist and that does not mean I do not agree with those who detail it's ills because they are right but on the other hand you can't just ignore reality either and no one has a model of life that will work once you factor in that technology is not going to slow down it's only accelerating.

On the one hand it can increase someone's productivity massively and on the other hand it takes away roles humans once played at a pace that is too fast for them to adapt.

There is no model for what we're dealing with someone either invents one or we are going to lose a lot of people.

Tue, 12/08/2015 - 01:30 | 6892122 Peterus
Peterus's picture

There was no way for all the hunter-gatherers make their living in much more efficient farming, and so on and on and on.

Food production employed everybody full-time-double-plus at start, now it drops to 1-2% in some developed countries which still feed themselves and export some. This didn't create unemployed masses but freed up labor for other purposes. Now people work 20-70 hours a week with plenty of time for relaxation, providing all the food, tons of stuff and numerous services.

Even in the extreme case where farming is uber-effective and manufacturing is uber-effective to the point of basic material goods dropping like a stone in value ... there's always new wants, premium goods and services. People have infinite number of wants. When I'm fed, housed and have numerous other supplies than I want to go in space, have many services provided or do charitable acts etc. All of the unwanted unemployment stems from blocks in the labor market. 

Consumption freak just gets a bigger mansion than needs even more material production, green nut wants a comfortable but 100% carbon-emmision-free and recyclable existence, monk moves more towards spiritual pursuit - simply removing himself from labor supply while and hour of his work provided for a week of his life. There simply is no ceiling on this.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:48 | 6890550 SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

I know I'm supposed to hate him and all that, but a lot of the things Bernie Sanders says to me makes the most sense out of all the ass hat politicians out there.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:51 | 6890571 Ms No
Ms No's picture

This place is going Bolshevik, we should probably be out of here by now because by the time Hillary or Bernie gets in it will be too late... not that a president matters but they will drop the hammer with the change of the guard.

Nothing left but prison camps and seizing all assets and we are there.  This population is flinstones fekkin stupid. 

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 19:55 | 6890595 logicalman
logicalman's picture

I've never had a problem working for my living.

I've always had a problem working for someone else's.

Banksters and politicians spring immediately to mind.

 

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 20:03 | 6890624 jtg
jtg's picture

Free market fundamentalism, also called neoliberalism, is dismantling not just the welfare state, but everything else and turning us over to an Elysium like future of rule by corporations.

What we will be left with will be far worse than what we left behind.

And Bernie Sanders is not a Socialist. He is taking money from the same Deep State that all the other candidates do. Sanders is More War while Hillary is More More War.

Let's get excited about voting.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 20:22 | 6890754 Not My Real Name
Not My Real Name's picture

"Bernie Sanders is not a Socialist."

Really? Then maybe somebody better tell that to Bern, because even he admits he's a socialist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psp-r68mo8k

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 20:34 | 6890829 Ms No
Ms No's picture

Last I heard our election software was still considered proprietary and unavailable for our eyes...  just like Obama's trade bills.  We probably don't need to be worried voting anymore or arguing about which figure head they place in front of us.  6 corporations own the MSM and you can bet that if you see his mug all of the time he is theirs.  They need a liberal in next for when the collapse hits that way they can keep the red team/blue team meme going while they seize your assets.

I assure you they wont be redistributing Rockefelle'rs money but they will be needing your 401K and bank account for when the banks collapse and the EBT cards run out. 

 

 

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 20:16 | 6890721 Ms No
Ms No's picture

It's interesting how well Bernie is covered compared to Dennis Kucinich.  Kucinich had socialist ideas but he was anti-establishment through and through and he wasn't corrupted.  He voted right along with Ron Paul all the time, often they would be two dissenting votes alone together. 

The MSM buried Kucinich but the loooove the Bern.

Tue, 12/08/2015 - 08:13 | 6892501 Refuse-Resist
Refuse-Resist's picture

Excellent. I think the same. There's your sign!

RED FLAG! RED FLAG!

