Yes it is awful when socialists have ideas. The reason is that they intend to enforce their ideas without regard to liberty, private property, or public opinion. To the socialist, the market is fixed by the rich, and the poor are ignorant saps who must be governed by their betters.

The capitalist putz in your example is relatively harmless compared to your average socialist. Capitalists tend not to have the same long term effects that the socialists have.

The great thing about capitalist democracy is that so far, the idiots you complain about have not managed to muck it up. If you let the socialists keep tampering with the checks and balances in the name of “fairness” that will eventually end. In fact, socialism is only successful in that it bleeds a capitalist system while becoming the preferred prescription for all the ills that it creates itself.

“There is too much poverty.”
“Tax the rich!”

“There is too much poverty.”
“Tax the rich!”

“Why is there still poverty?”
“We aren’t taxing the rich enough!”

“Why are we all so poor?”
“You aren’t all poor, you are all equal. Poverty has been eliminated. Be happy, have some cheese.”

First, as I have said before, a lot of real automotive good has come from the efforts of environmentalist. In 1974, the sky was falling. Cars sucked. Yet, somehow, the industry figured out that squeezing out the unburned hydrocarbons meant more power and efficiency. Like it or not, we need to improve the efficiency of cars if for no other reason than to make then less expensive to operate. Better efficiency means better, more responsive cars.

Second, what the hell does anyone’s looks have any place in what should be a reasoned debate?

Of course, that only means that in America, we’ll get this kind of government a little later, because – while we have a written Constitutuion, it’s pretty much ignored from sea to shining sea.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1022174/Bin-police-force-residents-hand-personal-medical-details.html

I had thought that Joe McCarthy was dead. Guess I misread the obituary.

Lady, I’ll decide what I can afford.

SUVs got cheap and plentiful, and folks who normally wouldn’t be able to afford to run an SUV convinced themselves they needed it, and now they can’t afford to run them. Sort of like the folks that bought homes beyond thier means and are getting forclosed upon. The American dream is pretty fleeting if it was all bought OAC.

Just because you CAN do it doesn’t mean that you SHOULD.

Umm…where in my post does it somehow reveal that I’m afraid of women? (In other words, don’t try to change the subject.)

But at least we agree on something…those huge centralized bureaucracies’ existence is the very reason communism is untenable.

First, where you are correct. I don’t go around calling people commie. It’s bad form, and gets you no where. However, the people of the 50’s had a much better reason to make the mistake than we do today. Communist is indeed a word that lacks specificity. In the 50’s the masses may have not understood what a communist really was, but they did understand that there were people who were conspiring to take power and defeat their way of life.

My usual lexicon is to point out when a position is socialist or fascist rather than to label the person. Communist is indeed a word that lacks specificity.

That being said, there ARE still communists in the world. To me, the heads of China and Russia are all still communists, because modern communism is less about Marx and Lenin, and more about Stalin. Bowing to capitalism is merely a method to retain power. No matter how much those countries allow the people to make money, they reserve the right to take it for the state at any time. There is no actual right to private property, and can be none.

I think you are mixing process and results on the buildings in China. Those schools were built EXACTLY like the government allowed them to be built. The fact that they were likely made with substandard materials (so the saved materials could be used for private purposes,sold on the black market, or so that the budget would look good for some manager) has been a part of communism since WWII, if not before. The idea that a school was built by a private contractor with no oversight in China is preposterous on its face.

There is no shortage of government in China.

Lastly, you should only define your terms more narrowly if you hope to sway someone over to your ideas through reason. If you just want to preach to the choir, then use whatever substandard approach you wish. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

And, a straw man about not being able to get clean air without government won’t help either. No one is arguing that anarchy will lead to clean air. I would argue that a proper amount of government will do better than too much or too corrupt government, and I think the facts would bear that out.

How sad that you still think there are communists in the world. I recently visited Viet Nam and China and they are more rough and tumble capitalists than we have been in a 100 years. They are just dictatorships with a high degree of corruption.
Before you lable someone a communist because they want government intervention in some area think about the extreme capitalism and corruption in China. Because of a lack of government controls and inspections many school buildings were poorly built and collapsed in the recent earth quake.

You might want to define right wing extremists just a little more narrowly. I am not sure who it is you are against(other than Brent, anyway). You can call anything the a huge threat if you aren’t too specific about what you mean, but that only helps to obfuscate the truth. I don’t think there really is a single issue that defines the so called right wing extremist in the US. Most of their views are widely held if you really look at them.

Why should I be required to define right wing extremism more narrowly when 1950’s era people like you toss the word communism around as a lable for anyone you disagree with? And I don’t think cruel conservative right wing exteme view points are widely held.

It would be nice to have clean air and I am willing to listen to anyone with suggestions on how to obtain clean air. If you think we can obtain clean air by each of us acting individually than suggest how, but I think we will need some government and international intervention.

I read Joan Smith before TTAC posted it. Now I’ve gone back to read it again, and I’m having the hardest time trying to find what she’s saying that’s directly wrong. She’s shrill, in that manner that makes one wish she never ends up next to you at dinner, but otherwise?
OK, she cheers whenever the price of oil goes up – but as long as policians won’t realistically price the stuff the market will have to do the correction. Adjusted, the price of gasoline in the US is the same as it was in 1922 — and you have to go to third world countries with subsidies to find it any cheaper. No wonder the US “native” car industry is suffering, being that cushioned from reality.

