I understand that Norway has some significant things going for it, the
cold winter aspect is known - and almost all cold countries are have
more economic activity than hot countries. Norway also has a cohesive
culture, common language with small speaking population and low immigration
and racial homogenicity - which when one is trying to build a welfair state,
is rather helpful.

LibsDebunked blog seems to make a whole raft of other cases against Norway,
that they're not very social and not very rich and not very happy and so on
but I have to challenge the scientific veracity of a website whose objective
is to "debunk" "liberal talking points". When I'm trying to scientifically
identify what works in an economy, this religious methodology of searching
for evidence to bulster a predetermined Truth is not helping.

But maybe they're right, maybe economics really is easy, maybe all of the
economists in the world are over-thinking the problem and all we have to do
is get rid of the state and all will be well. If this is the case, perhaps
you know of a place which actually did this and where it actually worked.


In the USA, people will answer unequivicolly that it is the USA. This is a
country where the elite, the 1% of the people controlling 95% of the wealth,
have established themselves as a de-facto shadow government. Capitalists to
the core, they have created markets to buy and sell public opinion through
access to broadcast mediums, markets for the buying and selling of public
policy and even markets to buy and sell price fixing and non-compete
agreements... Markets of monopolies.
All this time, the real buying power of employee wages has not budged one
cent since it froze in 1971, the year Bretton Woods collapsed and Nixon and
Volcker put together a new economic engine based on borrowing against the
petro-dollar and actively destabilizing any other asset that anyone might
want to invest in.
What might be the worst thing is that Paul Volcker, the chief architect of
this now-defunct monster, finds himself shouted down by the arrogant and
childish elite which his system created, who now seem to think that he is
just a raving old man, the petro-dollar is a conspiracy theory and every
penny of the cash permeating Wall Street is duly earned.


If you're looking for Eldorado in the USA, I have sad news.
Which brings back the question: Where is it?