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 20:19 | 6890744 Vlad the Inhaler
Vlad the Inhaler's picture

Capitalism rewards the winners who work hard and/or get lucky.  But it also punishes the losers who are lazy and/or unlucky.  The problem in America is that all the regulations will not allow a person to be a loser.  If you go to third world countries, billions of people are able to make a basic if difficult existence in the underground economy.  They can live in a shanty slum or the countryside and pick through the dump for scraps or farm a little plot or sell some street food, and at the end of the day they can put some rice in their bowl and go see the witch doctor when they are sick etc.  In America, they don't allow any of that shit.  A person who wants to sell oranges must get permits from the five various departments and rent an approved home and buy into Obamacare for their medical needs or be fined, etc. This works out great for most people, but the ones that can't make it are completely screwed. So when the lowest paying available job of flipping burgers doesn't even come close to paying the minium bills that are forced on you by the government, then what do you do, you sell drugs or steal or sign up for welfare.  We require a certain level of succeess to simply exist in this country but we have an economic system that doesn't realistically provide for everyone to acheive this success.  So we need to give on one side or the other.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 20:44 | 6890916 conraddobler
conraddobler's picture

We used to do this all the time it's called bankdruptcy and you start over but they of course made that harder.

This is a problem in China too who never even got the how to let someone lose part down, their answer is a bullet more or less.

You fail they will come and arrest you and winding down a company?  Freaking forget that which leads to all or nothing type behavior where either the .gov disappears you or you disapear with the payroll right before it all implodes on you.

Those who think there are solutions out there for a ginormous swath of people aren't being realistic.  There aren't and there aren't going to be and the rungs are on fire it's climb or wallow in poverty now.

There are no free markets the whole world is one big PC arena where you can't beat up someone and take their stuff but they can email you a termination notice and give your job to someone at half your pay or force you to eat crap for the rest of your life and grovel for your job.

Stuff is going to come unhinged in a major way.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 20:31 | 6890808 Quasi
Quasi's picture

Aaahh.... Bernie Sanders.  Under his presidency we will have all the marijuana we want. There just won't be any Dorito's on the shelf.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 20:43 | 6890914 SISSYFUSS
SISSYFUSS's picture

Welcome to Costco. I Love You.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 20:52 | 6890972 barron58
barron58's picture

Wife and I have several relatives who have recently retired.  During their working years, they wanted the government out of their pockets.  Since retirement they are all Bernie Sanders fanatics.  Take from others and give to me.

Sad state of affairs.

Tue, 12/08/2015 - 08:17 | 6892518 Refuse-Resist
Refuse-Resist's picture

And right now, aren't boomers the majority of the votiing population?

When people figure out that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury, it;'s over.

The is but one way to prevent such an outcome and that is to forbid anyone who recieves money from the government in any way from voting.

Because they vote, they hold power. That power is to take by force that which you produce, and give it to their preferred recipient.

We are fucked until there is a major overhaul and re-thinking of this whole 'universal suffrage' thing.

In my mind letting everyone vote guarantees most people are going to suffer.

Near-universal suffrage alright.

No skin in the game, no vote. I don't give a fuck what's haning between your legs, or what color your skin  is, or what church you go to.

Gov check=no vote.

Until that happens this shitshow will keep getting worse.

Fri, 12/11/2015 - 10:16 | 6909831 Inanna
Inanna's picture

More acurrate to say, take from corporations that aren't paying taxes to fund people. 

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 22:02 | 6891349 AMPALANCE
AMPALANCE's picture

It's the Capitalist that built the infrastructure allowed these Marxist to be so outside reality, they built these festering subsidized institutions of higher Marxist learning that allow failed ideologies to be push forward altering for the worse the sciences (who now put funding above the once rigid burden of scientific thesis) the Humanities (that are now corrupted by what I like to call intellectual bias, where facts are chosen based on the feeling that if it is taught it must not only be correct, but must never be questioned) and the arts. to become utterly useless to the real world, and this is particularly true of " new economics" that claims to be a science and an anchor of humanity, but rely on false data to reach a thesis that can never be replicated outside of the false data. Yet it is increasingly hard to win a political position or even a high level private sector job without a certificate of intelligence from on of these institutions that are so rancid, corrupt and intellectually dishonest. The good news is the Marxist must still eat and consume, and the producers who no longer get paid for what they produce (and the Marxist cannot produce) will at some point stop producing, and they will starve.

Having said all of that, the wealth redistribution cause by the Central banks and Central planners over the last 4 decades must be reversed. A poor populace does not make for a good economy no more than the top 1% owning more than the bottom 80%. It may be that to reverse this huge wealth redistribution 4 decades old, we may need to redistribute wealth back to the middle class somehow, or we will never have a prosperous economy.

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 22:30 | 6891502 Inanna
Inanna's picture

In the wake of all this turmoil in capitalism - of what’s left of it in its state of decay and its imminent demise, I just finished reading tonight LOVE AND CAPITAL: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution, By Mary Gabriel. 

A National Book Award Finalist, it is fabulous reading with prescient and compelling words for what’s happening in our modern era, paralleling the revolutions and rebellions against the elite masters in Europe in the 19th century. 

