Julie: Don't you find it somewhat disconcerting that America has become a nation in which success is predicated upon form as much (if not more so) than upon content? Believe me, I thought long and hard about wearing a suit and/or tie, but then I thought, I would rather be myself than conform to societal expectations. The way I dress (or do not dress) should in no way effect the power (or lack of) of my message. But, yes, I understand your point. Thank you for making it.
I am not arguing for the workers to overthrow the the capitalist system. I am arguing for the workers to demand fair wages collectively against the greed of the upper corporate management. I do desire that typical workers who devote their labor 8 hours a day to company make a reasonable wage relative to the corporate management, perhaps a wage ratio between workers and management of 1:10 instead of 1:1000 or 1:10,000 with the bonuses. Is not an income for top management of $100 per hour enough?
In short, I would love to believe free markets are effective for the general bettering of society, but it is not true. This does not mean that our current system is good, because certainly fascism sucks, when the corporations take over the government. I think of all the expensive tests that one must take from the SAT, to the ACT, to the GRE, to GRE subject tests, etc. in order to gain admission into very educational programs. I think of personality tests that prospective employers may give.
Corporate capitalists want Americans to become blind workers and consumers, who spend their entire lives working alienating jobs in order to purchase more trite physical possessions, and yes, this changes how a human being views the world - it alters human sensory perceptions, because humans will no longer have the time to value art, music, and literature because of a lack of time. We already notice this today - many U.S. children absolutely hate reading because they never learned to enjoy it.
In addition, corporate capitalism, which exerts huge power over our culture, has no interest in developing a society of people who can critically think or who have obtained a good education because critical thinking and a sound education create a tension with their profit motive. These corporate capitalist want to make money and as much money as possible, which not only gives them and their children unfair societal advantage but also leads to a two class society.
@aaldav I have a few comments. 1) Capitalism won't work well without the right values. 2) I don't agree with the "two class" exploitation perspective. Communist Manifesto: "The first direct attempts of the proletariat to attain its own ends [. . .] could be produced by the impending bourgeois epoch alone." The idea that middle class = exploiter and proletariat = exploited is arbitrary, to say the least.
The proletariat member who sells drugs is just as bad as the bourgeois guy who sells drugs.
@amamerc I'm not certain I understand the point you are making. I do agree that capitalism works best when people hold certain value about their fellow human beings and the world around them, although I wouldn't say such an argument is profound. Also, I'm not trying to argue that the middle class is necessary the exploiter, although one could argue that it is disconcerting to a system in which the poor work really hard for next to no money to make wealthy shareholders more wealth.
@amamerc As for the your point that the "proletariat member who sells drugs is just as bad as the bourgeois guy who sells drug," again, I did not mean to imply differently, although I might argue that when you feel dis-empowered to achieve a good life through more 'legal' means, selling drugs seems like a far more respectable career. Also, in terms of drug use, let us not pretend that police departments in rich neighborhoods don't sometimes close their eyes to drug use of wealthy teens.
@amamerc But, again, in respect to the drug comment, I am not sure where you were going with it. My personal view is that often the rich get police to arrest young people from poorer financial backgrounds who use drugs as a means to remain in their smug self-assertion that "the poor are poor because they made bad choices in life - otherwise, they would be rich." I think this is very problematic - not only for the moral stamt it makes about the poor but also because it's often untrue.
@amamerc As for playing classes off one another, Fox News and most of the American media seems to enjoy playing the middle class of the poor and the poor off the middle class. Nobody really wants to talk about the REALLY wealthy, who make most of their wealth their investments, low capital gains tax rates, and low inheritance tax rates. The rich make this wealth off the labor power of the poor, poor who have a difficult time becoming middle class. In fact m.c. is shrinking in U.S.
