Americans talking about the benefits of Socialism is a luxury paid for by the successes of capitalism.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) March 1, 2016
Americans talking about the benefits of Socialism is a luxury paid for by the successes of capitalism.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) March 1, 2016
One of the great tragedies of the American mind comes from casting all arguments in terms of money. Americans are so obsessed with money that they can’t see anything else.
Neither can the more comfortable among these Americans see the flaws of their own system. As history clearly shows, this is always a fatal mistake. The deadly combination of wealth, power, arrogance past empires achieved through monarchy, America has accomplished through the legal fiction of turning mere money-making enterprises into gods! Not since the days when Caligula sought to make his horse a priest and Roman Magistrate has the human race witnessed such stupidity.
Hi —–,
Good comment, I totally agree with the first paragraph, but the post is not the opinion of an American mind but rather a former resident of the Soviet Union with first-hand knowledge of the “benefits” of socialism.
Nonetheless, the quote was written for the American mind in much the same way Ayn Rand crafted her novels.
America suffers from the same fatal flaw as previous empires. This includes the Soviet Union was well as it’s predecessor the Russian Empire. The wealth and power at the top is too detached from the pain and suffering at the bottom.
American economic history clearly demonstrates that the country was more prosperous when the richest paid a marginal tax rate of about 90 percent on their surplus income. On the other hand, sharp tax cuts for the rich preceded both the Great Depression and the Great Recession. This is a lesson Americans have yet to lean.
Furthermore, in order to be functional, even democratic governments must have both relative equality of both education and wealth. Otherwise, contempt flows from the top while jealousy rises from the bottom. Unless there is strong middle class in the middle, something the United States has been losing since the Reagan presidency, the clash spawns a revolution.
It matters little whether those revolutions are violent, as were the French and Russian Revolutions, or nonviolent, as was that toppling the Soviet Union, those living too comfortably at the top eventually fall victim to disenfranchised masses at the bottom.
Like some great ape in the jungle, capitalism has been beating its chest after the collapse of the Soviet Union. All the while, most Americans fail to realize their empires days are also numbered. However, those at the top are obviously worried. Why do you think, despite calls for deficit reduction, relatively little is said about the national government spending so much spying on the nation’s citizens?
Your comments are 10x longer than the original post 🙂
The post was actually written for Sanders supporters who insist on lecturing a former Soviet citizen (Kasparov) via social media on the glories of Socialism and what it really means.
That could be because I actually know what I’m talking about rather than engaging in bumper sticker politics.