The End of Socialism?

[Eric the Green]

(09-25-2017, 10:29 AM)Warren Dew Wrote:

(09-25-2017, 10:08 AM)pbrower2a Wrote:

(09-25-2017, 09:19 AM)Warren Dew Wrote:

(09-25-2017, 09:15 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: We have 'socialism for the rich'. The old conservative idea that a smaller government would make people more self-reliant and willing to make sacrifices on behalf of economic elites no longer apply when the corporate elites bleed the system.  Big Government can generate huge profits, as shown with the 43rd and 45th Presidents.

Let's not forget the trillion dollar patronage "stimulus" bill of the 44th President.  Both parties do both corporate and individual welfare.

...intended to stop an economic meltdown that by early 2009 was analogous to the first year and a half of the 1929-1932 economic meltdown. Obama's stimulus at least paid for itself or came close to doing so. The problem was that Americans learned nothing from it. American economic elites went back to the ethos that no human suffering is in excess so long as those elites get what they want.

There were no bank failures that caused money to disappear, partly because we had the FDIC, which we didn't in 1930.  The spending in the "stimulus" bill didn't boost the economy any more than any other corporate welfare, and was part of the economic gestalt that prevented an actual recovery for the rest of the Obama administration.

Quiet incorrect. The economy was rescued from going over a cliff in 2009 that would have resulted in Great Depression Volume 2, or worse. What prevented a greater recovery after the stimulus in 2009 was, first of all, the Republican victory on Black Tuesday Nov.2, 2010. Brower was exactly right; Americans failed to learn after 2008 that Republican policies fail. That day prevented progress on anything for the rest of the decade. Funds for public employment were cut, and that offset the lingering effects of the stimulus, which itself was stopped. Instead, austerity was imposed. The Obama stimulus was the only thing that helped the economy since the 2008 crash. After that, the only game in town was QE3, which was mainly a stimulus for the wealthy bankers, but it had some small trickle-down effect.

Second, nothing was done in 2009 or since about the structural deficiencies in the economy. Besides the endemic Republican policies of the previous 30 years, whose results of much-higher inequality depress wages and spending money among the people, computer and robotic automation and globalized free trade have caused the loss of many jobs for Americans. These problems just continue to erode American employment, and I can't see any answer to it except a return to socialism (or at least what right-wingers CALL socialism, meaning social or economic aid programs). Without it, people will have no money to spend, and the economy will continue to stagnate. Trickle-down, austerity, Reaganoid-blame-welfare economics has failed and is outdated. That is the policy that has "ended" as a viable answer to anything.