Political views?

[CosmicNoodle]

I was wondering what sort of politic views you have, my views are Socialism but i am wondering how many share or contradict my views?
Please say what your views are and why you believe in them :)

[britishboy]

capitalism

[CosmicNoodle]

capitalism

I used to be capitalist but then i looked around me, you should aswell.
Capitalism has really just messed a lot of stuff up, look at build quality, look at banks (Evil corporations who care not for me or you, only about the profit they make), look at the homeless, as far as i have been concerned capitalism just degrades society.

[britishboy]

I used to be capitalist but then i looked around me, you should aswell.
Capitalism has really just messed a lot of stuff up, look at build quality, look at banks (Evil corporations who care not for me or you, only about the profit they make), look at the homeless, as far as i have been concerned capitalism just degrades society.

capitalism is beautiful, look at Mr Sugar, anyone can have everything, it forces people to work and increases production

[Vlerchan]

I'm not exactly sure what the actual regulations, and stuff, are for this board but this thread (http://www.virtualteen.org/forums/showthread.php?t=191052) serves basically the same purpose and was only started yesterday. Is there any point really in repeating ourselves?

But, anyway, I'm a Social Democrat.

capitalism is beautiful, look at Mr Sugar, anyone can have everything, it forces people to work and increases production
In theory. It doesn't exactly work like that in practice.

[Cygnus]

I am a complete centralist (just a little liberal). I believe the left and right sides of politics have advantages and flaws since nothing is perfect, and as a latin american who has seen a lot I think everything can work if done properly, then again doing it properly is the hard part.

[DerBear]

I tend to lean towards the left hand side of things. If I were to vote in the next UK General Election I'd probably vote Labour.

[Kameraden]

Leftist National Authoritarian.

[Stronk Serb]

Communist/Socialist

To the OP:
The common thing we share is that we are both followers of Marx's teachings .

[Yolo98]

Capitalist/Conservative/Libertarian.
If you like coca cola your a capitalist fyi :D

[thatcountrykid]

Conservative. 'Murica

[Jean Poutine]

capitalism is beautiful, look at Mr Sugar, anyone can have everything, it forces people to work and increases production

Look at the 2008 financial crisis brought on entirely by banks and the "profit motive".

oops?

To educate yourself, I recommend you watch "Inside Job" and "The Money Masters", two excellent documentaries that will pinpoint exactly where the harm in capitalism and unregulated business lies.

Anyway, I'm a staunch social-democrat.

[Yolo98]

Look at the 2008 financial crisis brought on entirely by banks and the "profit motive".

oops?

To educate yourself, I recommend you watch "Inside Job" and "The Money Masters", two excellent documentaries that will pinpoint exactly where the harm in capitalism and unregulated business lies.

Anyway, I'm a staunch social-democrat.

In Europe, when the crisis hit , there were social democrat governments in spain,portugal,the UK, and greece, you saying that they payed no contribution to the financial crisis ?

[Korashk]

Anarcho-Capitalist.

Also, don't compare America's economic system to capitalism. It's actually just a mix of corporatism and cronyism.

[Jean Poutine]

In Europe, when the crisis hit , there were social democrat governments in spain,portugal,the UK, and greece, you saying that they payed no contribution to the financial crisis ?

Don't see the relevance. It's a fact the financial crisis started in America by the bursting of the housing market bubble.

The bursting of the U.S. housing bubble, which peaked in 2006, caused the values of securities tied to U.S. real estate pricing to plummet, damaging financial institutions globally. The financial crisis was triggered by a complex interplay of policies that encouraged home ownership, providing easier access to loans for subprime borrowers, overvaluation of bundled sub-prime mortgages based on the theory that housing prices would continue to escalate, questionable trading practices on behalf of both buyers and sellers, compensation structures that prioritize short-term deal flow over long-term value creation, and a lack of adequate capital holdings from banks and insurance companies to back the financial commitments they were making.

Nice attempt to tie in my own political convictions with my statement, though. One might call that a strawman. Nah, wait, that's exactly what it is.

[Vlerchan]

Anarcho-Capitalist.
I've always been confused at how exactly Anarcho-Capatalism was expected to work. There has to be some form of government interference, surely; otherwise we'd have monopolies and cartels running the economy - regulation and necessary interference from time-to-time is what keeps the market truly free. (Unless of course you believe the lack of structure will force industries back into the model of perfect competition but I find that as unlikely as corporations resisting the urge to simply wipe competition out - violently or non-violently; who's to stop them, really.) And I'll be honest. I've never put much thought into the whole idea - knocking it off as just another fringe ideology - but it has always seemed to me like it'd only serve as another tool to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. See I think my major problem is that I don't think anarchism would ever work in a form that involves wealth: wealth is power and with such power one would simply create another hierarchical system. Though, in this case, it'd be topped by the centrally-planned corporations - holding an oligopsony over the people - who would be completely unanswerable to anyone (including the privately owned police and judicial systems.)

