are corporate tax subsidies capitalist? what about the roads that allow goods to move from one place to another? are airports capitalist? what about the police and army that defend the corporation and their ability to make profit? are the courts that serve the corporations capitalist? THE WHOLE SYSTEM IS CAPITALIST! THERE ARE NO NONE CAPITALIST PARTS, YOU JACKASS!!!

continued
People are much, much more important than money, Erich. The only problem with the "capitalist segments of their economy" (or ours for that matter) is that they are inhuman. Anyone who values an abstract concept that has little tangible basis (after all, most money is just a lot of off/on signals on bank servers these days) is a monster. People have always known this. You and your freemason buddies are just fooling yourselves with your outdated, nineteenth century, behavioristic, social darwinism, and I wonder how well any of you will survive when your hubris and utter stupidity bring this whole thing crashing down. You folks don't have any answers to our social problems, which is why you are all so keen to keep your knowledge secret lest it be found out for the morally bankrupt clap-trap that it is.

Erich is right-

We could do away with all social support so that when we are done with workers we simply take them out and shoot them. After all, in a culture such as ours, who cares what happens to anyone else as long as I get mine?

But I think the French are not like that. I think many of them actually have social programs because they think working for the benefit of all is the right thing to do. That having respect for and supporting their elders is the right thing to do. Keeping your word is the right thing to do, instead of balancing a failed financial policy on the backs of the aging workforce.

Silly French.

Fri, 10/29/2010 - 20:27 — Uppity Woman (not verified)
 
Misogynistic? And misanthropic? Really? My post was misogynistic and misanthropic? And I'm not really a freemason; it's just a made-up internet name.
 
The part of the article that should have disturbed you was the implication that their crisis was caused by capitalism. I understand. This site caters to those who worship government; every problem will be caused by lack of government and every solution will be brought by an expansion of government. This site also caters to those who think that the law of supply and demand is some artificial scheme; it's not... it's the way the universe works, it's as immutable as the law of gravity. Societies that ignore it ALWAYS collapse. I also understand that the longer one holds a false belief, the harder it is to change that belief, as one would have to admit to having wasted a lot of time. 
 
 
The cold, hard truth is that the governments of the first-world countries have made promises that cannot be kept. They've promised everybody that they can each consume more than they produce. They've gone into debts that they cannot repay and implemented policies to encourage their people to take on debts that cannot be repaid. It has nothing to do with caring (or not caring) about people, and that's what you don't get. You jump to the conclusion that anybody who is against these social programs is misanthropic, which is false. The first world can no more provide retirement benefits than Haiti can provide all of its citizens with mansions and Lear jets. Taxing the rich (a common theme here) will do nothing to increase the production of the goods and services that retired people need... it will just drive the price of those goods up and increase imports. Cutting the military budget (which should be cut by 90%) won't work because the military-industrial complex owns the country and the government... anybody who tries to take down that cash-cow will end up like John Kennedy. If you really cared about people you would admit that our system is crashing, and start looking for the eventual alternative. So far, our politicians (and many in Europe) have only one proposal: re-inflate the bubble that caused the collapse. If you really care about people, you will oppose this, as it will only make matters worse in the long run. We need to start looking for policies that will encourage increasing economic efficiency of production so we can compete with the
rest of the world and bring back manufacturing jobs. We need to accept the fact that the crash took tens of trillions of dollars with it and that there are consequences that come with that fact. The only solution for taking care of the elderly that will work is if people start taking care of their parents. It costs a lot less to provide a room in your house than to subsidize the rent/mortgage of a house for every retired person. Our medical system is broken beyond repair, and even experts who have spent their entire lives in the medical field can't agree on a fix. Sadly, the fix will be provided by politicians who are only trying to buy votes and will pander to the lowest common denominator (i.e., people who know much less than the experts).

If you think that capitalism is an inhuman system, you need to talk to people who lived in the USSR, East Germany or North Korea. Talk to people who are dying because socialized medicine won't pay for expensive treatments for old people, and won't allow them to pay for the treatment themselves (that wouldn't be fair). Talk to the people who have ideas for businesses but can't afford the massive red tape and bureaucratic hoops that have to be jumped thru in order to start a business. Talk to the people who are unemployed because those businesses aren't started. Or, just stick around, because our government is doing everything wrong. Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid are in no danger of being unfunded. The barriers to starting or growing a business aren't going away. The incentives to move jobs overseas are increasing. The FED is about to go on a massive money printing binge, and the hangover is going to hurt.