I agreee that someone who doesn't drive safely shouldn't be allowed on the road, But i cannot control that, since they give licences here to even the blind.Heck the traffic/police authorities dont know how to drive safely either. They set a HORRIBLE example for the residents of NYC every day. So with this said, i rather get cut off by a guy driving an Oldsmobile or Nissan Maxima, rather than a Suburban or Expedition.

As far as your statement in regards to communism removes incentive. NOt necessarily true. Yes for Greedy Pricks it does, but for people that care about society in general it doesn't. So Capitalism is sooo great?? Tommy Hilfiger and Donna Karen really deserve all that luxury that they work so hard for, right?

Tell that to the 13 year old kids they exploit every FU#kin day in 3rd world countries across the globe. Most people that have gotten somewhere in life, has been by taking advantage of others. ALL the restaurants in NYC and other metropolitan areas are run by Mexican/Ecuadorian immigrants. Yeah they charge the customers 200 bux a head to eat there, but the exploited workers still only get 300 or 250 a week.

BTW, Communism in theory is supposed to be a Utopian way of life. Where we all share. What has been called Communism across the world, has not actually been communism, but instead dictatorships. So don't knock communism. If people could actually have common sense and not worry as much about themselves as they could about society. We would all live in a happier place. The problem is that everyone wants, what the others have.

Cambodia? , uh no. Cuba, sorry. The workers paradise of the Peoples Republic of China , I think not. The former Soviet Union? Nicaragua? North Korea? They shoot starving villagers for stealing food there. Help me here. My cousin escaped from behind the iron curtain in Romania in the 70's. He was unsuccessful twice. They broke his arms and legs. Wonderful utopian paradise. He was amazed that he could jog here w/o someone stopping him to demand papers.

Oh I forgot - it was the dictators that messed that up, not that the communist ideal is flawed. Seems like under those systems where everyone is equal, some of those equals get more rights than others. You are truly confused if you think that the communist model is friendlier to the average person than our Republic. If you think me wrong - read the Constitution and see that the government has power granted by the people, not your beloved other way around.

From those according to their ability to those according to their need. (Marx) The hitch is always in who gets to decide who 'needs' what. Kinda like your SUV arguments.

Refill your pipe and dream on man. There is no country with a better opportunities for achieving personal goals. Please spare me the evil America crapola. If you hate it that much, leave.

I thought I was done with this thread until you baited me back with the 'utopian dream of communism'. God save us.

And yes, those people do deserve the money they have worked for. Who are you to deny it of them? You might make a decent communist dictator yourself. The first thing you would have to do is purge all those who don't agree with you ( oops, that didn't work for those utopias either).

Maybe you should learn to read. I wrote "What has been called Communism across the world, has not actually been communism, but instead dictatorships."

So I cannot give you a good example of a successful Communist nation.

Maybe I should give you a good example of democracy,,hmmmm....Banning ALL smoking in NYC restaurants/clubs. Sounds like telling People what they need if you ask me.

BTW, the government has power granted by the people? Yeah, people with money and influence. The government would not give a flying F#ck about what you or me could want.

You say that those people deserve the money they have? You would make a great Capitalist Pig. All you have to do is set up a shop in Southeast Asia.

Maybe you should learn to read. I wrote "What has been called Communism across the world, has not actually been communism, but instead dictatorships."

So I cannot give you a good example of a successful Communist nation.

Maybe I should give you a good example of democracy,,hmmmm....Banning ALL smoking in NYC restaurants/clubs. Sounds like telling People what they need if you ask me.

Ours is the greatest Constitutional Republic in the world. It is patterned after the British and French systems. We are governed by law - not by mob vote.

And, I can read. I also know your 'communist utopia' is Bull Byproduct. I was trying to see if you could give me ONE positive example of it in nearly 100 years.

And yes, special interest money has corrupted our representatives.

And, I can read. I also know your 'communist utopia' is Bull Byproduct. I was trying to see if you could give me ONE positive example of it in nearly 100 years.

You would make a great Capitalist Pig. All you have to do is set up a shop in Southeast Asia.

Coming from an America-hater like yourself, I Thank you for the high compliment.

Oink.

Funny how when your argument fails the test of logic, you resort to name-calling. Must be sad to carry that much hate.

I am a Capitalist Pig.Coming from an America-hater like yourself, I Thank you for the high compliment.

 

Oink.

Funny how when your argument fails the test of logic, you resort to name-calling. Must be sad to carry that much hate.

