: Well Gideon, while all you "no compromise" lefties are whining (ATTENTION BOARD: this poster has engaged in the logical fallacy of appeal to emotion.
This means, of course, that everything he says should be treated as a blatant lie or regarded with suspicion at least. Not that this is in any way a gross generalization...oh nooo ;)
If the poster above wishes to be taken seriously, he should avoid using any words that might have any sort of emotional baggage associated with them at all (e.g. "lefties", "whine"). I suggest binary, octal or hexidecimal. Machine code would also be acceptable.
What's sauce for the gander... *g*
: about how we need socialism and taht nothing good ever comes out of a free-market society,
I haven't ever said that. What I've said is that it is in danger of destroying us. To use an analogy, consider an engine; you clean it, you maintain it and you treat it with some care. It has an optimum rpm; run it above that rate and you will destroy the engine. Fail to clean it and you will destroy it. Neglect it and you will destroy it.
To me, free-market capitalism is akin to all three; the aim is achieving as much power out of the machine as possible in the short term, regardless of the damage caused to the engine. On a long-term basis the engine can't take it and will fail. I trust I make myself clear.
:us "libertarians" in the US are working to eliminate the IMF.
This is amusing. Which country do you think would be hit hardest by the abolition of the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation? Something tells me it ain't going to be Mali...it's going to be the countries that take more out of the world economy than they put back...now, which country could that be...let's have a look at the various total import/export gaps across the world...
Add to this the fact that large bits of North America could become dustbowl in the next 100 years due to global climate change (yes, I do know what I'm talking about here) and things could be looking pretty grim for your children, should you have any.
:Change for the better usually comes in minute quantities.
There are, however, times when minute change is not enough to save things. In those cases the quick-fixes may hold off the storm for a brief time, but things will hit just as hard sooner or later. We're thrashing the global engine and it's starting to rattle.
: So, who's the party of the "underpriviledged" now?
Party schmarty. The underprivileged should be helped regardless of your political belief; I see it as my duty to my fellow human. If you want to help 'em, that's grand. But let's see you do something. I don't give a toss about such elitist things as parties and heirarchies.
Speaking personally, I'm a green activist; I devote some 10-15 hours each week trying to do things in addition to working full time. I don't drive. I don't eat meat; these things may seem minor, but the meat and car industries are two of the most polluting businesses around.
Gideon.
