My buddy and I whom I play tons of A&A with are both huge Matthew Good fans, we went to see a great show by him last night at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto and I put some footage up on YouTube… Check it out.
Communsim is not good
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“Bill Gates isn’t quivering at California’s income, he probably owns half of the state.”
Nah, Bill Gates is content to own just one coastal fortress AKA Seattle, Washington. :D
“France is still pretty high up on that list. In fact, I expected lower. I’m surprized India is that far up too.”
If you take a look at India compared with 20 years ago, expect them to be major players (like China and Japan) in the future. However, their main problem is that in addition to having 5th largest economy, they’re the 5th largest borrower. Expect great things for India if they can curve the massive over population and stravation.
What I also find intresting is Mexico (though not surprising since CA and Mexico are two of the greatest trading partners) beating Canada in terms of economy. Perhaps a little North American rivalry?
Anyways, for those intrested on how the other countries placed, I have stats that round out the top 50 (again, remember this is 1999, so a lot of countries has moved up and down the ladder [Taiwan being a big example :)]
21 Taiwan 357 bln. 16,144 5.5%
22 Iran 348 bln. 5,333 1.0%
23 South Africa 296 bln. 6,818 0.6%
24 Pakistan 282 bln. 2,042 3.1%
25 Philippines 282 bln. 3,554 2.9%
26 Poland 277 bln. 7,162 3.8%
27 Colombia 245 bln. 6,235 -5.0%
28 Belgium 243 bln. 23,905 1.8%
29 Malaysia 229 bln. 10,718 5.0%
30 Egypt 200 bln. 2,973 5.0%
31 Switzerland 197 bln. 27,077 1.4%
32 Saudi Arabia 191 bln. 8,882 1.6%
33 Austria 191 bln. 23,417 2.0%
34 Bangladesh 187 bln. 1,471 5.2%
35 Chile 185 bln. 12,362 -1.0%
36 Sweden 184 bln. 20,648 3.8%
37 Venezuela 183 bln. 7,878 -7.2%
38 Portugal 151 bln. 15,265 3.2%
39 Greece 149 bln. 13,935 3.0%
40 Algeria 148 bln. 4,741 3.9%
41 Vietnam 143 bln. 1,851 4.8%
42 Denmark 128 bln. 23,839 1.3%
43 Czech Republic 121 bln. 11,750 -0.5%
44 Peru 116 bln. 4,357 2.4%
45 Norway 111 bln. 25,076 0.8%
46 Nigeria 111 bln. 1000 2.7%
47 Ukraine 110 bln. 2,198 -0.4%
48 Finland 109 bln. 21,053 3.5%
49 Morocco 108 bln. 3,641 0.0%
50 Israel 105 bln. 18,331 2.1% -
@TG:
What I also find intresting is Mexico (though not surprising since CA and Mexico are two of the greatest trading partners) beating Canada in terms of economy. Perhaps a little North American rivalry?
note, however, that Canada has the world’s 3rd largest per capital (after US and France) - much higher than poor mexico.
Also our economy growing quite quickly . . . :) -
In order for communism to work, the average person needs to realize more than his immediate conditions.
Bossk, thank you for pointing out what me and Horten have been saying:
You have to alter basic human nature for an effective communist system. Which is why Stalinism occured. Capitalism does not require any alteration of basic human nature. That is why capitalism is alive and well. Communism, on the other hand, has never been truly established.Short of a secret cabal dosing everyone with mnind altering drugs, people will not change. And in that situation, the Cabal and Company would become the only upper class, with no middle class. It would be Capitalism with lower average incomes.
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Moses, the gross wealth of each nation is not a good way to compare them, the only thing it tells you is how much money the government has, and thus how much weaponry it gives to rouge nations and third world states. Per capita is a better barometer, places like U.S. and Japan roxor.
Fisaternis, U.K. is socialist compared to the fourth most open economy in the world (U.S.)
Most Open economies:
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Hong Kong
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Singapore
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New Zealand
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U.S.
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people will not change
People change, they evolve. Not only our body evolve, but our society, our philosophy. You statement is just good for conformism, and am i not sure we can afford to live in a so competitive world, maybe our little technological toys will make us pay for our egoism.