What’s so fascinating is that Marx's analyses of the weaknesses of capitalism were eerily fulfilled! as if we are living in parallel universe with him. For example, in Capital Volume III, Marx examines the credit system and found that under it, the wage slave also became the creditor's slave, because he invariably consumed more than he could afford. Most significantly, the book chronicled the entire system's demise due to an inevitable fall in profit caused by capitalist overreach! WOW! HELLO WORLD 2008. Does that sum up the American consumer and his quagmire he finds him in today. A mere consumer, an alienated thing, sucked dry and now marginalized once he no longer can consume, his credit score too low.

Predicting fast food slavery: McDonald’s? (I worked there when I was 16. Beware of what you eat! There is a reason I’m a vegetarian! Those low-paid workers!) 

The small artisan master - who by social tradition took care of his workers with varying degrees of benevolence until those workers became masters themselves- had been almost entirely replaced by a faceless company with no obligations to its employees beyond a wage set low enough to ensure maximum profit. Man was no longer a man, but an appendage to a machine. He was no longer even the head of his own family; that, too, belonged to the factory.

Marx described a state of turmoil unlike anything in history in a world dominated by capital, because of its need to constantly revolutionize production and raise profits, which in turn required new markets around the globe. 

I love this line: The poor stole what they could from the rich, and the rich stole what they could from the working poor - one act called crime, the other, industry.

Then the history of labor in 1893 delegates met to launch the Independent Labour Party with demands for: an eight-hour day; the abolition of child labor; provision for the sick, aged, widows, and orphans paid for by taxes on unearned income. (Those lazy rich people who just don’t work for a living and Daddy gives $1 million to buy Manhattan! That’s YOU) 

Especially interesting were the grisly accounts of what the starving masses did to some company managers . “The fear it generated in representative assemblies and factory offices around Europe focused attention on workers’ demands in a way that peaceful strikes had failed to do.” Now we know why the rich are all shaking in their boots, hoarding gold and trying to escape! 

Good thing capitalists have Bernie Sanders to keep them in one piece, who was sane enough not to vote for the Iraq war, and recognizes, as Marx did, why should an industry whose operation depends upon the work of one hundred people, perhaps even one thousand, enrich only a handful. Why should the earth’s bounty - it’s minerals, land, and seas - come under the exclusive control of any man for his own gain?

Meanwhile, on the right populist front, we have Trump taking over the maniac demagogue role, making inroads with the uneducated and emotionally insecure, spouting violence and racism. Which reminds me, I also read this week Mein Kampf, a book of my mother’s I’ve had for years and thought to dig into as I thought, “Where have I heard Trump and Carson and Cruz’s and INSERT LATEST GOP CANDIDATE NAME HERE before?” This line really struck me:

“Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself agains the Jew I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” - Adolph Hitler.

Reading history. It’s a great story. Happens over and over again. 

 

A new era of Democratic Socialism is born in the world and America, fueled by the brute strength born of injustice, armed with the intellectual weapon of philosophy and recognition of the true value of every worker. Watch for May Days around the world! The exploited masses are triumphing!  ¡VIVA LA REVOLUCION!

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 22:30 | 6891504 Inanna
Inanna's picture

In the wake of all this turmoil in capitalism - of what’s left of it in its state of decay and its imminent demise, I just finished reading tonight LOVE AND CAPITAL: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution, By Mary Gabriel. 

A National Book Award Finalist, it is fabulous reading with prescient and compelling words for what’s happening in our modern era, paralleling the revolutions and rebellions against the elite masters in Europe in the 19th century. 

What’s so fascinating is that Marx's analyses of the weaknesses of capitalism were eerily fulfilled! as if we are living in parallel universe with him. For example, in Capital Volume III, Marx examines the credit system and found that under it, the wage slave also became the creditor's slave, because he invariably consumed more than he could afford. Most significantly, the book chronicled the entire system's demise due to an inevitable fall in profit caused by capitalist overreach! WOW! HELLO WORLD 2008. Does that sum up the American consumer and his quagmire he finds him in today. A mere consumer, an alienated thing, sucked dry and now marginalized once he no longer can consume, his credit score too low.

Predicting fast food slavery: McDonald’s? (I worked there when I was 16. Beware of what you eat! There is a reason I’m a vegetarian! Those low-paid workers!) 

The small artisan master - who by social tradition took care of his workers with varying degrees of benevolence until those workers became masters themselves- had been almost entirely replaced by a faceless company with no obligations to its employees beyond a wage set low enough to ensure maximum profit. Man was no longer a man, but an appendage to a machine. He was no longer even the head of his own family; that, too, belonged to the factory.

