The coronavirus has highlighted how quickly our society becomes out of control, as demonstrated by the panic buying, of all things, toilet paper. Our peace is fragile. This is compounded by the republicans light-hand on the steering wheel when society needs most someone saying they have this under-control - when it is very clear republicans had no control over the situation at all.
Then we have the sterling example of Rand Paul (a doctor!??) who did his best to spread the coronavirus. Let that sink in for a moment.
These empty shelves very much remind me of those soviet era breadline photos. Capitalism out of control? Toilet paper is one thing nice and useful but what about the real stuff, the stuff we are going to eat, milk for instance?
Whenever I have asked libertarians why didn't countries like Iraq and Afghanistan become paradises when those countries lose their govts, they will mutter something about stability, but we saw recently how quickly things spun out of control in the US with the toilet paper lines in our supermarkets, perhaps it's merely a veneer of stability in our society? Anyway it was clear corporations weren't interested in setting up in Iraq had it's govt removed by the US and decades after Russia removed the govt in Afghanistan the place had devolved into misery.
While most of the time things are fine, we can ignore the existence of govt most of the time, depending on what you do, but for me, it only becomes important when my husband is preparing our tax returns, so for a few days of year the government is miserable, but then a drive down the Big Sur quickly reminds us how much we love the California govt anyway - after all the landslides, the California made the roads safe to use again. I didn't see signs from the huge corporate headquarters not too far from the Big Sur saying how they'd contributed to restoring those roads.
Sure the govt takes a share of our earnings but we get a lot more from the govt than we get from the other corporations we deal with on a much more annoying and constant basis, like our internet provider which is flaky with outages and substandard service. Yes we could ring about our broken router but we already know what their service department will tell us and we haven't even rung yet. And we know whose problem it really is.
We pay far more in corporate profits then we do in taxes. Corporations must make a profit, govts do not. Corporations make a profit at the expense of the customer and as a result our internet and telephone system is appalling in comparison to the socialists systems of Europe with much better internet and telephone equipment.
The problem with libertarianism is that it founded on wishful thinking and lies. They have no proof any of the garbage they rattle off has any truth, most of it has never been tested. It's nothing but spin to bolster profits of rich old men. An example of these lies is they want to dismantle the public education system because they think it's expensive and it'd be a way to bring down US property taxes, perhaps. So they say public schools deliver substandard education compared to private schools. But if you remove public schools that are supposedly bad then private schools will be bad anyway because they'll have nothing to be better than. However if you under fund public schools then they will be bad and this is one way republicans are trying to bring about the demise of public schools so they will get worse with a self-feeding cycle.
The thing about libertarians is they don't like people telling them what to do, but I don't see the govt telling me what to do. Freedom is a state-of-mind and happiness is found in our relationship/bonds to other people, within which our freedom is negotiated.
A society is only as good as how the poorest/weakest members are treated in that society. we have to admit that there are states in the US where the society is terrible. Places where it's unsafe for colored people and women to be in those communities.
Then we have the sterling example of Rand Paul (a doctor!??) who did his best to spread the coronavirus. Let that sink in for a moment.
These empty shelves very much remind me of those soviet era breadline photos. Capitalism out of control? Toilet paper is one thing nice and useful but what about the real stuff, the stuff we are going to eat, milk for instance?
Whenever I have asked libertarians why didn't countries like Iraq and Afghanistan become paradises when those countries lose their govts, they will mutter something about stability, but we saw recently how quickly things spun out of control in the US with the toilet paper lines in our supermarkets, perhaps it's merely a veneer of stability in our society? Anyway it was clear corporations weren't interested in setting up in Iraq had it's govt removed by the US and decades after Russia removed the govt in Afghanistan the place had devolved into misery.
While most of the time things are fine, we can ignore the existence of govt most of the time, depending on what you do, but for me, it only becomes important when my husband is preparing our tax returns, so for a few days of year the government is miserable, but then a drive down the Big Sur quickly reminds us how much we love the California govt anyway - after all the landslides, the California made the roads safe to use again. I didn't see signs from the huge corporate headquarters not too far from the Big Sur saying how they'd contributed to restoring those roads.
Sure the govt takes a share of our earnings but we get a lot more from the govt than we get from the other corporations we deal with on a much more annoying and constant basis, like our internet provider which is flaky with outages and substandard service. Yes we could ring about our broken router but we already know what their service department will tell us and we haven't even rung yet. And we know whose problem it really is.
We pay far more in corporate profits then we do in taxes. Corporations must make a profit, govts do not. Corporations make a profit at the expense of the customer and as a result our internet and telephone system is appalling in comparison to the socialists systems of Europe with much better internet and telephone equipment.
The problem with libertarianism is that it founded on wishful thinking and lies. They have no proof any of the garbage they rattle off has any truth, most of it has never been tested. It's nothing but spin to bolster profits of rich old men. An example of these lies is they want to dismantle the public education system because they think it's expensive and it'd be a way to bring down US property taxes, perhaps. So they say public schools deliver substandard education compared to private schools. But if you remove public schools that are supposedly bad then private schools will be bad anyway because they'll have nothing to be better than. However if you under fund public schools then they will be bad and this is one way republicans are trying to bring about the demise of public schools so they will get worse with a self-feeding cycle.
The thing about libertarians is they don't like people telling them what to do, but I don't see the govt telling me what to do. Freedom is a state-of-mind and happiness is found in our relationship/bonds to other people, within which our freedom is negotiated.
A society is only as good as how the poorest/weakest members are treated in that society. we have to admit that there are states in the US where the society is terrible. Places where it's unsafe for colored people and women to be in those communities.
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