Show me any large scale infrastructure project that has been realized by private enterprises without massive government subsidies. How is your privately funded highway or rail system working out for you?
> How is your privately funded highway or rail system working out for you?
Well, we get lovely toll gates about every 10 miles. Happily they’ve been automated so you can more or less just cruise on, but the constant “that’ll be $3, that’ll be $4, that’ll be $3.50” while you are driving can get on your nerves.
The notion that government supplied infrastructure, which enables private industry to flourish, is somehow communist, would probably make even Ayn Rand pause for a second. From roads to electricity to clean water, government infrastructure has been part of the American success story since the 18th century.
It's only the radical "right wing" (scare quotes because they bear no resemblance to "right wing" thought from before the 90s) that have challenged the government role in giving American industry the tools they need for success.
To call government funded infrastructure "communist" is the clearest illustration of the Overton Window I think I've ever seen.
You mean like china who has 10,000 high speed rails running every day producing the cheapest PV cells and lifted their population out of poverty? Let's just let Elon Musk get richer at the 3 trillion dollar mark he might let us have ONE tunnel.
It isn't, not when there is a better _commercial_ system in the world. If the "invisible hand" was real, great. As it has been a constantly manipulated and managed construct within the world of global finance from the moment Adam Smith shared it with anyone, it completely ceased to have any meaning going forward other than license to savage.
Economics isn't science or maths when you get past the micro level. It is psychology.
If there is a Capitalist society that also has a deep respect for mental health, I say it only exists in Science Fiction from the 50s and 60s.
The goals of communism are pure and true, but insanely unrealistic considering we're talking about humans who still instinctually believe in a reality where scarcity is anything other than a human construct.
On the other hand, naturally, barely restrained capitalism is just going to be a giant cancer where the rich feast off the poor until it all goes down in flames.
What's needed is a shared sense of morality, community and survival across our species.
The communists in Norway, like Russia, benefit enormously from pumping oil out of the ground, which goes to the government. In Norway's case, it's 20% of the GDP. Probably much more today with all the oil price increases.
Can you comment on the communists of Quebec? As a Canadian, this is what I find lacking in debate on American sites like Reddit or HN.
Canada is very similar to the United States, another way of saying that is that Canada does things slightly different yet the results seem to be profoundly different than the States.
Why is that, and what are we as Canadians doing that Americans and others around the world should attempt to copy and improve upon?
That is indeed the pitch the communists make. How is that working out for them?