So i was just imitating your phrase, but using different terms. Sorry if you are too slow to pick up on that.

Funny, cuz as i recall, my calling you a "Capitalist Pig" was in response to you calling me "You might make a decent communist dictator yourself. The first thing you would have to do is purge all those who don't agree with you"

So i was just imitating your phrase, but using different terms. Sorry if you are too slow to pick up on that.

Correct you are. And fair is fair. Except to be equal, you would have said 'You might make a good Capitalist Pig).

You shouldn't feel sorry (for me being slow ). I did read it that way, but my BP (blood pressure, not my stock ) rose too fast.

Sorry for my part.

I'll still check out any better system you give me as an example. The communist regimes (yes dictatorships) have been the worst exploiters of people (BY FAR) of any governments on the earth, and you romanticize that all it needs is a little tweaking? Perhaps they only need the right leader.

I thing we are far away from the topic.

any dictatorship is bad, be it communist, fascist or otherwise. There will never be a utopia because people are intrinsiclly greedy. Anyone read animal farm? where at the end the pigs ended up walking like their former human overlord?

Capitalism is intrinsically a good thing because it develops innovation. But that being said making the average worker see his workmates more than his family is simply not on - bring back the 40hr week. A teenagers time is worth more than AUS$5 an hour. I am sickened when teenagers receive less than half the pay of an adult when they do exactly the same work with exactly the same level of experience. Another thing that is a problem is tax loopholes. Last financial year the richest man in Australia paid all of $50 tax. A friend of mine's dad has a business, everytime they eat out, get petrol, go on a trip buy a car etc. its a tax write off. Also, an example of capitalism out of control is the Australian real estate market - house prices have doubled in the last 2.5 yrs, at that rate i'll never afford to buy anything. Capitalism is an efficient system that can work with a few socially responsible tweaks.

There is no country with a better opportunities for achieving personal goals.

All i am proposing is that due to the extra skill required to drive an SUV, van or pickup safely and responsibly (as evidenced by accident data) there should be an upgraded licence. What is so communist about that? Is it communist to have upgraded licences for truckies?

speaking of which in NSW yesterday an SUV rolled and killed 4 members of a family. It happened during an overtaking incident.

Ask yourself WHY WOULD THEY HAVE THESE REVOLUTIONS?

All the communist revolutions you mention (Stalin? - surely you jest)

OR

The American and French Revolutions? The French monarchs were every bit as oppressive as the czars.

All I asked is for an example of this communist utopia? Do you know of one Dave?

LOL I just got a warning for this. 

I seem to be the only one with a warning flag under my avatar area.

Curious to see if our progressive friends get flagged.

Oh well. If anyone cares I checked my tire pressures on the Corolla today, and they are all dead on 35psig.

French revolution came out nicely - eventually. You are forgetting the bloodthirsty rebels who were eventually put down by the imperialist Napolean. Only after that did they end up with democracy.

Socialist? OK. I won't get started on the glories of National Socialism here.

How off topic can we get?

nah, no warnings here. someone up there likes me.........

I meant to say, SOviet Union EXCEPT FOR Stalin. To say all communism is permanently tainted by Stalin is like saying all democracy is permanently tainted by Hitler.

While cambodia may be communist, when vietnam invaded cambodia (and brought communism with it) in 1979 they DID overthrow Pol Pot, an evil capitalist tyrant who purged 75% of his countries population for absurd reasons such as wearing glasses.

OFten things are better for the average person than they were.

having studied 20th century chinese history i can vouch that this is correct. While tianneman square was horrid, it was nothing like living under Chiang Kai-Shek before WWII.

Oh well.

In the capitalist country I live in, the number one health problem we face is due to an over-abundant supply of cheap food.

No doubt it was stolen from the bread baskets of the urban proletariat.

Keyword you used on Pol Pot: evil. Evil precludes the other ideologies. There is no reasoning with evil. No logic. Just evil.

capitalists like henry ford et. al. DID fund the nazi party. i beleive hitler banned the communists in the third reich.

An example of the supposed freedom of speech in OZ is where after 9/11 boxer Anthony Mundine was in an interview on the 'Today' show one morning, and since it was well publicised that he had converted to Islam a year previously, he was asked his thoughts on 9/11, and, well, he said what he really thought. They pulled the plug on that interview.

just like at a press conference in Russia after the 'kursk' submarine sank, a mother of one of the lost sailors was getting up one of the navy dudes when a policeman gave her a syringe to zonk her out.