@amamerc Why is the middle class shrinking? One might argue its partly the result of the decline in the union movement. There probably are a number of reasons. Horrible underfunded schools, a decaying culture, the exorbitant costs of higher education, the failing of many wealthy to identify with the situation faced by the poor (to feel their suffering), etc. (I don't claim to be exhaustive.) Also, U.S. is such as individualistic society that many think about life only from their perspec
However, just to address briefly your claim that the ideas of Austrian economists like Ludwig von Mises, and Friedrich Hayek, I would reply that it seems unlikely that our society will ever return to the Jeffersonian style capitalism that would make Austrian Economic theory more feasible. I am not an Austrian economic supporter because I do have a problem with the free market system. It is not surprising U.S. jobs have been shipped to third-world countries since it is economically profitable.
Allen addresses Marx quite superficially in "None Dare Call It Conspiracy," and for the most part, Allen misinterprets the insights Marx provides about worker alienation, wage slavery, and alienating people from their senses. In fact, I found Marx's critique of money and its power to shift really to be quite profound and think about the attempt, in film literature of Citizen Kane. 58robbo, if you want, I can send you a much longer, more detailed response.
interesting you say that you wish that we the workers would unite. sounds like marx. sad that when faced with the dire predictions of this book, most people turn to marx, when it is the ideas of hayek, mises, and rothbard which will deliver them
Commendations. It takes courage to discuss these issues. These subjects occupy a lonely place on YouTube.
I find such views on things isolate a person from both the elite on the one side and anti-intellectual America on the other who would rather watch American Idol and such than apply their minds to examining our current situation.
Those in the middle have it the toughest. Smart, and insightful, with solutions, yet powerless, and being inexorably shoved to the margins by the system.
Your private school is awesome for prescribing that book. The one I went to would never do that.
amamerc 1 month ago
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theQiwiMan 1 month ago
It is a TRAVESTY that this video only has 626 views as of today.
Thank you for posting this!
theQiwiMan 1 month ago
Julie: Don't you find it somewhat disconcerting that America has become a nation in which success is predicated upon form as much (if not more so) than upon content? Believe me, I thought long and hard about wearing a suit and/or tie, but then I thought, I would rather be myself than conform to societal expectations. The way I dress (or do not dress) should in no way effect the power (or lack of) of my message. But, yes, I understand your point. Thank you for making it.
aaldav 3 months ago
Give respect to your insights. Wear a shirt and a tie. I am not being petty here. I am trying to help you succeed! You are well on your way.
julieoftheearth1 3 months ago
thxs! i vote to overthrow capitalism!!
amyntazoe 4 months ago
thats the realest book, i think the dude died after it quick
CollabGiants 5 months ago
I am not arguing for the workers to overthrow the the capitalist system. I am arguing for the workers to demand fair wages collectively against the greed of the upper corporate management. I do desire that typical workers who devote their labor 8 hours a day to company make a reasonable wage relative to the corporate management, perhaps a wage ratio between workers and management of 1:10 instead of 1:1000 or 1:10,000 with the bonuses. Is not an income for top management of $100 per hour enough?
aaldav 8 months ago
In short, I would love to believe free markets are effective for the general bettering of society, but it is not true. This does not mean that our current system is good, because certainly fascism sucks, when the corporations take over the government. I think of all the expensive tests that one must take from the SAT, to the ACT, to the GRE, to GRE subject tests, etc. in order to gain admission into very educational programs. I think of personality tests that prospective employers may give.
aaldav 8 months ago
Corporate capitalists want Americans to become blind workers and consumers, who spend their entire lives working alienating jobs in order to purchase more trite physical possessions, and yes, this changes how a human being views the world - it alters human sensory perceptions, because humans will no longer have the time to value art, music, and literature because of a lack of time. We already notice this today - many U.S. children absolutely hate reading because they never learned to enjoy it.
aaldav 8 months ago
In addition, corporate capitalism, which exerts huge power over our culture, has no interest in developing a society of people who can critically think or who have obtained a good education because critical thinking and a sound education create a tension with their profit motive. These corporate capitalist want to make money and as much money as possible, which not only gives them and their children unfair societal advantage but also leads to a two class society.
aaldav 8 months ago
@aaldav I have a few comments. 1) Capitalism won't work well without the right values. 2) I don't agree with the "two class" exploitation perspective. Communist Manifesto: "The first direct attempts of the proletariat to attain its own ends [. . .] could be produced by the impending bourgeois epoch alone." The idea that middle class = exploiter and proletariat = exploited is arbitrary, to say the least.