Marx described a state of turmoil unlike anything in history in a world dominated by capital, because of its need to constantly revolutionize production and raise profits, which in turn required new markets around the globe. 

I love this line: The poor stole what they could from the rich, and the rich stole what they could from the working poor - one act called crime, the other, industry.

Then the history of labor in 1893 delegates met to launch the Independent Labour Party with demands for: an eight-hour day; the abolition of child labor; provision for the sick, aged, widows, and orphans paid for by taxes on unearned income. (Those lazy rich people who just don’t work for a living and Daddy gives $1 million to buy Manhattan! That’s YOU) 

Especially interesting were the grisly accounts of what the starving masses did to some company managers . “The fear it generated in representative assemblies and factory offices around Europe focused attention on workers’ demands in a way that peaceful strikes had failed to do.” Now we know why the rich are all shaking in their boots, hoarding gold and trying to escape! 

Good thing capitalists have Bernie Sanders to keep them in one piece, who was sane enough not to vote for the Iraq war, and recognizes, as Marx did, why should an industry whose operation depends upon the work of one hundred people, perhaps even one thousand, enrich only a handful. Why should the earth’s bounty - it’s minerals, land, and seas - come under the exclusive control of any man for his own gain?

Meanwhile, on the right populist front, we have Trump taking over the maniac demagogue role, making inroads with the uneducated and emotionally insecure, spouting violence and racism. Which reminds me, I also read this week Mein Kampf, a book of my mother’s I’ve had for years and thought to dig into as I thought, “Where have I heard Trump and Carson and Cruz’s and INSERT LATEST GOP CANDIDATE NAME HERE before?” This line really struck me:

“Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself agains the Jew I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” - Adolph Hitler.

Reading history. It’s a great story. Happens over and over again. 

 

A new era of Democratic Socialism is born in the world and America, fueled by the brute strength born of injustice, armed with the intellectual weapon of philosophy and recognition of the true value of every worker. Watch for May Days around the world! The exploited masses are triumphing!  ¡VIVA LA REVOLUCION!

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 22:33 | 6891524 Inanna
Inanna's picture

In the wake of all this turmoil in capitalism - of what’s left of it in its state of decay and its imminent demise, I just finished reading tonight LOVE AND CAPITAL: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution, By Mary Gabriel. 

A National Book Award Finalist, it is fabulous reading with prescient and compelling words for what’s happening in our modern era, paralleling the revolutions and rebellions against the elite masters in Europe in the 19th century. 

What’s so fascinating is that Marx's analyses of the weaknesses of capitalism were eerily fulfilled! as if we are living in parallel universe with him. For example, in Capital Volume III, Marx examines the credit system and found that under it, the wage slave also became the creditor's slave, because he invariably consumed more than he could afford. Most significantly, the book chronicled the entire system's demise due to an inevitable fall in profit caused by capitalist overreach! WOW! HELLO WORLD 2008. Does that sum up the American consumer and his quagmire he finds him in today. A mere consumer, an alienated thing, sucked dry and now marginalized once he no longer can consume, his credit score too low.

Predicting fast food slavery: McDonald’s? (I worked there when I was 16. Beware of what you eat! There is a reason I’m a vegetarian! Those low-paid workers!) 

The small artisan master - who by social tradition took care of his workers with varying degrees of benevolence until those workers became masters themselves- had been almost entirely replaced by a faceless company with no obligations to its employees beyond a wage set low enough to ensure maximum profit. Man was no longer a man, but an appendage to a machine. He was no longer even the head of his own family; that, too, belonged to the factory.

Marx described a state of turmoil unlike anything in history in a world dominated by capital, because of its need to constantly revolutionize production and raise profits, which in turn required new markets around the globe. 

I love this line: The poor stole what they could from the rich, and the rich stole what they could from the working poor - one act called crime, the other, industry.

Then the history of labor in 1893 delegates met to launch the Independent Labour Party with demands for: an eight-hour day; the abolition of child labor; provision for the sick, aged, widows, and orphans paid for by taxes on unearned income. (Those lazy rich people who just don’t work for a living and Daddy gives $1 million to buy some condos in Manhattan!) 

Especially interesting were the grisly accounts of what the starving masses did to some company managers . “The fear it generated in representative assemblies and factory offices around Europe focused attention on workers’ demands in a way that peaceful strikes had failed to do.” Now we know why the rich are all shaking in their boots, hoarding gold and trying to escape! 

