BarkellWH -> RE: Taxes, Corruption (Jun. 20 2011 13:17:36)
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quote:
Bill, somebody who makes (alleged) pension ages responsible for the breakdown of a national economy is definitely a rightist person. Flamenco per se has no political message (except few political lyrics maybe), but its followers, especially in the West, could be roughly called as kinda left. Few exceptions prove the rule of course. Sure you can categorize things. If you cant, it may have more to do with lack of information, than with that it isnt possible. Leftist is someone who thinks the state has to be there to compensate the people in their economic life (min wage, free education, etc). The Rightist is obviously the opposite of that. As for communism and totalitarian state, thats a bit too much 1984-paranoia-newspeak for me. Any half (or quarter) decent educated person will know that communism and the existence of a state contradict each other. Deniz, you are either wrong or have misinterpreted several things in your post. A. I never said that the Greeks protesting the raising of the pension age was responsible for the "breakdown of a national economy." What I stated, had you read my post carefully, was that it was one symptom of the Greeks wanting to live beyond their means. And I compared it to the Germans (who are heavily involved in bailing out Greece), who recently had their pension age increased. This is an attempt to analyze an economic crisis, Deniz, and it has nothing to do with being a "leftist" or a "rightist." B. As for "any half (or quarter) decent educated person," well, all I can say is that any "half (or quarter) decent educated person," will know that communism, as you describe it, is a Marxist pipe dream (the withering away of the state) that never has and, in my opinion, never will exist. What we have seen is communism as it has been implemented in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Maoist China, Cuba, and other places. And it has not been a pretty sight. I have lived in both Bulgaria (two years, 1974-1976) and Chile (three years, 1987-1990). Although both were dictatorships, I'll tell you that people were much more free to pursue their personal lives in Chile than in Bulgaria. Here's one example: In Communist Bulgaria, the only people who could get passports to travel abroad were those who had been vetted by the government. In Chile, anyone could get a passport to travel abroad, without being vetted by the government, except those who the government considered dissidents. I'm not defending Chile under Pinochet, but there is a big difference between those two policies. C. As for "compensating people in their economic life," you will just have to take my word for it, the Chileans, even the poor, had a higher standard of living by far than the Bulgarians. Deniz, my advice, for what it's worth, is to stop looking at the world through an ideological lens. It is a much more nuanced world than one of left vs. right. Cheers, Bill
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