I'm not actually criticising the ideology here (I really don't know enough to do so; I could be as off as some of those here with Communism). I'm simply interested as to what its draws are. Freedom, I suppose. But wouldn't freedom be better found in system that doesn't involve wealth as a divide?

[tovaris]

Communism.

[kylem1229]

republican

[Korashk]

I've always been confused at how exactly Anarcho-Capatalism was expected to work. There has to be some form of government interference, surely; otherwise we'd have monopolies and cartels running the economy
On the contrary, government interference in the economy is what creates monopolies and opportunities for cartels to form. Regulation creates barriers to entry preventing new competitors from joining the market.

(Unless of course you believe the lack of structure will force industries back into the model of perfect competition
This is what would mostly happen with the societal model outlined by anarcho-capitalists.

but I find that as unlikely as corporations resisting the urge to simply wipe competition out - violently or non-violently; who's to stop them, really.)
In theory they're stopped by private security firms and lawsuits.

And I'll be honest. I've never put much thought into the whole idea - knocking it off as just another fringe ideology - but it has always seemed to me like it'd only serve as another tool to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
The whole "rich get richer and the poor get poorer" mindset is mostly just rhetoric. In actuality when looking at the economically "free" countries the rich get richer and the poor get richer, just at different rates. There isn't a huge subset of the population that is consistently worse off than they were in the past. It does happen, but its not an ongoing phenomena.

I'm not actually criticising the ideology here (I really don't know enough to do so; I could be as off as some of those here with Communism). I'm simply interested as to what its draws are. Freedom, I suppose. But wouldn't freedom be better found in system that doesn't involve wealth as a divide?
Systems that don't involve wealth as a divide are improbable on any scale larger than that of a town. You can't have both freedom and the elimination of people assigning value to things.

[Luminous]

I have no political views whatsoever.

[Vlerchan]

On the contrary, government interference in the economy is what creates monopolies and opportunities for cartels to form. Regulation creates barriers to entry preventing new competitors from joining the market.
I'm not going to argue that government regulation's don't tend to create extra barriers to trade - they do (though that isn't to say I don't think they're needed in certain industries) - but these barriers tend to crop up along side those already imposed by the firms participating in the Oligopoly - price limiting and, in certain cases, predatory pricing being the major ones. I'd think that monopolies and cartels - especially cartels - would be easier to form in an economic system that didn't allow for outside (i.e Government) interference. But, assuming we're talking about models of Perfect Competition here, my views on the matter can be completely discounted.

This is what would mostly happen with the societal model outlined by anarcho-capitalists.
Although Perfect Competition tends to be best for the consumer - each firm producing at the lowest point, and all - I personally don't think it's possible to run a countries economy on such a model - lack of R&D being a real killer here; workers would be as incentivised as they're under Communism - but then I'm assuming this form of Anarcho-Capitalism would only ever be attempted on a small scale (or in a large network of small scales; similar to Anarcho-Communism (or Anarcho-anything, really) in that regard). I've only ever seen Perfect Competition work at farmer's markets, and such. That's the sort of scale I'm talking here.

Imperfect would be more practical, I think, but then what's to stop that evolving into an Oligopoly?

In theory they're stopped by private security firms and lawsuits.
In theory.

In actuality when looking at the economically "free" countries the rich get richer and the poor get richer, just at different rates.
I'll concede that. I still don't like the idea of counting on the benevolence of my employer, however.

But, anyway, thanks for the answers. The whole idea isn't as crazy as I thought. It seems wholly impractical to me, though (in terms of both practice and its implementation).

[Twilly F. Sniper]

I'm personally a Libertarian Socialist myself.

[CosmicNoodle]

capitalism is beautiful, look at Mr Sugar, anyone can have everything, it forces people to work and increases production

No no no, capitalism has made Mr Sugar (evil ,evil man in my opinion) stinking rich but managed to forget about billions of other people who worked just as hard, and even harder than he did. In theory it works, but in the real world it is about as functional as a chocolate tea pot.

[CosmicNoodle]

You know i was a bit scared about the crap storm this would bring up but i am very pleased it didn't get that way, it has been nice to see the views of others. Also i was blown away by the amount of communist's and socialist's, nice to see there are others who share my views.

