First, it is important to make the distinction that fascism does not require a strong central government. What fascism does require is enormously unequal distribution of power within a society. Anarchy is exactly the opposite, with the power structure of society dismantled such that there is quite nearly no power inequality. Unfortunately some people erroneously associate Ron Paul and his "libertarianism" with something near anarchy, when in fact the world that his followers strive for is far closer to fascism.
Consider the effects of these selected Ron Paul follower positions:
*elimination of minimum wage
*end of income tax (particularly when replaced by consumption / sales tax)
*end of state-run education
*end of municipal police/fire protection
*end of environmental protections
*end of blind and accessible criminal justice system
*elimination of 40 hour work week
*elimination of worker's unions and collective bargaining
Every one of these actions in particular are vastly more detrimental to the lower socio-economic classes. Every. Single. One. Not only do they take away money and benefits from lower income people, they also empower those of the higher classes. America currently is a vastly unfair system that favors the wealthy by a huge margin. The list of actions listed above only shifts the system further into their favor. Acts like this allow them to act more radically, with more impunity. These acts, taken together, would put us right past hoovervilles and company stores. These acts place us back into a state where people own each other and can buy and sell other humans on an open market.
This type of power distribution is fascism, plain and simple. It is Ron Paul, bringing fascism for the people.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Furthering Class warfare
From another post I placed on slashdot
The patent system, for as much as it gets bad press, offers the little guy (independent inventor) a chance to get ahead. With no patents, anyone with money can make a clone of an existing product and do whatever they want with it, including selling their clone as the original item. Such a patent-less system undoubtedly favors the wealthy who have access to the means to do such things.
And when you accelerate the acquisition of power, you encourage oppression in the name of profit. This leads directly to fascism for the people.
The patent system, for as much as it gets bad press, offers the little guy (independent inventor) a chance to get ahead. With no patents, anyone with money can make a clone of an existing product and do whatever they want with it, including selling their clone as the original item. Such a patent-less system undoubtedly favors the wealthy who have access to the means to do such things.
And when you accelerate the acquisition of power, you encourage oppression in the name of profit. This leads directly to fascism for the people.
America See Your Conservative Future
From a comment I wrote on January 27:
Right now the Americans see themselves on a moral high ground for opposing child labor. Currently, that is one of few labor laws that means anything. However there are plenty of politicians - slashdot idol ron paul amongst them - who would like to overturn those laws as well. In the name of "liberty" they want to remove "market restrictions" to "grow industry". This will, of course, only reduce the wages across the board for working class people while making companies more profitable and increasing executive compensation. They also want to increase the rights of the wealthy and reduce those of the poor. While some conservatives claim they want to stop the "class warfare", this pushes it to a terrible conclusion.
In other words, under the guise of liberty - but with the true goal of profit - some people aspire to bring fascism for the people.
Right now the Americans see themselves on a moral high ground for opposing child labor. Currently, that is one of few labor laws that means anything. However there are plenty of politicians - slashdot idol ron paul amongst them - who would like to overturn those laws as well. In the name of "liberty" they want to remove "market restrictions" to "grow industry". This will, of course, only reduce the wages across the board for working class people while making companies more profitable and increasing executive compensation. They also want to increase the rights of the wealthy and reduce those of the poor. While some conservatives claim they want to stop the "class warfare", this pushes it to a terrible conclusion.
In other words, under the guise of liberty - but with the true goal of profit - some people aspire to bring fascism for the people.
From a slashdot comment I wrote on January 8: (remarks from the comment it is in reply to are in quotation)
"It's all about economics. Women went into the work force in the late seventies, that's what allowed the economy to restructure and prolong itself"
You want productivity, right? You want the country producing more stuff, don't you? Putting more people into jobs is a way to do that. More people working == more stuff produced, which is your net productivity. Now, it might not increase your per capita productivity, but it does increase your net productivity.
"people have to work more to get less, but you can thank the government for that, with all the inflation, taxes, regulations, which pushed productive jobs elsewhere"
Oh, that's right. I forgot that you want to pay employees nothing for their time. You want to be able to buy and sell them like cattle or cord wood on the open market. You want all workers to be "at-will" so that they can be hired and fired on a whim without any avenues for recourse. You want to ensure that power is concentrated in the hands of the very few and kept away from working class people at all costs.
For some reason you call this freedom. Thinking people see this as fascism for the people.
"It's all about economics. Women went into the work force in the late seventies, that's what allowed the economy to restructure and prolong itself"
You want productivity, right? You want the country producing more stuff, don't you? Putting more people into jobs is a way to do that. More people working == more stuff produced, which is your net productivity. Now, it might not increase your per capita productivity, but it does increase your net productivity.
"people have to work more to get less, but you can thank the government for that, with all the inflation, taxes, regulations, which pushed productive jobs elsewhere"
Oh, that's right. I forgot that you want to pay employees nothing for their time. You want to be able to buy and sell them like cattle or cord wood on the open market. You want all workers to be "at-will" so that they can be hired and fired on a whim without any avenues for recourse. You want to ensure that power is concentrated in the hands of the very few and kept away from working class people at all costs.
For some reason you call this freedom. Thinking people see this as fascism for the people.
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