Other carmakers that had to contend with regulations in markets where the car lobbies didn’t call all the shots ended up making the cars that people want today.
I also reacted to her line about “premature deaths from respiratory disease.” But it’s actually true – particulates in the air, especially in hot weather, triggers respiratory problems. During the heat wave in France a few years ago, which killed thousands of the elderly (!) particulates from diesel, very popular cars in France, was cited as a contributing factor. And organizations for asthmatics are very concerned about the rise in particulates due to the popularity of oil burners …

A polemical statement such as “the fact that overconsumption of oil is destroying the planet” also has truth to it, if you buy into the conclusion that CO2 is a problem. Quite a few don’t, and many of those have connections to the car lobbyists — while others have trouble accepting that a few hundred parts per million of a gas that we actually breathe could cause a problem of that magnitude. One thing is certain, we’ll find out – and we can do what the Dutch did, build dikes, or we can trust there won’t be a flood.

To give you my perspective, for what it’s worth, Joan Smith represents the shrill fringe. “Once I had regained my power of speech” at the fact that her publisher sent her a stretch limo, must mean she’s never spoken to anyone who’s done a book publishing tour of the US — but seriously, stretch limos that get seven miles to the gallon, do we need them?

Calling “communist” may be out of date, but it still applies. The only difference is that the people who want to bring us to communism aren’t willing to admit that is what they preach.

You might want to define right wing extremists just a little more narrowly. I am not sure who it is you are against(other than Brent, anyway). You can call anything the a huge threat if you aren’t too specific about what you mean, but that only helps to obfuscate the truth.

I don’t think there really is a single issue that defines the so called right wing extremist in the US. Most of their views are widely held if you really look at them. Hardly extreme. I could be wrong, but you will need to remind of one of them.

news flash…..1776 and 1812

I, for one, would rather copy Germany, if I had to copy anyone at all.

I’m a little disappointed that posters here are so adamant in denying that exhaust fumes are bad for people’s health. I wonder how long they’d be willing to suck on a car’s tailpipe? Even they know that’s deadly! Certainly we’ve come a long way from the 50’s, but LA on a bad day is still LA on a bad day – not the best air to breath in any case. Diesel is even worse. Environmentalists are partly to blame over in Europe with their focus on CO2 over more poisonous things like particulates. Thankfully, in the US we have stricter laws. These have done us a great deal of good. Look up pictures of smog in LA in the 50s. You might be okay with that, but I sure as hell am not.

On the issue of the cost of cars and whatnot – she’s being self-righteous and rather dumb. I don’t think the UK government needs more taxes to get people to cut back on driving – if it’s at all like the US, gas prices are rising due to market factors. These market factors will cause people to trim luxuries like gas-guzzling SUVs. The problem is that gas prices hit the poor too. I don’t have much sympathy for people with SUVs complaining about gas prices, but I do worry about those with less money. She’s obviously not considering the cost of this on the poor. Driving is only a luxury to a certain extent – many of us have to drive to work. Getting around by car is often the only practical option.

Personally, I think both sides act rather dumb at times. One side is “anti-car” (though of course, most of them have cars themselves), and the other is “pro-car” (to the extent of denying that car exhaust is unhealthy). I just want a fun car, preferrably an efficient fun car, but if I could walk to work I’d like that too. Public transport is all well and good, but it better be GOOD if you want me to use it. I used it in Boston, where it’s easy to use and practical, but in Florida it’s a joke.

The world probably would be better if we could all walk to work in ten minutes and only needed a car for fun. However, that’s not the way it is.

Yes, you beat us in a war once, woop dee freaking doo, why do so many Americans feel obliged to bring this up whenever they take issue with someone British?

–chuck

Strange how people that make this comment are never willing to start with themselves? Set an example for us would you! ;)

The (very small) social darwinist part of my mind holds some sympathy with that view – especially given the horrific driving behavior that’s become socially acceptable.

More dominant in my mind, however, is the catholic view that more people mean more growth and prosperity.

Malthusian bureaucrats’ crabbed little ledgers mostly consider additional people an additional cost – not a benefit. That is sad.

“It seems to me that both socialist and religious evangelists always seem to have a strong opinion about how their neighbors should live their lives.”

It was more complete exasperation with the whole situation cause like it or not, at the level in the food chain that I’m at, I’m not getting the whole truth and I’m not being helped or enlightened by governments, corporations, media, or people who don’t want to look beyond the length of their noses. Fortunately, like them or not, there are some media folks like Chomsky/Margolis/McQuaig who do dig a lot deeper, but they aren’t exactly mainstream 6 o’clock news. Right now in the USA people’s quality of life is being drastically affected by financial issues related in part to petroleum and the state of the auto industry. Everything has to be shipped, shipping uses fuel, fuel goes up in price, the supply chain doesn’t absorb it, they pass it on. Now think ahead a spell – how many offspring of those people who are losing their homes have just had their future affected – wouldn’t you think that a long term plan for a nation would be an educated population – or will the people staffing those high end jobs be immigrants? This is a very big picture, one that encompasses way more than whether I can drive (& fill) my Tahoe. But it is related. (I always wanted one but couldn’t justify btw). All’s I’m saying is that I know a lot of folks locally who don’t sweat the details. Don’t believe everything that’s fed to you – very sophisticated “marketing” is in the equation.

I believe that there is almost complete agreement on the oil supply being virtually finite. No one thinks the earth produces it nearly as fast as we use it.

Global Warming is quite debatable unless you believe in it. I am convinced that most of the doubters have been convinced by the zealousness and rudeness of the believers that it is junk. Tragically, we will not know for sure until it gets pretty bad because the academic community blew the PR battle big time.

None of this leads to where you then go with your post. Sorry. It appears to be a complete non-sequiter. I think I know the mistake you are making, but I can’t be sure.

For those who choose to ignore it, hey, knock yourselves out.