Conservative or liberal (politics)

[Hensmon]

It’s also the socialist thing to, and London came up because Conservatives generally argue that any hint of socialist policy is actually full blown socialism, and then leap to Venuzuela as the city’s inevitable future. I’m confused by this, because countries who operate within the same capitalist economic structure the US does, who have far more aggressive and expansive socialist/communist policies, are some of the biggest current and historical success stories on Earth. See China, Scandinavia, Bolivia, historical US, historical Britain… Jetflag you said it’s because they have tons of resources. Well so does the USA and so does NYC.

Mandami has a few dodgy policies for sure, but every politician does. His socialism and economic policies are lightweight compared to China, and they’ve thrived in unbelievable ways. So once again it is an exaggeration that anything Mandami brings is this foregone catatrasophe. It might even be good? Maybe reducing the wealth pump, inequality and returning power to labour within a conservative economic capitalist framework is a great combination. Peter Turchin makes an amazing argument for some of that actually, highly recommend checking out some of this work, I think you’d love it (try End Times).

 

[Jetflag]

Also, if the NYC mayor wasn't muslim, we wouldn't even be having this discussion.

This (initial) discussion had nothing to do with his religion.... Its was about his socialist ideology and (future) policies, and whether or not they will work/ make things better or worse. Aboutaleb is a Muslim too and I would hardly bring him up as a positive role model if I (as the resident "conservative reactionary libertarian shitposter" here ) thought him being muslim as a mayor was a problem.


The initial question brought up by @Hensmon was (in a nutshell), In light of Mandami's election: Can socialism work because look at China/Bolivia.

to which my responds was: It can work:
- if kept small. (either in influence or actual population size, e.a. a family, village)
- and/or if compensated by " enough" capitalism/ freedom/ (free) market entrepreneurship.

China/ Bolivia work despite of socialism, not because of it.

It’s because they generate (or have started generating!) enough (free) market income/wealth to compensate for the expenses of the social programs. Same with Scandinavia, (which by the way has the highest private earners in europe by the way, I would hardly call scandinavia socialist at that.)

If a country (or big city) doesn't have that or has a "state" economy only, it will sooner or later collapse in on itself as it would have run out of other people's money. (USSR, Mao, etc.) This is where the "Conservative fear" comes from. The bigger socialism gets, the bigger it fails. Demonstrably. And when your biggest city falls under socialist rule then that is met with a degree of weariness naturally.

Conservatives (speaking for whom here) have, generally speaking, no or little problem with social programs. (the US army or say.. Mail service are some of its countries biggest social programs for instance and the reps are all for that)....If you (have to) end up with a government anyway, which you will, It might aswell be sort of functional and serve its populus by providing certain social services.

Socialism as a direction however tends to, by Marx's flawed philosophical presupposition about human nature, draw all resources into one big institute to be redistributed "fairly" by "the right people" , and therein lies the problem. It is, besides utterly not fail safe economically, as you have all the eggs in the one basket so to speak, also way to prone to corruption.

if you think big tech CEO's and cigar smoking industrialist are corrupt individuals by the amount of money they make from 1 or more companies.. Imagen what having the financial control over an entire city of country will do to you, especially given how government also has a monopoly on (deadly) force.

Now add to that the fact that, in Mandami's specific example, never ran even a small a company, and barely held a job from what I gathered, (Xi ping at the very least sort of worked his way honestly up to the position he is in now.) And the fact that he doesn't unity the city and its people, but divides by focussing on prefered interrest groups rather then the whole. (something aboutaleb didn't do) and you can see the skepticism.

It might even be good?

yup, it might. it might stay the same as Trump is already pulling the leash a bit.. It might be very shit. I just don't see the initial signs being great honest. Mandami was basically chosen over Cuomo (speaking of corruption) out of spite. but we will c

Time will tell and its not like us scallywagging Bretons and Hollanders can do anything about it anyway

 

[LostLegend]

I see the Epstein files have now been
amazing that they'd even dare to with some frankly shocking pictures of with and engaging in . I'm frankly disgusted.

I haven't had a chance to look through them all, but the ones I have seen are , and to be honest
, .
.
, .
.

I guess we'll find out .

 

[Jetflag]

Aye.. it’s a big club, and you ain’t innit

 

[BladeRunner_]

Bulgaria joining eurozone

 

[Jetflag]

Bulgaria joining eurozone

don't know whether to congratulate or pledge my condoleances.. So i'll just congratulate. congratulations.

But if any of the people who voted for this think that being more intrenced in the EU is going to give you less corruption and less (financial) mismanagement is sourly mistaken, you've just pushed the problem to a place where you have even less influence and say over it.

 

[Progrez]

Nicolás Maduro mixes, Donald Trump Dancesð¥ð¢ï¸

Nicolás Maduro on the decks.Donald Trump on the dancefloor 💿🛢️🇺🇸MAKE OIL GREAT AGAIN ✌️🕺Made with AI just for fun.#maduro #trump #oil #Venezuela #Funny

www.youtube.com

 

[Progrez]

This country is becoming a silent country.

 

[Jetflag]

This country is becoming a silent country.

Do you have a loicence for that opinion sir?

 

[Progrez]

Do you have a loicence for that opinion sir?

Probably not. Knowing how much of a silent state/country this is becoming where any words is an offence.

 

[Jetflag]

Probably not. Knowing how much of a silent state/country this is becoming where any words is an offence.

friend of mine is from NL but has lived all his life in aussie, he had an interresting way of looking at it. Most people think of australia in its inception as a colony of prisoners.

what they forget he said, is that its also a colony of prison guards/keepers.

 

[LostLegend]

friend of mine is from NL but has lived all his life in aussie, he had an interresting way of looking at it. Most people think of australia in its inception as a colony of prisoners.

what they forget he said, is that its also a colony of prison guards/keepers.

Sure, it has fabulous beaches and all, but the rest of it seems like a gigantic, post-apocalyptic desert island all filled to the brim with venomous snakes (20 of the top 25 most venomous in the world, including the entire top 10), gigantic venomous spiders, man eating crocodiles and the entire place is surrounded by seas filled with sharks and excessively poisonous jelly fish.

Apologies top our resident Aussies, but I can see why the colonial brits of old left it to the convicts

 

[Perpetuous dreamer]

Welfare is all we hear about in the UK today. The Right tell us it’s out of control, and immigration is to blame and this is why Reform is the best political party to choose from today. But hold on, the UKs spending is one of the lowest in Europe? And what are some the happiest and most successful countries in Europe doing near the top of this data set?

 

[Jetflag]

Welfare is all we hear about in the UK today. The Right tell us it’s out of control, and immigration is to blame and this is why Reform is the best political party to choose from today. But hold on, the UKs spending is one of the lowest in Europe? And what are some the happiest and most successful countries in Europe doing near the top of this data

you cannot compare a country that is vastly different from yours in terms of demographics, levels of homogeneity, levels of immigration etc. And draw a parallel in terms of welfare spending. And arbitrary levels of happiness.


Iceland is below you/ on the same level in terms of welfare spending and it ranks number 3 in the world of happiest countries, and France is, despite being just behind Finland on the welfare spending index, at around equal height to the UK in terms of happiness index. (Both score around 6,6 -6,7 on a scale of 0 to 10)