Comments on: Are the bailouts socialist?

By: Ten Bears

Ten Bears — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:41:03 +0000

State Ownership of the corporate - the wedding of Corporation and State, as Mussolini put it - is decidedly not socialist.

It is Fascism.

‘yer either wit ’s, ‘er agin ’s

By: John Couzin

John Couzin — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 09:52:43 +0000

State ownership and socialism is a bit like black and white, completely different.

By: Sue

Sue — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 05:03:21 +0000

I’m with Wood. The converse situation of Cuba allowing their citizens to have limited market gardens to support their beleaguered socialist existence does not constitute, per se, capitalism.

Sadly, however, Bob is right in that Americans’ automatic response to any function performed by the state is to characterize it as a step down the road to socialism. So even if banks are temporarily nationalized, recapitalized by sovereign force, and then sold back into the market, some (perhaps many) Americans will consider this an act of “socialism.”

By: Bob Morris

Bob Morris — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:36:34 +0000

My point, probably clumsily made, was that the entire US system of capitalism has been derailed these past few months, no one really has a clue what’s coming next, and for conservative US economists to accept as needed what they see as a socialist takeover is utterly outside what anyone ever thought possible.

Also, I’m probably using “socialism” in the US sense of the word, which basically means the government replaces private enterprise in running certain essential institutions. This is not what socialism means in the UK, or anyplace else where there are actual functioning socialist parties and the population generally understands what socialism is.

By: Wood

Wood — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:07:22 +0000

I cannot see how, in principle, doing anything to prop up a capitalist institution and keep capitalism running smoothly can be considered socialist. That’s nuts, that is.

By: DJ

DJ — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:09:06 +0000

Unfortunately the feds have yet to deem necessary controlling their own impulses to spend. Sure there are other contributing factors, but the major barrier to freeing up the credit freeze can be summed up in three words: inflation, inflation, inflation.