Do you think the first sapies were able to integrate a society like our ? Nein ! Communism is not working for now, we are not ready for that, it is still a noble objective. Idealist are never very realistic in someway, but they trace the future…
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Did people have to surrender selfishness to live in a society? No.
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If I can see more than what is sitting right here in front of me, I think most people can; it’s not like I’m above average. It’s simply a matter of letting people become aware that this isn’t the only way.
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A Tradegy could cause people to see more than whats in front of them. Look at 9/11, but imagine that 100x harder.
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A Tradegy could cause people to see more than whats in front of them. Look at 9/11, but imagine that 100x harder.
often called a “seminal event” . . . a very powerful time or event in a person’s life. This can be very effective in effecting changes in a person’s life - like quitting smoking, speaking to a long-lost relative, etc. Very handy in giving one fresh perspective. Of course, some might consider their lives to be full of these momments, whereas others might only notice one or two.
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Did people have to surrender selfishness to live in a society? No.I think they did… From what we know they live in small group because they had not the choice, but they were not giving up power to help each other; that was an important part in evolution. The weak die, for the greater good. Extreme capitalism does not eliminate the weak (if the term can by apply to our society; i don’t even think so), it encourage parasitism, i think we can call that a deviance. It encourage behavior that are dangerous for our survival and social evolution. Sure i am not communist, we are not readuy for that, but i am for a move from Right to Left.
Also we are not all (completly) selfish. What horten call the “leftish european intellectual” have no personnal interest in these left-wing group; they will just loose money (power). They just think it is the good thing for social evolution.
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@TG:
Now I don’t want to say “communism is bad” and not have any real reason for it (and god knows moses, you and I have told each other the same thing a million times! ) .
And god knows how many times I had to answer your question, “Greed ruins everything” and “Corruption ruins everything.” :wink: I think that is about the 10th topic that deals with communism – not bad, eh?
Hey, you never give me a straight answer how will you can stop a baby acquiring greed.
." People, believe it or not, do not work for money; they work for what the money can buy. If people really only want money then I suppose they would behave as Wingy indicates"
No, people want stuff. Think of it like this. People go to a GAS PUMP, AND STEAL GAS…NOT MONEY (THIS ANALOGY DOESN;T WORK WELL WITH BANK ROBBERIES.) People want to acquire more and more, because it is this greed is acquired after birth, and I doubt a society can be made to prevent this from happening. Stop bringing up the Native Americans!
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“Also we are not all (completly) selfish.”
And how many hours do you work a week :)
“What horten call the “leftish european intellectual” have no personnal interest in these left-wing group; they will just loose money (power). They just think it is the good thing for social evolution.”:
“Leftist Europeans” are the Europeans that are sterotypical to the same opinions concerning foreign relations, economics, and all of that.
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Moses, the gross wealth of each nation is not a good way to compare them, the only thing it tells you is how much money the government has, and thus how much weaponry it gives to rouge nations and third world states. Per capita is a better barometer, places like U.S. and Japan roxor.
Here I would have to disagree. First gross economy has a lot to do with “World Power” status, which is what I was talking about. Lets look a China for instance. Shouldn’t Luxemburg be at a higher level as a “World Power” then China (and USA for that matter) in terms of per capita income alone? I would certainly think not. And it usually gets harder to have a high per capita income with a large population than it is with a small one. Also, GNP tells us a lot more than “how much weaponry it gives to rouge nations and third world states.” If this is true, how come we don’t see the “Made in Japan” marker on many weapons if it has the world’s third largest economy? Oh why is it that at #3 Japan, barely even has a standing army in the first place? (if at all, I’ve gotten a little fuzzy about the Japanese Constitution following Dubya Dubya Two) GNP teaches a lot more than this. Also per capita income is not always the best way to gauge a country either - you have to look at all the stats to (which I hopefully provided) in order to get the clear picture. GNP is just a larger (though not full) indication of this.
If I can see more than what is sitting right here in front of me, I think most people can; it’s not like I’m above average. It’s simply a matter of letting people become aware that this isn’t the only way.
I can whole heartily agree. :) Why is it that people make investments for later than selfishly spend all their money now? When the majority people realize what communism has to offer, then they will indeed work together to obtain what is better.
