Let’s Nationalize Amazon and Google

[Jagger100]

John Doe does not know what socialism is. They think it's comunism, as in the sense of soviets and bolsheviks.

Communism is a brand of socialism. Its true, socialism has degrees in which it absorbs control of the private sector, but Communism is in its spectrum being the extreme end where the private entities have been almost completely absorb.

 

[Stiletto]

Trust me ... no company wants the government to nationalize an industry ... they much prefer to change the existing rules in their favor, not to go into competition with an entity with virtually unlimited tax dollars and control of the laws ... this is simply the ravings of some left wing wackos ... nothing more

Of course not. Fascistic plutocracy is so much better than direct socialism, because there's no need to sell it to the people!

 

[TwistedAegis]

Another interesting tidbit, if you go back just 20 years, a US citizenship is sacrosanct and no one would think of giving it up. However in recent years, the number of people giving it up every year is going up exponentially. It's still in the thousands range, but it makes you think.

Yeah, makes me think they're traitorous greedy bastards who give up their citizenship to save a few measly percent out of their already insanely large amount of wealth.

Eisenhower, by today's standards, would be considered equal to Stalin. Building highways, that don't support themselves and require massive amounts of government and tax subsidies?! Socialism!

 

[rivertown_rat]

Companies exist to make a profit, not to serve the public good or anything else. They do that by providing the public (their customers) a product they want at a price they are willing to pay. Government (the way the US has defined it) has a completely different purpose: to allow the maximum amount of individual freedom while protecting them from force and fraud. People are responsible for creating society and ensuring the public good. If we are uncivil and rude to each other, then our society will be uncaring and cruel. Neither companies nor the government can solve our social problems and when we try to force them to do that, we get all the unintended side effects of corruption and idiocy.

That's civics in a nutshell, everything else is just implementation details.

 

[Stiletto]

Government (the way the US has defined it) has a completely different purpose: to allow the maximum amount of individual freedom while protecting them from force and fraud. People are responsible for creating society and ensuring the public good. If we are uncivil and rude to each other, then our society will be uncaring and cruel.

You sound like a libertarian teabagger nutjob STFU!

 

[Vorret]

Poor quality healthcare? High unemployment and crime rates? What is the imaginary England in your head like? Are there dragons?

LOL

 

[Retronym]

Government (the way the US has defined it) has a completely different purpose: to allow the maximum amount of individual freedom while protecting them from force and fraud.

It is woefully inadequate at dealing with this, isn't it?

It compartmentalizes people into different groups, with different sets of rights, doled out arbitrarily by 'special' people. Special people given authority from us directly, purportedly, to handle things we supposedly never held the rights to in the first place.

If we couldn't be trusted to handle certain things, where did our authority to choose custodians of these things come from?

 

[wyqtor]

In practice, corporations like Google wield almost as much power as a government and are accountable to no one, because they are rich enough to bribe anyone to make or interpret laws in their favor. They are way above the laws of supply and demand. Nationalizing them wouldn't really change anything at all.

 

[kbrickley]

In practice, corporations like Google wield almost as much power as a government and are accountable to no one, because they are rich enough to bribe anyone to make or interpret laws in their favor. They are way above the laws of supply and demand. Nationalizing them wouldn't really change anything at all.

Even a corporation like Google is still accountable to its shareholders and to its customers ... since large multinational corporations are spread across the globe they are going to have varying degrees of accountability to specific governments (they were certainly accountable to the government of China which forced them out of the country for violating their censorship rules) ... just because the shareholders and customers don't use their powers of accountability doesn't mean they don't have them

 

[lcpiper]

Look at Britian. They seem to do fine with nationalized utilities (power, etc) and healthcare. But also have a thriving free market sector.

Umm, Spidey, are you aware with how many Brits have been going expat these days. They are fleeing the country and they are taking their money with them. Because life is so good in Britain.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2229032/Brain-drain-UK-losing-1-500-managers-week-mass-exodus-middle-class-professionals.html

Business groups said high tax rates were acting as a spur for people to depart the country.

John Cridland, the director-general of the CBI, said he hoped that cuts to personal tax rates would stem the tide of emigrants.

‘These are disturbing figures,’ he said.

‘There is no doubt that the spike in recent years was due in part to high personal tax rates, which the Chancellor is now tackling.’

The UK has 4.7million expats living overseas, putting it eighth in the world for the number of its citizens living abroad.

Emigration from the UK peaked in 2008 at 427,000 but has dropped to about 350,000 a year since then.

Last year around 201,000 leavers were non-British citizens.

Just wondering if you are tracking this as well.

