ProfD

I like the term @Michel Montvert uses...Demosocialist. It seems to work in Nordic countries. But, it also ties back to a homogeneous society. Capitalism and socialism can peacefully coexist. There will always be people who are more industrious and driven than others. They deserve to make as much money as they can generate. OTOH, there will always be people who need help in one way or another. Unfortunately, American capitalism was built on it's original sin and it has has been corrupted by greed. Then, the United States isn't homogenous either. A lot of moving parts in this country.

When welfare was established back in the 1930s, it wasn't intended for poverty maintenance. Initially, welfare provided assistance to widows and working class folks to ease the burden of providing for their families. Welfare didn't become a way of life or poverty maintenance until the 1960s. Another by-product of that watershed time period. Fewer job training programs and shipping jobs overseas insured that under-educated and unskilled people would have a harder time finding work. This reality also insures despair, poverty, crime and addiction. A powder keg of negative forces. There's a reason a college education is so expensive and folks are pushing back against free community colleges and trade/technical schools. Colleges and universities have become big business. They pay tenured professors a hefty salary. They pay football coaches millions of dollars. The American job market caters to certain people. There's a finite number of slots. Meanwhile, welfare has gone from a hand up to someone working for a better life to an ankle weight especially for those who either don't want more and/or who don't feel like doing better.

I wonder why White folks aren't complaining about their socioeconomic conditions instead of trying to overturn elections and worrying non-white folks stealing their stolen country. The system is designed to keep the poor, disenfranchised and marginalized separate. If all of these folks realized they shared similar interests and struggles and united, they could be a major force. Instead, the majority of poor and/or disenfranchised White people will gladly accept their station in life because they're still better off than non-whites. A homeless white person could clean up tonight and have a job, food, clothing and shelter in less than 72 hours. There was a video around here a couple months ago showing what it meant to be White in America. One unemployed White couple got a $100k line of credit. They told the bank about their situation and inability to pay the bill. Didn't matter to the bank. They were good for it. Meanwhile, a credit score of less than 750, an outstanding student loan and one jaywalking ticket will keep a Black couple bringing in $250k per year from being able to buy a condo because a bank won't give them a mortgage. Otherwise, I think it would be awesome if people united and started a movement to truly make America great...for the first time.

The 1960s was a watershed moment that forced the United States to deal with its disenfranchised folks. Civil rights for AfroAmericans. Equal rights for White women. Calm down rebellious White folks (sex, drugs and rock & roll, antiwar protestors, etc.). The strongest AfroAmerican voices were assassinated. We haven't had a voice like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in over 50 years now. Voting rights and affirmative action were supposed to be some kind of panacea providing AfroAmericans with equal representation politically and quotas in the education and job markets. During the 1970s, AfroAmerican communities were flooded with heroin. Meanwhile, many of those former hippies only had to cut their hair and put on casual clothes and they were absorbed into affordable higher education and well paying jobs. During the 1980s, POTUS Ronald Reagan created opportunities that provided White folks with a windfall of cash. AfroAmerican communities were flooded with more drugs in the form of crack cocaine. During the 1990s, POTUS Bill Clinton stamped mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines for drug offenses disproportionately affecting AfroAmericans. The prison industrial complex sprawled into big business. America definitely looks different than it did back in the 1960s. The middle class of America has been expanded and anesthetized with gross consumerism. Yet, racism and socioeconomic problems remain unchanged. Now, Americans are being pitted against each other....Folks on the Right feel their sense of entitlement is being infringed upon. Folks on the Left believe a few handouts and benign neglect will make the real problems disappear. Overall, under the system of racism white supremacy, it's just a different generation of folks executing the same old plays. The promissory note of Dr. King's dream is still a bad check for many folks.

Africa has always been rich from human capital (slave trade) to natural resources including diamonds, gold, oil, natural gas, uranium, platinum, copper, cobalt, iron, bauxite and cocoa beans just to name a few things. As a result, other countries waltz into and out of Africa taking whatever they want and leaving the African people with proverbial crumbs. Sure, a handful of Africans become wealthy in the process but overall, the entire continent of Africa has been carved up by outsiders. Unfortunately, for a thousand years and counting, Africans haven't been overly interested in closing its borders to foreigners.

As I wrote in another thread, living in the melting pot (multicultural) that is the Unites States is a blessing and a curse. The US offers *freedoms* and access to opportunities that may not exist in other countries. But, the US still has its warts. Homogenous countries like China have operated the same way for thousands of years. The people living in those countries already know the deal from the time they were born. While millions of Chinese people have left to seek better lives in other countries around the world, the population of China hasn't dipped below 1 billion people.

