Dukasaur wrote:
In case you are interested in having a civil discussion, I'll tell you this: I wasn't always a leftist. In fact, quite the opposite. I used to be a libertarian activist, and in the Reagan-Thatcher era I celebrated their successes. I have gradually moved to the left over the years because I realized that we on the right were, in fact, being hoodwinked. There used to be theories. They went by many names -- monetarist, supply-side, classical liberalism, trickle-down -- and their common thread was that if you were to cut taxes, reduce regulations, kick out the unions, stop giving people handouts, you would unleash the power of the economy and have a huge boom, and yes, the rich would get first kick at the can, but eventually the money would trickle down to the poor also and raise their income proportionately. A rising tide lifts all boats!...
When I was a kid, if you met a poor person, it was a safe bet that they were unemployed. Today, that isn't true. Most poor people work, many work two or three shit-paying jobs, and still can't make ends meet. It was all a lie.
It was always assumed that the rich would get the bulk of the benefit of the bursting economy. But most people, whether left or right, assumed that they would give some of the benefit to the workers. Almost everyone, both on the left and right, really did believe that a rising tide would life all boats. I don't think anybody 40 years ago would have believed you if you told them that companies who just had their best year ever would celebrate by cutting the wages of their staff. Nobody is surprised when struggling companies do it, but when companies posting record profits continue to kick people in the nuts, continue chiseling away, cutting wages and benefits, you come to realize that trickle-down was bullshit from the beginning...
You're so very close to the truth. You are right. You have been hoodwinked. Leftism will never be the answer though. And stuff like your friend happens here in Canada all the time. My father in law is struggling through a hernia and bad back to keep working, and he's in quarantine jail every time he comes home. He hasn't seen our kids in 6 months. Work in pain, go back, work in pain, go back, on and on. He can't afford to retire. It always amazes me that so many of you think more socialist countries are how they are not. If they won't split the money from their companies, why do you think they'll split it from their treasuries? There are the elites; there is us. I can put it in Marxist terms for you if you like.
The bourgeoisie have convinced a pile of proletarians that they should share the globalist worldview of the bourgeoisie. They did this largely through Universities and the media. They have no intention of sharing the bourgeois lifestyle though (hence student loans that can't be discharged in bankruptcy). They just want you to share their worldview. Then they can make you hate the other half of the proletariat. Every time you call an out of work factory worker a racist, or make fun of flyover country, you're misidentifying your enemies and helping your actual oppressors. Then they make you cheer when their billion dollar companies put some dumb flag or tweet up, despite their companies being evil. And if anyone should point that out, say on twitter, your bourgeoisie Manchurian training will kick in and you'll do their police work for them.
