Dec 7, 2023·edited Dec 7, 2023Liked by Todd Hayen, PhD, RP
What's the difference between the state running everything for example the USSR and the oligarchs running everything in the case of the USA?
In both cases, the working class has no power nor any democracy.
Voting in a representative democracy is no different than what those in the USSR voted for.
The difference is that those in the USSR knew their leaders were corrupt, while we have a false dichotomy of left vs right. Keep in mind that the right pretends to be against the great reset wef shit but they support corporate rights which enforces that shit.
Direct democracy is the way and we have the tech to do this.
Individual altruism is how we got the Rockefellers and people like Bill Gates who pay little taxes to gain power. What's better, wealthy giving charity or the state doing it? At least when the state does it, there are less conflicts of interest. If we could only get rid of the fked up loopholes that the wealthy use to dodge taxes...
BTW, since you're in Canada, do you understand how no matter how crappy your national health insurance system is, it's still much better than the private health insurance that the US has to deal with? We have wait lists too but the bonus of facing bankruptcy, even with insurance! Isn't that so freeing? 🤡 I guess Ayn Rand would be happy with how many people use gofundme to help pay their bills, haha. Did you know she was on welfare herself? I guess Atlas Shrugged lol.
Some claim that national healthcare is worse when it came to COVID. Haha, nope. Private systems were worse in that they incentivized a positive COVID test and shit toxic drugs like remdesevir and dangerous ventilators. Why? Because the hospital needs to make money. No different than socialized medicine when it came to the con-vid hooplah.
Wow...I could write a book addressing what you say here...although most of that book would be "guessing opinions/un-expert blather"...when deeply technical situations come up, like world economy, national health systems, or communism even, I really do not have the acumen to make informed conversation. I can express what I "think" some of the time...but I may change my mind if more information comes into my brain.
From what I know, I don't think there ever was "pure" Marist communism. The system goes against human nature, and therefore will always be doomed. And if our system goes the way of the "collective" it will even be further from the "pure" thing. To answer your question, I don't think there is a difference "...between the state running everything for example the USSR and the oligarchs running everything in the case of the USA."
Very broadly, the flavor of "communism" we are facing is "power to a higher elite group, and no power to the masses." Collective wealth, controlled by a non representative group...whether that be the "state' or corporations or individuals or families.
Individuals giving wealth to help those incapable of creating their own wealth. The state, sure, if they properly represent the people...as you say, we certainly can get closer to a pure democracy...but all of it is problematic.
Didn't know Rand was on welfare...I probably did know at one time, but forgot!
I would say, as an individual, I would rather have Canada's health system than the US...I've lived both. And since I was with a large HMO when in the states (Kaiser) I actualy liked that better...but it is of course similar. Nationalized health care is a dicey proposition. In principal, my opinion is that it is a bad thing. You basically are handing over to the state your health care...and the state can decide if you are allowed care or not, it can withhold treatment, delay treatment, etc. Doctors can suck and there is no recourse. And you get programs like MAiD pop up where the state encourages suicide. It can be a mess.
The problems with health care go way beyond whether the state pays for it or not. Our entire relationship with health is whacked, which is why the system is whacked.
My issue with the term communism is that it doesn't explain what the WEF and others are doing. What we have is a corporate funded and run control system. It's fascism where the state and corporations work hand in hand. This is not new, however. Remember the history of the labor movement. Company towns were a form of fascism, and in many cases the authorities supported the companies over the people. I ask my libertarian friends to tell me when did we ever have a real free market, and how would a free market prevent monopolies and lobbying our puppet politicians?
I'm not a Marxist, but I do understand what he was warning about as he saw happening during the industrial revolution. Their main point is that your work makes money, but the owners (or in current days, shareholders or private equity firms) end up taking a big chunk of it. That's the problem we have with the private system in the USA. It's rentier capitalism, where mere ownership guarantees income. Nothing is produced, yet they can collect "rent" from the business or investments. It's a parasitic system!
A couple of years ago, Netherlands switched to a private medical insurance system and their costs rose and rose.
Medical:
Does it matter whether the state determines your care or a for profit insurance company that in turn serves government rules?
For some reason, people think like we have more medical freedom, but this only applies to the wealthy who can afford to pay out of pocket.
If you can't, you're under the thumbs of insurance companies and the medical centers that determine whether they take your insurance or not.
It's a big shit show.
Obviously both suck, but the more middle men we have, the harder it is to single out who is to blame for a policy. The finger pointing ends up being circular and we end up with the medical system from the movie Idiocracy 😂.
Also, the more middle men that take a cut in the form of profit margins only drives up the cost. That's why we in the USA spend double per person than Canada or European nations do. All of these middle men employ people, yes, but it's all bullshit jobs as Graeber wrote about.
These days, even doctors are squeezed. Preventive care payments are less than in the past, but surgeries are rewarded well. Hospitals/medical centers also make a big cut on procedures.
So the push in the USA is for surgery over even physical therapy! It's beyond dumb.
Canada has been doing stupid things with maid. It should be an option only for those who are basically dying already, like a severe cancer patient. I find it ridiculous that they offer it to those who still want to live. It's just making more people pissed off at the system so they can push privatization, like they are doing in the UK. Their NHS is floundering because of budget cuts, but somehow the idiots think the solution is privatization. Ok fine, but guess what will happen? The people will have to pay more and more because after all, private entities are just another middle man that extracts a profit.
What's the difference between the state running everything for example the USSR and the oligarchs running everything in the case of the USA?
In both cases, the working class has no power nor any democracy.
