[commanderkai]

http://www.michaeltotten.com/2010/03/tw ... tyrant.php

I'm not sure if there are many people who would be interested in this, but that being said, I thought this was a very interesting and insightful read, and I wanted to share with you all, in case you have any interest in Eastern Europe, the effects of communism, etc. Enjoy

[Mr_Canada]

Good article, why can't Middle Eastern countries do this?

[BartSimpson]

Mr_Canada wrote:

Good article, why can't Middle Eastern countries do this?

Because where the thing that held back Romania was the philosophy of Communism what holds back the Middle East is the philosophy of Islam. Romania got rid of Communism and then was able to move forward. Whenever it happens that a Muslim country throws off the shackles of Islam then they, too, will move forward.

Best quotes from the article:

Quote:

"What do you think," I asked her, "of people in the West who think communism is a good idea but haven't actually experienced it? There are quite a few people who admire the system in Cuba. You know the types I mean. The people who wear Che Guevara t-shirts."

"Ah, yes," she said. "They are ridiculous. But somehow I can understand them. Let’s take the example of France. In France they were all socialists when they were young. Sartre was a close friend of Castro's. Gerard Depardieu was a close friend of Castro's. They believed in this ideal, but after they saw what Stalin did they couldn’t look to the Soviet Union. So they turned their hopes to Cuba. Then they saw what Castro did. The only one who still seemed to live up to the ideal was Che Guevara. So they turned to Che Guevara. I understand them. They were wrong their entire lives, and it is difficult to admit this."

Quote:

"Communism changed our mentality," said Daniel Apostol, editor in chief of Romania's Money Channel. "We are still fighting now to come back to what we were. We lost the culture of private property. We lost this sense of privacy and respecting each other’s time and respecting people as individuals, as human beings. That was the worst thing that happened to us. This is why we are struggling so much now to get back to the capitalist society, to the free market, which can run only if there is respect for private property."

[commanderkai]

I enjoyed that Communists in the West part, it was hilarious and yet sadly true.

[ShepherdsDog]

People who admire(d) the communists never had to live under their rule.

[Lemmy]

Communism makes a lot of sense when you're sitting around a table with a bunch of psuedo-intellectuals you met in your 2nd year Poly-Sci class, the lot of you full of wine (and maybe just a little too much bong resin freshly added to the cerebellum). But you can't build a government on drunken Beatnik fantasy, good-intentions aside.

[ShepherdsDog]

Altruism can't be imposed from the outside, it has to come from within. Everyone knocks the Americans for being free market fanatics, but they are also the world's biggest donors to charity. The free market system, like democracy, is the best system we have come up with to date. People who have money are the ones who donate money. Look at the billions that come from corporations.

[Thanos]

A well-regulated and properly policed free market is a boon to society. An unregulated free market with the security guard (i.e. the United States government) caught napping is just an invitation to robber barons to come and fleece everyone. Robber baron capitalists and hardcore communists both have something in common in that neither of them possess even the slightest bit of conscience to prevent them from deliberately hurting other people. Just another example of how the ideological and economic fringes are usually populated only by sociopaths.

[Lemmy]

The key word you've employed, Thanos, is "policed". Friedman made it clear in "Capitalism and Freedom" that law enforcement, enforcement of contracts was essential to effective capitalism. He even knew that competetition must be enforced, which, of course, ran contrary to the Robber Baron era of the late 18th and 19th centuries. What we've learned, in the past two years, is that credit markets must also be regulated, as a component of successful capitalism.

[ShepherdsDog]

Well, in a democratic society, rule of law is usually in place and that is what regulates the markets, protecting consumers, producers, employers and employees. China is proving to be an excellent example of free(r) markets unregulated by rule of law.