[sqishy]

My dad is an anarchist, and I like some of the ideas from that system, but I'm not anarchist. I'm open-minded with all political systems, because I'm not made up on what is good and bad, without proof.

I am against capitalism and oligarchy at least. Everything else is unknown for me. I'm not for or against anything totally just yet.

But I need to think about it and make my mind up.

[Walter Powers]

Capitalist, Freedom Loving Tea Party Republican
#Donttreadonme
#Nobama

No no no, capitalism has made Mr Sugar (evil ,evil man in my opinion) stinking rich but managed to forget about billions of other people who worked just as hard, and even harder than he did. In theory it works, but in the real world it is about as functional as a chocolate tea pot.


I think your confusing capitalism with communism...

[The Outlier]

I say libertarian for simplicity, but a more correct term would be Anarcho-Capitalist.

I'm personally a Libertarian Socialist myself.

That is a contradiction. To be libertarian, one must be against Socialism/Communism. Perhaps you mean liberal?

[Sugaree]

I'm personally a Libertarian Socialist myself.

You are quite the piece of work.

[Twilly F. Sniper]

I say libertarian for simplicity, but a more correct term would be Anarcho-Capitalist.



That is a contradiction. To be libertarian, one must be against Socialism/Communism. Perhaps you mean liberal?

They are pretty close to the same thing, I just mistyped there. A LIBERAL socialist.

[Vlerchan]

That is a contradiction. To be libertarian, one must be against Socialism/Communism. Perhaps you mean liberal?

No. Social Libertarianism is correct. He's Libertarian socially and Socialist economically. Here's the Wiki Page. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-libertarianism) Libertarians place the upholding up liberty and freedom above all else, Right (pro-Laissez-Faire Capitalism) and Left (pro-Socialised Democracy or -Communal Co-operatives) Libertarians disagree on how that should be gone about, though. America's Libertarian party would be a good example of Right-Libertarianism in mainstream politics whilst Australia's Labour Party would be a good example of Left-Libertarianism in mainstream politics; as in they support individual freedom but are for the welfare state and many other elements that help make up a socialised democracy. Most (not all, however) Left-Libertarians tend to want society to evolve into a system akin to anarcho-communism - how it's is possible to peacefully nationalise the industries of an entire country however I'm (and pretty much everyone else) is unsure of.

I'm someone whos views tend to align with that of Left-Libertarianism but am not for the complete abolition of Capitalism.

EDIT: But I've just been contradicted above, haven't I?:/

[The Outlier]

No. Social Libertarianism is correct. He's Libertarian socially and Socialist economically. Here's the Wiki Page. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-libertarianism) Libertarians place the upholding up liberty and freedom above all else, Right (pro-Laissez-Faire Capitalism) and Left (pro-Socialised Democracy or -Communal Co-operatives) Libertarians disagree on how that should be gone about, though. America's Libertarian party would be a good example of Right-Libertarianism in mainstream politics whilst Australia's Labour Party would be a good example of Left-Libertarianism in mainstream politics; as in they support individual freedom but are for the welfare state and many other elements that help make up a socialised democracy. Most (not all, however) Left-Libertarians tend to want society to evolve into a system akin to anarcho-communism - how it's is possible to peacefully nationalise the industries of an entire country however I'm (and pretty much everyone else) is unsure of.

I'm someone whos views tend to align with that of Left-Libertarianism but am not for the complete abolition of Capitalism.

EDIT: But I've just been contradicted above, haven't I?:/

Interesting. I was not aware of that school of thought. Thank you for correcting me.

[dsi411]

The just don't care party

[darthearth]

I'm largely capitalist, but understand that with greater productivity in established industries there will be less jobs in general. So, socialistic policy would understandably have to increase. This is true if there are never any new industries created that will employ a large amount of people. We need to find new physics, it was new scientific discoveries that powered previous capitalism, but now?

[irogers707]

I believe in a mix of capitalism and socialism. I believe companies should be able to make a product how they want (as long as there is no poison in it) but I believe the people who make the product should be paid a living wage, and we should make sure workers are safe, and have the right to unionize.

[EvanGr]

personaly i am a moderator but i have also a lot of conservative ideas. this doesn't make me a center-right though

[HUSTLEMAN]

Social Democrat Cosmopolitan or better yet a Moderate Democrat.

[Left Now]

I am an Equal Commercialism supporter!

[Amazerful]

Libertarian

[ksdnfkfr]

While browsing through something I heard
someone referring to an actor as being famously
"apolitical". And I liked that because I have never
had any interest in politics at all. So, I am apolitical (non-political).
It felt so good coming out about that :P