Voting in a representative democracy is no different than what those in the USSR voted for.
The difference is that those in the USSR knew their leaders were corrupt, while we have a false dichotomy of left vs right. Keep in mind that the right pretends to be against the great reset wef shit but they support corporate rights which enforces that shit.
Direct democracy is the way and we have the tech to do this.
Individual altruism is how we got the Rockefellers and people like Bill Gates who pay little taxes to gain power. What's better, wealthy giving charity or the state doing it? At least when the state does it, there are less conflicts of interest. If we could only get rid of the fked up loopholes that the wealthy use to dodge taxes...
BTW, since you're in Canada, do you understand how no matter how crappy your national health insurance system is, it's still much better than the private health insurance that the US has to deal with? We have wait lists too but the bonus of facing bankruptcy, even with insurance! Isn't that so freeing? 🤡 I guess Ayn Rand would be happy with how many people use gofundme to help pay their bills, haha. Did you know she was on welfare herself? I guess Atlas Shrugged lol.
Some claim that national healthcare is worse when it came to COVID. Haha, nope. Private systems were worse in that they incentivized a positive COVID test and shit toxic drugs like remdesevir and dangerous ventilators. Why? Because the hospital needs to make money. No different than socialized medicine when it came to the con-vid hooplah.
Wow...I could write a book addressing what you say here...although most of that book would be "guessing opinions/un-expert blather"...when deeply technical situations come up, like world economy, national health systems, or communism even, I really do not have the acumen to make informed conversation. I can express what I "think" some of the time...but I may change my mind if more information comes into my brain.
From what I know, I don't think there ever was "pure" Marist communism. The system goes against human nature, and therefore will always be doomed. And if our system goes the way of the "collective" it will even be further from the "pure" thing. To answer your question, I don't think there is a difference "...between the state running everything for example the USSR and the oligarchs running everything in the case of the USA."
Very broadly, the flavor of "communism" we are facing is "power to a higher elite group, and no power to the masses." Collective wealth, controlled by a non representative group...whether that be the "state' or corporations or individuals or families.
Individuals giving wealth to help those incapable of creating their own wealth. The state, sure, if they properly represent the people...as you say, we certainly can get closer to a pure democracy...but all of it is problematic.
Didn't know Rand was on welfare...I probably did know at one time, but forgot!
I would say, as an individual, I would rather have Canada's health system than the US...I've lived both. And since I was with a large HMO when in the states (Kaiser) I actualy liked that better...but it is of course similar. Nationalized health care is a dicey proposition. In principal, my opinion is that it is a bad thing. You basically are handing over to the state your health care...and the state can decide if you are allowed care or not, it can withhold treatment, delay treatment, etc. Doctors can suck and there is no recourse. And you get programs like MAiD pop up where the state encourages suicide. It can be a mess.
The problems with health care go way beyond whether the state pays for it or not. Our entire relationship with health is whacked, which is why the system is whacked.
it's all a mess
Good timing! A good article about what we're going through... he goes into how market systems lead to this schizo system
https://cjhopkins.substack.com/p/the-schizotocracy-or-how-i-learned
My issue with the term communism is that it doesn't explain what the WEF and others are doing. What we have is a corporate funded and run control system. It's fascism where the state and corporations work hand in hand. This is not new, however. Remember the history of the labor movement. Company towns were a form of fascism, and in many cases the authorities supported the companies over the people. I ask my libertarian friends to tell me when did we ever have a real free market, and how would a free market prevent monopolies and lobbying our puppet politicians?
I'm not a Marxist, but I do understand what he was warning about as he saw happening during the industrial revolution. Their main point is that your work makes money, but the owners (or in current days, shareholders or private equity firms) end up taking a big chunk of it. That's the problem we have with the private system in the USA. It's rentier capitalism, where mere ownership guarantees income. Nothing is produced, yet they can collect "rent" from the business or investments. It's a parasitic system!
A couple of years ago, Netherlands switched to a private medical insurance system and their costs rose and rose.
Medical:
Does it matter whether the state determines your care or a for profit insurance company that in turn serves government rules?
For some reason, people think like we have more medical freedom, but this only applies to the wealthy who can afford to pay out of pocket.
If you can't, you're under the thumbs of insurance companies and the medical centers that determine whether they take your insurance or not.
It's a big shit show.
Obviously both suck, but the more middle men we have, the harder it is to single out who is to blame for a policy. The finger pointing ends up being circular and we end up with the medical system from the movie Idiocracy 😂.
Also, the more middle men that take a cut in the form of profit margins only drives up the cost. That's why we in the USA spend double per person than Canada or European nations do. All of these middle men employ people, yes, but it's all bullshit jobs as Graeber wrote about.
These days, even doctors are squeezed. Preventive care payments are less than in the past, but surgeries are rewarded well. Hospitals/medical centers also make a big cut on procedures.
So the push in the USA is for surgery over even physical therapy! It's beyond dumb.
Canada has been doing stupid things with maid. It should be an option only for those who are basically dying already, like a severe cancer patient. I find it ridiculous that they offer it to those who still want to live. It's just making more people pissed off at the system so they can push privatization, like they are doing in the UK. Their NHS is floundering because of budget cuts, but somehow the idiots think the solution is privatization. Ok fine, but guess what will happen? The people will have to pay more and more because after all, private entities are just another middle man that extracts a profit.
I enjoyed the show. I didn’t get to see you dress up tho. I still listen to podcasts old school, audio only 😎
I can't find the video version myself. Not much to see actually. Talking heads.