The proletariat member who sells drugs is just as bad as the bourgeois guy who sells drugs.
amamerc 1 month ago
@amamerc I'm not certain I understand the point you are making. I do agree that capitalism works best when people hold certain value about their fellow human beings and the world around them, although I wouldn't say such an argument is profound. Also, I'm not trying to argue that the middle class is necessary the exploiter, although one could argue that it is disconcerting to a system in which the poor work really hard for next to no money to make wealthy shareholders more wealth.
aaldav 1 month ago
@amamerc As for the your point that the "proletariat member who sells drugs is just as bad as the bourgeois guy who sells drug," again, I did not mean to imply differently, although I might argue that when you feel dis-empowered to achieve a good life through more 'legal' means, selling drugs seems like a far more respectable career. Also, in terms of drug use, let us not pretend that police departments in rich neighborhoods don't sometimes close their eyes to drug use of wealthy teens.
aaldav 1 month ago
@amamerc But, again, in respect to the drug comment, I am not sure where you were going with it. My personal view is that often the rich get police to arrest young people from poorer financial backgrounds who use drugs as a means to remain in their smug self-assertion that "the poor are poor because they made bad choices in life - otherwise, they would be rich." I think this is very problematic - not only for the moral stamt it makes about the poor but also because it's often untrue.
aaldav 1 month ago
@amamerc As for playing classes off one another, Fox News and most of the American media seems to enjoy playing the middle class of the poor and the poor off the middle class. Nobody really wants to talk about the REALLY wealthy, who make most of their wealth their investments, low capital gains tax rates, and low inheritance tax rates. The rich make this wealth off the labor power of the poor, poor who have a difficult time becoming middle class. In fact m.c. is shrinking in U.S.
aaldav 1 month ago
@amamerc Why is the middle class shrinking? One might argue its partly the result of the decline in the union movement. There probably are a number of reasons. Horrible underfunded schools, a decaying culture, the exorbitant costs of higher education, the failing of many wealthy to identify with the situation faced by the poor (to feel their suffering), etc. (I don't claim to be exhaustive.) Also, U.S. is such as individualistic society that many think about life only from their perspec
aaldav 1 month ago
However, just to address briefly your claim that the ideas of Austrian economists like Ludwig von Mises, and Friedrich Hayek, I would reply that it seems unlikely that our society will ever return to the Jeffersonian style capitalism that would make Austrian Economic theory more feasible. I am not an Austrian economic supporter because I do have a problem with the free market system. It is not surprising U.S. jobs have been shipped to third-world countries since it is economically profitable.
aaldav 8 months ago
Allen addresses Marx quite superficially in "None Dare Call It Conspiracy," and for the most part, Allen misinterprets the insights Marx provides about worker alienation, wage slavery, and alienating people from their senses. In fact, I found Marx's critique of money and its power to shift really to be quite profound and think about the attempt, in film literature of Citizen Kane. 58robbo, if you want, I can send you a much longer, more detailed response.
aaldav 8 months ago
interesting you say that you wish that we the workers would unite. sounds like marx. sad that when faced with the dire predictions of this book, most people turn to marx, when it is the ideas of hayek, mises, and rothbard which will deliver them
58robbo 8 months ago
Commendations. It takes courage to discuss these issues. These subjects occupy a lonely place on YouTube.
I find such views on things isolate a person from both the elite on the one side and anti-intellectual America on the other who would rather watch American Idol and such than apply their minds to examining our current situation.
Those in the middle have it the toughest. Smart, and insightful, with solutions, yet powerless, and being inexorably shoved to the margins by the system.
ytoobpg 8 months ago