The Almighty Unions

[egbert]

Moreover, everywhere communism has been tried, it results in the most authoritarian regimes you could find. It seems that there hasn't been one communist attempt that got past capitalism and went through statist socialism straight into a stateless/classless communism. Has there? Every one stops at the authoritarian regime stage.

Well, China went through statist socialism and straight into free market capitalism. Does that count?

Oh, you mean putting melamine in baby formula and pet foods?

[egbert]

[Coito ergo sum]

LOL - like the wonderful teachers in Wisconsin lying and getting fake doctor's notes so they could leave their students in the lurch while they go out and strike.

[egbert]

[Coito ergo sum]

[Coito ergo sum]

[Coito ergo sum]

[egbert]

[Coito ergo sum]

[Coito ergo sum]

[egbert]

Hedge fund lobbyists are currently hacking away at the Senate's resolve with, not surprisingly, some success. And it's not just Republicans who are willing to do their bidding, but a number of Democrats as well. Indeed, it was a Democrat -- Chuck Schumer -- who led the fight against closing the loophole in 2007.

"I don't know how members of Congress can return home and look an office manager, a nurse, a court clerk in the eye and say 'I chose hedge fund managers instead of you and your family'," said Lori Lodes of the SEIU.

Nicole Tichon, of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, framed the debate in similar terms:

It's hard to imagine anyone campaigning on protecting hedge fund managers, Wall Street banks and companies that ship jobs and profits overseas. It's hard to imagine telling constituents that somehow they should continue to subsidize these industries. We're anxious to see whose side the Senate is on and what story they want to tell the American people.

Up until now, the story has been a familiar narrative of Two Americas, with one set of rules for those who can afford to hire a fleet of K Street lobbyists and a different set for everybody else. It's time to give this infuriating tale a different -- and far more just and satisfying -- ending.

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15596

[egbert]

[Coito ergo sum]

[egbert]

This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of wealth: First, to set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; … and, after doing so, to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called upon to administer… to produce the most beneficial results for the community—the man of wealth thus becoming the mere trustee and agent for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves."
—From "Wealth," by Andrew Carnegie, North American Review (1889)

[egbert]