No1 Rule of Life (and Law Students)

Just wanted to say a few things about capitalism, based on Anro's blog http://anbarrockny.blogspot.com/2011/12/stupid-american-capitalists.html

Many Americans seem worryingly brainwashed by their media, it's difficult to get a balanced picture there. The powerful right-wing own most of the media so of course they would peddle rampant capitalism because they are the ones that have benefited in the first place. The same goes for the all-powerful lobby groups, who buy and financially blackmail their way to government influence. Then because these same groups dominate the media, they propagate the madness of the capitalist system and everyone believes it.

No1 Rule of Life - check your sources people!! Journalists and news corporations are not the word of God!! They have agendas and opinions just like everyone else, what would most people do if they became powerful enough? Influence people to think their way of life is right, right? It's just common sense, how can the public still have faith in capitalism when it's proven to be disastrous to families all over the world?

And then politicians there want LESS regulation and smaller government?? So greedy and careless investments can take priority over THE PEOPLE yet again? This is insanity. I read an article that in a majority of a poll, the question posed was 'Should a sick 17-year-old die because they have no medical insurance?' The resounding answer was YES. What has the world come to when people would choose capitalism over the life of a child? The fact that the US is the only developed country to not provide universal healthcare is something they should be ashamed of, not revel in.

Aside from the media propaganda, other reasons that I can fathom as to why they hold capitalism so dear is that less government means less taxes, especially for healthcare. So private companies stepping in where government agencies would have been means more competition and therefore higher efficiency and less cost. Is this what happened with oil companies? Well the prices at your local filling station will tell you otherwise. The price of oil can just keep on going up as the oil barons please, where is the competitiveness and efficiency in that? The price of oil then affects everything, the price of food, the sick and disabled who need to use their car to get around, EVERYTHING. The US government contracts out their war machines to private contractors too, thus ensuring the safety of nations in the hands of people who profit from war. How can this kind of privatisation be right?

Just because Americans  lost many soldiers in fighting communism it doesn't mean the polar opposite; unfettered capitalism, is the solution!!!

FYI ever-worshipping free marketeers, I am not a socialist, I just do not believe in an ever increasing and destructive divide between rich and poor...

See also http://anbarrockny.blogspot.com/

The Chattering Classes, Occupy and the 99%

*Inspired by Russia Today*


This morning I watched a debate on Russia Today on Occupy Wall Street. They had the presenter and three panellists. One of whom was of particular interest as he embodied every stereotype of the so-called 1%. In the face of gathering momentum across the US and across the globe he belittled the protests as issues of the 'chattering classes'. WOW. The others could scarcely believe their ears. The disturbing thing is I do not think he was part of a propaganda machine trying to persuade the masses that the Occupy protests were meaningless due to any vested interest. To me he was the victim of the propaganda machine and he genuinely dismissed the mass unhappiness at the economic and political systems currently in place. He said the only unity between the protesters is their system of voting consensus and even this he dismissed as arduous and unworkable. I am guessing that this is exactly what was said when democracy came to the fore.

Across the world people en masse are refusing to accept the status quo that has made their lives a misery, so why exactly should people in the West still accept that more deregulation, income equality and cutting spending aka services for the poor, is the answer to the world's economic problems. For their convenience, people like the man I mentioned would like to put people in neat little categories which fit his view of the world. They also do this in order to feel safe, as this is how the masses are controlled. Create stereotypes and people will conform to them. People fear what they don't understand... You get the point! I wonder if Mr Category is aware that he himself is embodying a stereotype?

The Tory Voice on twitter called @raraproduction 'bitter socialists' due to a report on David Cameron. This had nothing to do with being a bitter socialist, it was simply exposing the person that is in charge of your life. This is another example of a right-wing assumption - because you are unhappy with aspects of the elite or capitalism that means you are a hippy socialist? No-one in their right mind begrudges the success of someone who is rich and has worked hard, it is the resulting slavish way that the politicians end up soullessly pandering to them that is pissing off the 99%.

See also http://raraproductions.blogspot.com/ & http://anbarrockny.blogspot.com/