The End of Socialism?

[David Horn]

(11-29-2017, 03:15 PM)rds Wrote: I think socialism is alive, well and hidden at the moment.  Technological changes coming down the pike are going to require a whole lot of socialism, or roughly 7 out of 8 human beings need to be disposed of.  It's anyone's guess how this is going to play out.  We know where the 1% and their stooges stand on the issue, but I'm guessing that as the 7 out of 8 start to realize their time is short, they'll object in no uncertain terms.  This will start to really play out in the next decade amidst the crisis, and I expect it will be the chief topic during the whole saeculum.

For reasons that make no sense to me, but seem to make perfect sense to the vast majority, socialism is considered beyond the pale.  Assuming you are right, and something will be mandatory in the not-too-distant-future, how do we square that circle?

There is a small but influential movement building in the shadows to develop a Social Investment Fund.  Details are sketchy, since this can be created and operate in myriad fashions, but the gist is this:

• Create a fund with the goal of owning one third to one half of all US stocks
  
• Create a funding stream, which can be tax levies, the capital expansion from the Federal Reserve or some other source that is acceptable
  
• Use the funding to buy stocks, particularly during economic downturns when they are cheaper
  
• Reinvest profits until a threshold is a achieved, while continuing to expand the fund's size through the normal funding route
  
• Begin to disperse profits for social good.  Dispersal can be direct to all citizens and legal residents or indirect by funding the social safety net, for example.
  

Yes, this is socialism in capitalist clothing, but it's been successful in Norway and Alaska, so it should be possible nationwide.

[pbrower2a]

(11-29-2017, 03:15 PM)rds Wrote: I think socialism is alive, well and hidden at the moment.  Technological changes coming down the pike are going to require a whole lot of socialism, or roughly 7 out of 8 human beings need to be disposed of.  It's anyone's guess how this is going to play out.  We know where the 1% and their stooges stand on the issue, but I'm guessing that as the 7 out of 8 start to realize their time is short, they'll object in no uncertain terms.  This will start to really play out in the next decade amidst the crisis, and I expect it will be the chief topic during the whole seculum.

The solution for the economic elites is to further concentrate and monopolize business and to dismantle the welfare state.  it would replace welfare with debt-bondage that puts even more people at a competitive disadvantage in dealings with the elites. Basically that  is a new feudalism, all the more horrid than that of the middle agers because of the technologies of repression and retribution.

Economic elites have much to fear when workers have nothing but the technological equivalent of the time of their chains.