Good thing capitalists have Bernie Sanders to keep them in one piece, who was sane enough not to vote for the Iraq war, and recognizes, as Marx did, why should an industry whose operation depends upon the work of one hundred people, perhaps even one thousand, enrich only a handful. Why should the earth’s bounty - it’s minerals, land, and seas - come under the exclusive control of any man for his own gain?

Meanwhile, on the right populist front, we have Trump taking over the maniac demagogue role, making inroads with the uneducated and emotionally insecure, spouting violence and racism. Which reminds me, I also read this week Mein Kampf, a book of my mother’s I’ve had for years and thought to dig into as I thought, “Where have I heard Trump and Carson and Cruz’s and INSERT LATEST GOP CANDIDATE NAME HERE before?” This line really struck me:

“Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself agains the Jew I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” - Adolph Hitler.

Reading history. It’s a great story. Happens over and over again. 

 

A new era of Democratic Socialism is born in the world and America, fueled by the brute strength born of injustice, armed with the intellectual weapon of philosophy and recognition of the true value of every worker. Watch for May Days around the world! The exploited masses are triumphing!  ¡VIVA LA REVOLUCION!

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 22:51 | 6891617 DOT
DOT's picture

Everyone gets delt a different hand with a different starting point. Should jelousy rule our emotions and corrupt our thinking or should we make our own bets and just play the hand?

 

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 22:56 | 6891632 Double.Eagle.Gold
Double.Eagle.Gold's picture

Bill Gates was handed a monopoly when the FTC took the monopoly away from IBM and handed it to Bill Gates. Even a fool (Steve Ballmer) could become a rich man under those conditions.

Steve Jobs on the other hand was a genius. He was born into poverty with a good mind, and he used it to change the world. Gates was born into a multi-millionare family.

BFD 

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 23:07 | 6891634 damicol
damicol's picture

What fucking moronic socialist cock suckers like marx forgot to understand is that whilst that cunt was fishing in a morning I prefer to sleep, and while the cunt is out out hunting I prefer to fuck , and when hes fucked about with the cattle I like to eat and as hes such a fucking dumb socialist cocksucker, I expect him him to send me some fish venison and beef steak for my dinner.

Sanders, fuck off and play because when I've finished sleeping and fucking i expect you to do your socialist bit and make my fucking dinner.

Fri, 12/11/2015 - 10:14 | 6909810 Inanna
Inanna's picture

Bernie Sanders will help you write a comprehensible sentence when US public schools finally are funded to educate Americans. Just what is it you were trying to say? 

Fri, 12/11/2015 - 10:14 | 6909812 Inanna
Inanna's picture

Bernie Sanders will help you write a comprehensible sentence when US public schools finally are funded to educate Americans. Just what is it you were trying to say? 

Fri, 12/11/2015 - 10:14 | 6909814 Inanna
Inanna's picture

Bernie Sanders will help you write a comprehensible sentence when US public schools finally are funded to educate Americans. Just what is it you were trying to say? 

Tue, 12/08/2015 - 02:38 | 6892230 KashNCarry
KashNCarry's picture

Bernie a fuckin side show, a distraction, the warm up cover band before the main show... Bernie's a tool. He spouts about democratic socialism and he doesn't know shit. He'd still kow tow to the MIC, and the energy & pharma-genetic conglomerates, if he ever made it to the WH. All this shit about socialism vs capitalism, neither exists today... The Oilygarchs know this well, as long as they control the reasources on this planet...

Tue, 12/08/2015 - 08:20 | 6892529 Refuse-Resist
Refuse-Resist's picture

No shit.

2000"  NO NATION BUILDING! NO MISSION CREEP!

2008:  HOPE AND CHANGE! FORWARD!

2016: ???

Still believing those election time political promises anybody? Bueller?

Tue, 12/08/2015 - 10:11 | 6893068 madcows
madcows's picture

I'm conservative, but I'm going to vote for Omalley in the primaries.

Fucking hitlery and sanders cannot be allowed to be president.

Tue, 12/08/2015 - 12:34 | 6894035 starwoman
starwoman's picture

What a bunch of crap.  Everyone knows we already have socialism for the wealthy and rugged capitalism for the masses. 2008 gave us the single largest transfer of wealth from the hands of the many to the hands of the few, with no accountability or repercussions except the hardships borne to the middle and lower class.  This hair-on-fire article simply details everything wrong in the thinking of those who have sought deregulation consistently since Reagan's tenure, though Clinton and both Bushes.  Now we stand on the edge of financial collapse globally, so how'd those perpetual wars and trashing of the commonwealth work out for you in the long run?  Do you really believe your rhetoric in the quise of financial intellectualism exempts you from the common destiny?

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