@Cynique, in that thought process we are conjoined my sista. I'm not absent from these discussions due to ignorance or as an agnostic. I know religion is a deeper rabbit hole than politics. Telling kids there is no Santa Claus is relatively easy and/or they grow out it. But, when it comes to the sky fairy and questioning folks about their faith...some are ready to cut and shoot for their beliefs.

It already exists...here in America we call it welfare. While welfare provides for basic needs, it does not replace or repair a broken home.

As mentioned in another thread, there are countries on the planet that are pretty much utopian. Those countries have something in common...homogenous. While there may be minorities living there, they know the deal. IMO, the United States as a melting pot is a blessing and a curse because it has failed to deal with its original sin. Despite its flaws, millions of people thrived and survived in the imperfect union that is the United States. It's not impossible. But, there's no reason for it to be hard either. Unfortunately, the system of racism white supremacy and human greed makes life in the United States less utopian. The amount of money the US prints, er, spends on defense and aborted space missions and other irrelevant sh8t could improve life for millions of people.

Bingo. That's precisely why socialism and capitalism work so well together in other *developed* countries. The melting pot that is the United States is far more complex in its approach to all -isms (racism, socialism, capitalism).

IMO, there's no baby genocide among Black folks. In fact, many Black women keep babies they cannot afford fo raise financially. There's a connection to poverty as well. Black women do not routinely use abortion as a form of birth control.

History shows the American gov't under POTUS George W. Bush under the guidance of VP Dick Cheney and Karl Rove started the war on terror that led to the killing of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans over almost a 20 year period. The current administration just closed up the the bank, er, tent that provided a huge windfall of cash and made a few people very wealthy.

Let me guess....Republican Bureau of Investigation (RBI). The RBI would be a petty azz agency and bring back COINTELPRO ultimately setting Black folks back 100 years.

The dismount wasn't perfect but the US is no longer occupying Afghanistan. The war on terror killed thousands of people.

No. I'm not minimizing rape. My point is that statistics can be manipulated for effect.

I read the article. Rapes did go up in that area a whopping 236% but numerically it is from 11 to 37. On average, there are over 460,000 victims of rape and sexual assault each year in the United States. Do the math.

Funny enough, it's stated that marriage should not be entered into unadvisedly or lightly.... But, the reality is that 1) most folks are just good enough and 2) they aren't wealthy so in divorce the fall is soft.

I can't vouch for what the situation is nowadays, however. Right. Nothing has changed when it comes to both men and women both looking for the complete package in another person. It's a unicorn that does not exist. I believe the best human beings can do is rely on the laws of mutual attraction and build from there. 8 billion people on the planet and counting tells me it still works that way.

You are 100% correct. Unfortunately, most people do not have the will, strength or desire to dismantle the system.

That's the balancing act they've been playing with the American people for a long time now. The plutocrats allow us to have just enough to shut up and go take a nap or sat down somewhere. But, you're right, when folks don't feel like they're getting enough and/or want more than the greedy are willing to share...sh8t is definitely going sideways. 2024 could be a sign of the times but I'm thinking the plutocrats will be able to keep up their high wire act for a longer period of time.

I'm surprised you've made it this far in life with that attitude. Good luck bro.

Another way of taking matters into one's own hands is to start a software company. Become an independent contractor. Sell services instead of labor. No need to work directly for a racist.

@Pioneer1, you're right...the whole approach to taxation and spending and printing money at will and our economic system is a house of cards. Former POTUS George W. Bush admitted it back around 2007. The house of cards started to implode right before former POTUS Obama took office. The US could have a flat tax across the board. I guess that would be too boring. So, instead, the fed wants to play with interest rates and hedge bets against the US dollar and market forces. Millions of American jobs have been outsourced. Bring that work back home. Also, establish a new version of POTUS Franklin Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps. Pay Americans a healthy wage. No need to over tax Americans. As super consumers, they'll spend the money faster than they can make it. Economy would boom. Unfortunately, a handful of greedy azz people want to control 98% of the wealth in this country.

I keep hearing age is just a number. I'm starting to believe it considering the goofy sh8t people do. I wonder how low AARP will drop the age requirement in order to increase their membership and billion dollar revenue. I found a hilarious line that AARP mainly appeals to people who love discounts.

Must be a warped form of Fantasy Island the n8gglet edition: Garbage TV shows with zero nutritional value in terms of intellect provide another form of empty entertainment for people who don't get high and/or drunk. Men and women both talk a lotta sh8t about what they wouldn't do until they're approached with an Indecent Proposal: I'm not surprised by what folks will do when the price is right.