 

[lcpiper]

I can't really even believe an American would even consider Nationalizing a company, any company. It's sort of, un-American if you get my meaning.

 

[kbrickley]

I can't really even believe an American would even consider Nationalizing a company, any company. It's sort of, un-American if you get my meaning.

We have 350 million people living here ... the internet has given every whacko with a keyboard a voice ... even if we assume that 0.0001% are whackos that is still 350 people who could try for a job writing ridiculous blogs for Salon ... given some of the folks I used to see on Public Access TV and some of the callers I have heard on those conspiracy radio stations I would assume the percentage is a lot higher than 0.0001%

 

[Draxanoth]

We have 350 million people living here ... the internet has given every whacko with a keyboard a voice ... even if we assume that 0.0001% are whackos that is still 350 people who could try for a job writing ridiculous blogs for Salon ... given some of the folks I used to see on Public Access TV and some of the callers I have heard on those conspiracy radio stations I would assume the percentage is a lot higher than 0.0001%

The wackos are always the loudest, and unfortunately for us most of the worlds population isn't bright enough to realize they're crazy.

Hence how we keep winding up with elected officials who think having military forces in over a hundred countries, and a healthcare industry that is now firmly supported by massive government subsidy, are a success...

 

[Filiprino]

Pretty much. You're either a "socialist commie" (no difference to the uninformed) or American. That's what it seems like. Not all socialist ideas are bad, just as not all capitalist ideas are bad. I think a state must strike a healthy balance between the two.

When you have 100% of one thing or another, it tends to be abused. Look at Britian. They seem to do fine with nationalized utilities (power, etc) and healthcare. But also have a thriving free market sector.

You also don't know what socialism is. Socialism is capitalism too.

What you are talking about is liberalism. But capitalism is not the same as liberalism.
Socialism uses capitalism to favor and help people. Don't be fooled.

It's sad that you USA people love so much your liberal economy when it's the one that works worse. Take for example the health problem. All your private companies are milking the federal state. On other countries we get full health insurance, and it's universal, it's available for everyone no matter his job, or even if it has one.

Your country has a very poor wealth redistribution.

 

[LeninGHOLA]

We don't want widespread wealth redistribution, or we would have it.

 

[Stiletto]

You also don't know what socialism is. Socialism is capitalism too.

Danger, danger! Low voltage!

What you are talking about is liberalism. But capitalism is not the same as liberalism.
Socialism uses capitalism to favor and help people.

Weird. In the US, capitalism used socialism to favor and help people, because the socialism wouldn't have been possible without the capitalism to create the wealth.

 

[Stiletto]

I can't really even believe an American would even consider Nationalizing a company, any company. It's sort of, un-American if you get my meaning.

You also can't really even believe that the NSA, CIA, DEA, DHS, ATF, etc would ever do anything unethical or illegal with the volumes of data collected on the people they're supposed to serve.

One day, hopefully, you'll wake up. However, I'm beginning to think that the ultimate goal of these bastards is to have everyone drawing a check from the government so they never admit to themselves that their providers could be tyrannical.

 

[OlIv0rIolI]

Yeah, makes me think they're traitorous greedy bastards who give up their citizenship to save a few measly percent out of their already insanely large amount of wealth.

Eisenhower, by today's standards, would be considered equal to Stalin. Building highways, that don't support themselves and require massive amounts of government and tax subsidies?! Socialism!

Thank you for not quoting the first paragraph of my comment which negates your reply. /s.

To give up US citizenship, you have to pay a very high tax to do so. You are paying taxes on income that is already taxed. Also US citizens working in foreign countries have to pay double taxation. There are as many greedy bastard today as there are 20 years ago or 50 years ago and etc. those old greedy bastard didn't want to give up their citizenship however. "save a few measly percent" has nothing to do with it.

When Eisenhower build the national highway, he did it under the justification of national defense which is a valid reason under the constitution. Also those high ways did support themselves financially by facilitating economic growth. The taxes for it showed up on your tax statement so the American people knew what they were paying for and how much. There was accountability. Eisenhower was the last president that balanced the budget, he didn't take on lots of debt to bribe the American people with welfare bullshit. That is the difference with socialism.

 

[OlIv0rIolI]

You also can't really even believe that the NSA, CIA, DEA, DHS, ATF, etc would ever do anything unethical or illegal with the volumes of data collected on the people they're supposed to serve.

One day, hopefully, you'll wake up. However, I'm beginning to think that the ultimate goal of these bastards is to have everyone drawing a check from the government so they never admit to themselves that their providers could be tyrannical.

I know what you mean. however when they do that the country's economy would stagnate, become unproductive, slowly decline and poverty slowly rises...oh wait never mind.