I have begun to appreciate MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan…..he seems to be one of the few that are calling a spade …a spade….he is an irritating individual to some of his guests because he will interrupt try and force them to answer a question, instead of the BS talking oints they want us to hear…I give him his props on that….
Back to the point Dylan has been using a term, corporate communism, at lot and I have been meaning to write a post on this and just today he had Elliot Spitzer, the ex-governor of New York, on his show….a side note, Spitzer is a very knowledgeable man on economics, we as a country could do a lot worse then him on understanding the economics of the bailout……back again….corporate communism…..
Ratigan writes in the Huffington Post:
Lack of choice, lazy, unresponsive customer service, a culture of exploitation and a small powerbase formed by cronyism and nepotism are the hallmarks of a communist system that steals from its citizenry and a major reason why America spent half a century fighting a Cold War with the U.S.S.R.
And yet today we find ourselves as a country in two distinctly different categories: those who are forced to compete tooth and nail each day to provide value to society in return for income for ourselves and our families and those who would instead use our lawmaking apparatus to help themselves to our tax money and/or to protect themselves from true competition.
If you allow weak, outdated players to take control of the government and change the rules so they are protected from the natural competition and reward systems that have created so many innovations in our country, you not only steal from the citizens on behalf of the least worthy but you also doom them by trapping the capital that would be used to generate new innovation and, most tangibly in our current situation, jobs.
If you have just a small amount of understanding of economics then you will see that Ratigan is correct and he should be applauding for saying so…..Americans HATE communism or socialism or whatever you would choose to call it…but they accept the protectionism that prevails in the financial world……they take from the taxpayer and do as they desire with NO checks and balances (where are those people that pitch a bitch about checks and balances as talked about in the Constitution?)
I seldom….I repeat SELDOM recommend a news show because people have their own likes and dislikes, but “The Morning Meeting” with Dylan Ratigan on MSNBC should be required veiwing for any and all economics courses…..whether you agree or disagree with him, it is thought provoking and excellent news source….
NO I do not get anything in return for recommending Ratigan…just the satisfaction of helping people understand what is what with all the bailout cash….and hopefully it will help make the people more angry that they are being screwed without even a kiss….I put this disclaimer in there because in the past I was accused of being a shill for other people….personally I do not agree with Ratigan on some things but I appreciate his effort to get news makers to answer questions, not put forth some talking point given to them before the show.
Yes, there are certainly SOME good news programmes in both the UK and the US and they can be VERY good. Sadly, though, they are becoming fewer by the day, as many once thought provoking and seriously researched shows move towards sensationalism and proving their point regardless of truth or even evidence.
Ratigan is clearly ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!
“…communism, socialism, or whatever you choose to call it…” – although Americans tend to DO that and equate socialism and communism, they are two entirely separate things and NOT even remotely the same at all…
Socialism is a utopian cutural ideal and many of it’s core beliefs have obvious advantages for the human race, but the likelyhood in any scenario we can foresee of true socialism becoming viable for humanity is a big fat zero. In fact, it will probably never be more than the fanciful ideas of poets and philosophers, since the human race cannot ever be that unselfish – if it were, we would fail as a species.
However, socialism has spawned a political movement that calls itself “Socialist” but is nothing of the sort. That in turn has developed into and been hijacked by Communism (as well, incidentally, in name at least, as Facism) – a political system that is usually necessarily based on dictatorship and is really nothing more than a reaction to overbearing and greedy ruling classes (where have you come across THAT before?) 👿
Thank You for pointing out the stuff about socialism….I have been trying the American public to understand just what you are saying….I have not been able to so far….I have tried to equate what they think is socialism with social democracy….better yet just a wing of the Dem Party, the ultra liberal wing….
Corporate communism… I like it. I think I’ll use it more often.
Hiya Terrant…always good to hear from you…..Dylan Ratigan uses the term lots and I have become fond of it myself…..