On 15/07/15 23:20, Javier wrote:
> Norway is the excuse most socialist put to say that socialism works.
> Norway works despite it having some socialist things, because most of
> the country and politics are very liberal in general.
> Yes, they have high taxes but surely not so much as we have. Also,
> Norway has something that we don't have: a very long and cold winter,
> and therefore a lot of time to dedicate to work and stay at home.
> I'd recommend you to read this article:
>
> http://www.libsdebunked.com/socialism/scandinavian-socialism-argument/
>
> About healthcare and other socialist politics: do you know how much do
> we pay for them every month, every spanish that work? Nearly 600€. How
> much do you pay in USA for the best healthcare? And, do you know what
> happens when you don't have an urgent medical issue that requires an
> specialist? You usually wait between 6 month and 2 years to be
> attended!!! Yes, I'm not joking, up to 2 years waiting. So many spanish
> end up going to a private doctor, and pays double. Yes, for urgent
> issues works well, but thats all.
>
> We pay so much taxes that our real average incoming is more or less
> 2200€ (more than $2500), but we recieve around 800€ in the end. Do you
> know how much does it cost 1L of gasoline? 1,5€, nearly $2. 80% of it
> are taxes. The same with electricity, my last bill was 300€. We also pay
> 21% for VAT. This is just incredible. You would not believe how much do
> we pay.
> And you know why do we have a 25% of unemployment? Because it is so easy
> to recieve a free salary just for not working, and creating a small
> company is SO INCREDIBLE complicate and COSTLY, that almost nobody wants
> to create his own business. And they take 25% of your business, or 45%
> when you transfer money from your business to yourself, IN ADITION to
> what you already pay monthly for VAT, health care, and other taxes. JUST
> INCREDIBLE.
> Nearly 40% of what we pay goes to pay others, 20 to health care, 20% to
> help to politics friends, only 20% to really support public important
> things.
> We are literally working to feed an incredible monster, called state.
> So I think I can say I know what socialism is. USA people are very lucky
> in comparison, I can assure you.
>
> Javier.
>
>
>
> El 15/07/15 a las 20:27, Caleb James DeLisle escribió:
>> Your point of view is most interesting Javier, thank you for sharing it.
>> There are a couple of points which I'm not sure I fully understand and
>> perhaps you could help me to more clearly grasp your position.
>>
>> You mention "Socialism", seemingly in response to Amir's suggestion
>> that we all invest in social enterprises or cooperatives that provided
>> their own form of welfare.
>>
>> Now I'm not sure I understand what is your definition of Socialism.
>> I see you've mentioned a few countries including Russia, China, and Greece,
>> and I'm sure you know well that there is private property in all three of
>> these countries, and indeed you can actually own your own business - even
>> a shareholder corporation. North Korea seems to stand out as the only
>> remaining truly Socialist economy.
>>
>> Now if your definitions of Socialism is really just about high taxes,
>> invasive government and a global feeling that people ought to be equal,
>> then certainly Greece might qualify, but so too would Norway - which
>> manages to take pole position on a number of GDP charts, something I would
>> need you to explain.
>>
>> So I trust that I must be simply mistaken and indeed there is actually a
>> definition of Socialism which does encompase Russia, China, North Korea
>> and Greece without touching Norway because at the moment the only thing
>> I can see which those countries have in common is they're frequently in
>> the news.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 15/07/15 14:31, Javier wrote:
>>> Hello, I don't usually participate in the list, but as someone that is
>>> affected by these kind of politics, I feel in the obligation of answering.
>>>
>>> El 11/07/15 a las 21:53, Amir Taaki escribió:
>>>> my thoughts on this are that we should first get away from the kind of
>>>> isolated thinking, instead understanding the totally of the system we
>>>> live in which possesses & manages capital for the benefit of a
>>>> capitalist class.
>>> I think you are wrong on this. Who is the capitalist class? There are
>>> not such things as capitalist and no capitalist class. We are all either
>>> capitalist or not.
>>> In the very moment there are private business ruling most of the
>>> economy, we are all capitalist.
>>>
>>>
>>>> secondly that we have to embrace the roughness, that this conveyor belt
>>>> system of neutrality is a pipe dream that we want to tear down.
>>>>
>>>> instead what if we wielded capital and didn't use it to support a
>>>> capitalist class, but instead invested into social enterprises or
>>>> cooperatives that provided their own form of welfare,
>>> This is called socialism.
>>> It has been tried hundreds of times, and there are still countries that
>>> are very socialist. In every single of them, without exception, all
>>> people become poorer.
>>> The reason why that happens is something that is very much inside our
>>> own nature: if somebody gets your money to give it to others, then you
>>> lose the initiative to innovate, to create new business, and therefore
>>> less employment is created, and everything gets in the hands of the state.
>>> If everything gets in the hands of the state, fascism invariably comes.
>>> The state must control prices, and must tell YOU on what to work and
>>> how, otherwise resources wouldn't be enough to cover the minimum
>>> necessities of society. This is exactly what is happening in countless
>>> socialist countries like Venezuela, Russia, and now Greece.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> and drew the
>>>> attention of people inside that work for the benefit of their own
>>>> neighbourhoods and themselves... whereby people work because they enjoy
>>>> what they're doing, where it has a sense of fulfilment rather than blind
>>>> unethical work devoid of value simply only because it pays good.
>>> This is not going to happen, ever.
>>> 90% of the works, and 90% of your work most probably, is not about what
>>> you like, but what you must do. Who does like to clean the streets? To
>>> collect the garbage? To make repetitive work in the factories? Or even
>>> not repetitive work but boring work in the office?
>>> This is another reason why socialism always ends up as fascism. As
>>> people are not paid properly but the work must be done, the state must
>>> force the people to work on unpleasant works and force not to protest
>>> and accept "the revolution for the good of society". Just look at China,
>>> that is exactly the problem they have. Read the book "Brave New World",
>>> it is very similar on what socialist countries are becoming.
>>>
>>>> for me this is the root of the problem in this world. and talk of
>>>> welfare and economics doesn't encompass everything properly.
>>> It does. The best and not so bad economic theory that has been always
>>> worked is liberalism. We are at the point we are and not in the middle
>>> age because of liberalism. Liberalism is also democracy. Socialism
>>> cannot be democracy for many years because people always wake up and
>>> realise about the lies and populism, so they always eventually end up as
>>> dictatorships, look at Cuba, Venezuela, Russia, China, North Korea....
>>>
>>>> our societies are devoid of politics, and we need to inject it heavily
>>>> into society like what is happening in rojava.
>>> Be careful about these not-enough weighted thoughts. They have ruined
>>> many many countries already.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>
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--
Satire is the escape hatch from the cycle of sorrow, hatred and violence. #JeSuisCharlie