@cystic:
A Tradegy could cause people to see more than whats in front of them. Look at 9/11, but imagine that 100x harder.
often called a “seminal event” . . . a very powerful time or event in a person’s life. This can be very effective in effecting changes in a person’s life - like quitting smoking, speaking to a long-lost relative, etc. Very handy in giving one fresh perspective. Of course, some might consider their lives to be full of these momments, whereas others might only notice one or two.
Maybe the world wide economy falling in a great depression would put things into perspective. :o
Hey, you never give me a straight answer how will you can stop a baby acquiring greed.
Sure I did, many children learn to cooperate and learn to share in a preschool environment (in the former USSR, each child was given a specific number of square blocks and they had to all “pool” their blocks and work together in other to erect a building). Also, I’m unsure of what you mean by “baby acquiring greed.” I’m sure I answered that question before (in a different topic), though that might not have been the answer you were looking for. Please clarify.
BTW: Glad to see you’re back. It took me quite awhile in order to match all your postings for the day. But in all fairness I did break 1800 :D Oh, yeah! -
"Also, I’m unsure of what you mean by “baby acquiring greed.”:
Very simple. Babies cry and moan all the damn time, and they learn to do it more and more. Greed gets their diaper changed, and their milk microwaved. So pre-school could try top reverse it, but they were afffected right after birth.
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“Very simple. Babies cry and moan all the damn time, and they learn to do it more and more. Greed gets their diaper changed, and their milk microwaved. So pre-school could try top reverse it, but they were afffected right after birth.”
I’m not sure you can associate this very heavily with greed, since this is a matter of survival (even in a communist society, we must all survive). Also, babies cry all the time, even if their diaper is already changed and/or their tummies full. I’m sure after a baby is immediately born, the reason he/she is crying is not for those mentioned above (maybe for his/her mother, though it’s often that the baby still cries even after being reunited). Also, I was thinking that a communist society would “provide for him/her” in the first place. However, what you could do is make the argument of children “throwing tantrums” to get things their way (which in this case we are all guilty for). Again, pre-school would try to reverse it (as in isolation from his/her peers if he wants to build his/her own city with ALL the blocks).
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capitalism… encourage parasitism
Don’t make me laugh. What about social programs, very uncapitalist, very socialist/communist. Those who don’t want to work (along with a few single-parent mothers) are paid for by tax payer money.
And before you bring it up, a capitalist supporting his dependents is not parasitism.
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Sure it encourage parasitism, those who live by putting money on action are not productive, and those entrepreneur who have 10 time the paid of their employes, they are 10 time more productive that them, they have work harder ? Sure they take risk, but with what money ? And the risk, those you are’nt at the good place at the good time should be poor, they deserve that ? An hokey player that win 1 million a year is worth in term of production 20 workers ? He is working 20 time harder ? That is parasitism, they take far more than they give to the society.
Sure those who are not working are paid a little (the strong word is Little) in a left-wing society, but what; we sould let them die because again, they were not at the right place at the right time ? Also you should know that unemployment is a normal thing in any capitalist society, more than a normal thing; this is how it work, you need people that are not working.
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I can actually say that was starting to make some sense.
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First Fisternis, I am not for leaving drug addicts in the gutter. Nor am I for leaving mothers and children in single-parent homes to live in extreme poverty because the father is an ass-hole. As I have said, some socialist programs are good, but they are still 1) not capitalist and 2) still a parasitic relationship in nature.
Second, a wealthy capitalist creating jobs, but getting part of the wealth produced by the workers, that is a symbiotic relationship, maybe, but how could you call it parasitic? Worker creates wealth, part of which goes to Capitalist, while worker is given the chance to create wealth.
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Second, a wealthy capitalist creating jobs, but getting part of the wealth produced by the workers, that is a symbiotic relationship, maybe, but how could you call it parasitic? Worker creates wealth, part of which goes to Capitalist, while worker is given the chance to create wealth.
I just don’t agree; but there is no absolute truth in politic. I call it parasitic when, like i said, someone is taking far more to the society that he/she really can produce. That is not only against justice, but also against those law of nature some capitalist are using to say their system is “natural”. If an animal survive, he is probably fit to survive. If an human gain power; he is certainly fit to survive ? No, he probably exploit others, and we encourage that. You will not make me believe a bank owner is 20 time more productive than a normal worker….
Also unemployment is part of capitalism, in a capitalist economy you must have unemployment.
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