Hippity hoppety abolish private property

I’m sure that’s exactly why more than 4 million Americans live in “third-world conditions of absolute poverty”. Why don’t you go tell them it’s all their fault and that they choose to live that way.

There are some people, who through no fault of their own have fallen into very hard times, economically speaking. Capitalism offers them a hand up (and also unfortunately for some, who become institutianlize, and hand out.) For the others though, perhaps they:

- don't realize all the opportunities capitalism offers them
- don't want to improve their situation (I obviously speculate that you fall into this category)
- are too lazy to do the work necessary to improve their situation (I don't know that you're lazy, but maybe you fall into this category, instead?)
- have become institutionalized to living on the dole

You simply cannot tell me otherwise! I was poor. Dirt poor. Not quite homeless, but damn close many times. And I'm not talking about being out of a home in a nice neighborhood. I lived with all the other dirt poor folks. The only way I got out of that situation was by working my ass off. I still work my ass off, even though I'm probably doing reasonably well now, by most folks' standard. Once you get in the habit of working for your success, you want to continue to do so.

You should try that instead of blaming capitalism for all your money problems. Instead, take advantage of everything it offers (in combination with the freedom we have here in the US... the two go hand in hand). Then you'll no longer be poor. /As the saying goes, no matter whether you believe you'll be poor or well off, you're right.

Homeless people can’t get jobs because they don’t have a stable home or means of transportation. You need to be able to afford gas, clothes and other things to get yourself to work and reproduce your labor each day. Many have criminal records that stem from homelessness. Or drinking or mental health problems that they can’t get treated for due to no money.

I would say most people who work hard still struggle to make ends meet. I really don’t understand why you justify this system, and claim it offers so many opportunities. Wealth does not transfer hands regularly, it often stays concentrated in a few hands — in the same property owning families. The system is built for the service of the capitalist class. It upholds their claims to the means of subsistence, keeping the working class captive and subservient. So many aspects of capitalism reinforce it, workers reproducing their labor, cultural hegemony, police, soldiers, etc. All help to defend the worst inequality in history and the systemic robbing of the proletariat.

There’s a reason you were closer to homelessness than enjoying millions or billions of dollars — it’s a system that was stacked against you from the beginning.

I didn't say that everyone had an easy path. My path certainly wasn't. You can rattle off all the hard luck, low parentage circumstances you want, but that doesn't change the fundamental fact that for people in those situations, there are ways to get out, IF they want to, and IF they believe they can. There are plenty of private sector charities that will give people a hand UP.

I know a lot of people who work hard and still struggle to make ends meet. They need to work harder OR smarter. But they'd rather enjoy their nights and weekends, spend money on cell phones and other non-essentials, like eating out instead of working hard and eating rice and beans.

I really don't know how you justify a system that has enslaved millions, murdered millions, and literally taken wealth and opportunity away from millions and put it in the hands of an elite few.

"When the communists came, they took everything."

That's a direct quote from a woman who escaped an eastern European country after the communists took over. I know it's a direct quote because I heard hear say it. She used to be my supervisor until she retired about ten years ago. She came to this country with literally nothing but a good mind and a willingness to work her ass off to achieve the American dream. She didn't go to Sweden or Norway. She came here to America. Try telling her, or anyone else who has actually suffered under the kind of economic system and govts that you propose, that your way is better, and they'd just laugh at you. I like talking to you because you're obviously a smart person, but you're intellectually naive, imo. I'm not trying to be insulting, that's just how I perceive you based on the idealistic, but not in any way practical things you say and suggest.

When you've known someone like my ex-supervisor, or pulled yourself up from being dirt poor, as I have, I think you tend to really not have sympathy for someone who clearly has chosen to be, and prefers to be poor, and then blames the very system that offers him the opportunity to do better for himself.

It is true that top-down communist regimes have run into problems with redistribution and requisitioning. In the USSR, this was tried on a few occasions and met with resistance each time from the peasantry, especially during collectivization. The social revolutions I have read about didn’t expropriate peasant belongings and land, but instead from the large land owning bourgeoisie.

Not sure what you mean by enslavement, as capitalism kept that institution alive longer than it needed to be, and some communist revolutions resulted in the abolition of slavery, most notably the Chinese revolution.

A couple million were murdered under Stalin’s purges, under Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge (if you really want to call this communist) and in other forms of red terror, but the death toll isn’t too significant. The 94-100 million figure includes deaths from famine and war to inflate the number.

I don’t actually propose any government. I don’t believe in any form of centralized and exploitative authority. I want decentralized federations and associations to manage the economic affairs of a nation — anarchism. Worker’s self management.

I find it funny that you respect so dearly the authority of someone in a managerial position, but won’t spend the time to hear the case of the person who just lost their job and home, or live on very small amounts of money, have economic emergencies with their health, etc. You seem firm in believing that they just want to struggle. Do you realize everyone has a different world experience?

In Cuba, there are virtually zero homeless people. The government ensures the people have housing. In the U.S., half a million have no home and about half of those sleep on the streets each night. And we tell ourselves they choose to do that. It’s obviously bullshit.

Capitalism, for all its warts, trends towards treating people better. Socialism and communism never have, and in fact, flatline (from a baseline that any decent human would find appalling) or head south in that department.

China is the primary large country today that employs slavery. But I guess that's okay with you since they're communist. Oh wait, I see you're back to the anarchy thing. Why in the blessed name of real Elvis would you think that anarchy would offer anything better than tribal savagery?

What are you talking about with this managerial position crap? If you're referring to my ex-supervisor (hardly a manager... you normally pay better attention to what I write...) then take that aspect out of the equation and think of her as just a person who I happened to know. She made herself a success in this country (yes, just my opinion, but a success by almost any objective standard) and became a supervisor. But that has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she suffered under the communist boot, and that they literally took any possession of hers that had any value. A simple point that I'm surprised you didn't pick up on.

In Cuba, the standard of living is so incredibly low, that it might be impossible to tell the difference between people with homes, and those who are homeless. And why don't you go there for a few years and experience their medical system? That might open your eyes to what a pathetic system of govt they have.

My opinion regarding the homeless in the US is that a pretty high percentage of them likely have mental issues and or drug related issues. So that's something that would need to be addressed outside the scope of this conversation. For the others who have the intellect of the average citizen, I would like to think they could use a hand up. But I get the pretty strong feeling you'd like to just keep them dependent on the govt their entire lives with handouts. Treating people that way is about as disrespectful as it gets in my opinion.