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Tag Archives: public works

FTAC – In Brief Defense of Capitalism, American-Style

02 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation

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America, capitalism, dogma, human capital, investment, public works, public-private compact, realpolitik, socialism

On one of his forums, a Pakistani friend quoted a socialist screed as a strawman.  I took a whack at it.

* * *

American capitalism, at least, is a melange of public-private compacts and mixed individual incentive and social programs. Our military is a socialist program — if you’re in, you get medical and dental services, base exchange pricing, base housing, housing allowance, etc. for the term of service, butyou may be stuck where Uncle Sam’s machinery places you — defending massive public works, Federal campuses, bridges, roads, dams, forests, wilderness, parks, and so on, that provide employment in big numbers that then serve other development, business, and community (and human) needs. The American tax system supports Medicare and Social Security, services to military veterans in retirement; also public education, college and university research (not to mention student loans). The entire “Capitalist Evil” (!) is a complex of basic public services, public investment spread throughout the constituency, public infrastructure programs supporting private development, and then plenty — PLENTY — of “degrees of freedom” for people to enjoy their lives and — blessed, gifted, or lucky — do great things.

The system supports many ways of life, but it does not manage either the lives of all the humans within it, nor does it secure them.  For too many unemployed, under-employed, deeply exploited in their employment, or just marginal as persons, we have our human flood. Nonetheless, in light of public and private resources, between government departments and private charities, everyone gets some attention, and I think it actually takes effort to avoid “food banks”, “clothing banks”, “shelters”, “rehab” programs, “jobs programs”, and all the rest.

It’s true a few of our bankers and boardroom people could have been — and could be — better behaved (“The problem with capitalism is the capitalists”) but our capitalism is anything but pure capitalism, and, for the record, in response to the “socialist” critic,  the democracy IS 24/7/365 (not “once in four years”) and the public will toward both self-enrichment and altruistic community-wide improvement is constant.

Political dogma, especially in the U.S. this election season but in general  and worldwide too, may be more dangerous than nuts-and-bolts everyday politics because it is so easily, incautiously, and thoughtlessly, swallowed. Bottom line: by way of taxes, the American republic, overall, invests heavily in its human capital more than it does any other form of national resource, and out of that comes the greater freedom of the people to set their own courses and manage their own lives with a real minimum of “official guidance”.

* * *

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Hillel the Elder

"That which is distasteful to thee do not do to another. That is the whole of Torah. The rest is commentary. Now go and study."

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Oriana Fallaci
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Talmud 7:16 as Quoted by Rishon Rishon in 2004
Qohelet Raba, 7:16

אכזרי סוף שנעשה אכזרי במקום רחמן

Kol mi shena`asa rahaman bimqom akhzari Sof shena`asa akhzari bimqom rahaman

All who are made to be compassionate in the place of the cruel In the end are made to be cruel in the place of the compassionate.

More colloquially translated: "Those who are kind to the cruel, in the end will be cruel to the kind."

Online Source: http://www.rishon-rishon.com/archives/044412.php

Abraham Isaac Kook

"The purely righteous do not complain about evil, rather they add justice.They do not complain about heresy, rather they add faith.They do not complain about ignorance, rather they add wisdom." From the pages of Arpilei Tohar.

Heinrich Heine
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Simon Wiesenthal
Remark Made in the Ballroom of the Imperial Hotel, Vienna, Austria on the occasion of His 90th Birthday: "The Nazis are no more, but we are still here, singing and dancing."

Maimonides
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Douglas Adams
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Thucydides
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Milan Kundera
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Malala Yousafzai
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We have never given up on God, nor have we ever given up on one another.

Many things we have given up, but no one misses, say, animal sacrifice, and as many things we have kept, so we have still to welcome our Sabbath on Friday at sunset and to rest all of Saturday until three stars appear in the sky.

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Anti-Semitism / Anti-Zionism = Signal of Fascism

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One hopes for knowledge to allay fear; one hopes for love to overmatch hate.

Too often, the security found in the parroting of a loyal lie outweighs the integrity to be earned in confronting and voicing an uncomfortable truth.

Those who make their followers believe absurdities may also make them commit atrocities.

Positively Orwellian: Comment Responding to Claim that the Arab Assault on Israel in 1948 Had Not Intended Annihilation

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