why are we all so interested in america? simple: you spend more on your military than the rest of the world COMBINED and are twitching to prove it.

therefore, ALL people on this planet have a vested interest in america's actions. NOTE: i would like to make a very important distinction between the american people, vs. her military/corporate ruling elite.

so lets play a GAME OF MAKE THAT CONNECTION:
what, if any, sequence or link can we build between the following statements? remember to ask: WHO TRULY BENEFITS?

1)america has the highest per capita incarceration rate of the free world.

2)america has the highest per capita hard-drug use and addiction rate of the free world.

3)america has a growing population of starvation-poor, along with a massive majority of working poor chained to wage slavery.

4)GATT, NAFTA, FTAA.

5)the renewed rise of the right in american politics.

6)a stumbling economy.

7)renewed importance on security and military (pentagon).

8)restriction of basic civil liberties due to war-time fearmongering. increased protectionism and isolationism.

9)increased world polarization into two opposed camps, with violence begetting violence at every opportunity.

10)war.

shiloj!

You got off at the wrong floor. Understandable, as you�re new here.

The Conspiracy community is on the floor right above this community.

The community for Bad Ideas you will find if you continue down to the cellar...

If you want to change the world, start with the world inside your head!

FoxLeonard

quote:

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Originally posted by FoxLeonard:
shiloj!

If you want to change the world, start with the world inside your head!

FoxLeonard

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Does that mean we each create our own reality?

quote:

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Originally posted by MR END:
Does that mean we each create our own reality?

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Among other things, yes.

In this context it hints at the (sad) fact that shiloj�s perception of (global) political reality is so distorted that her/his post is a conspiranoid poem.

This might not be entirely her/his own fault, as disinformation is easier accessed than information. But if s/he wants to make the world a better place, s/he is forced to change her/his way to pick up and analyze information.

Commitment and a goal is fine. But to reach that goal you also have to be able to read the maps (plural) and compare them to reality.

FoxLeonard

[This message has been edited by FoxLeonard (edited 11-16-2002).]

nice post shiloj, the poor ppl in the usa r gettin poorer and the rich r gettin richer, and all the wars and murders the govt commit only benefit the top classes not the ppl.

The poor are not getting poorer. This is a lie. Income as a whole is increasing, but it is not the same for all groups, and why should it be? The rich have more capital and therefore invest more. The more you invest, the greater return.

Your comment on war is just ignorant. It is backed by nothing as it doesn't prove how it helps the rich or how the percieved "benefits" are denied to the poor.

nukechild (hopefully your name remains purely imaginative.)

it is fairly simple to reason how wars benefit the upper classes.

(yes, CLASSES...you are aware that you have several well-defined and distinct social/economic classes in america? and that, true to the fascist models on which corporate structure is based, america too is governed by an oligarchy of elite from which power and control flows downward?
america, the modern feudal state. class oppression and class warfare: never in america, where all are equal? but maybe that is another post.)

war and the upper classes. the elites follow adam smith's "vile maxim": all for ourselves and nothing for others.

1) WAR and the FEAR of war convince TAXPAYERS (non-elite) that more of their money should be funneled from government into advanced industries, manufacturing contracts, r&d, high technology, and increasingly, biology-based industry and commerce.

this tax money, often pushed through the pentagon, is in effect A GOVERNMENT SUBSIDY FOR INDUSTRY. it allows for companies to overproduce (usually bad in a free market) while guranteeing them they will always have a buyer, the US government...or more accuratley, the working poor taxpayer. this has been occuring for a century: it is government stimulus of private enterprise through war.

WHO BENEFITS? single mothers? plumbers? students? the working poor? uh, no. the RULING CLASS BENEFITS through OWNERSHIP, at the expense of the lower classes. war is, essentially, a means of transferring wealth from the low many to the high few.

2)the uber-rich elite and their families are not shipped off as frontline canon fodder. no, that would be youth, especially marginalized youth from third-world-in-america neighbourhoods with little or no hope or opportunity.

3)through fear and intimidation, war helps bring a restriction of civil liberties and social awareness. once again, it is not the ELITE who experience this, it is the people most in need of thier civil liberties and social justice.

4)war turns people's attention from the shit at home: falling standards of living, increased living costs, shitty education (for those that cannot afford better), failing pensions, increased pollution, loss of quality jobs as corporations sleaze over to the cheapest international labour; medieval healthcare.
it also justifies MORE SERVICE CUTS under the banner of "tightening up" for national security.

5)war stifles debate and criticism on policy; it controls, it directs from top to bottom. and who, nukechild, does it direct FOR? ironically, probably not you.

quote:

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Originally posted by shiloj:
nukechild (hopefully your name remains purely imaginative.)

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And let us hope that yours too is "purely imaginative". Shiloh was the scene of one of the worst slaughters in the American Civil War.

Yes, I did notice the j vice h; the point remains.

Nox

Investment benefits all workers.

As for the rest, they can work or starve.

Their choice.

Factories require workers and from a Keynesian poiint of view, government spending helps to keep demand up with supply and prevent unemployment.

America is not an oligarchy. It is almost a plurality and this can be seen in the PAC's, political action committees. There are numerous conflicting viewpoints and incentives in congress and most PAC's are formed out of collectives of people who want to combine thier money so the voices can be heard.

I wrote this in a post before, but although war can give a boost to the economy via GDP, governmet spending, it would be an equally simmilar mentality to build boats laden with goods, drive them out into the ocean, and sink them. War does not generate wealth.

Where is the political process in "theory." You are implying that wars will be fought constantly when we know for a fact that ending Vietnam was part of a Presidential platform and it has been hell to get the war on Iraq authorized.

Technology is a subsidy yes, but given our current technology, we do not need a massive military because we have a small but effective one. Thousands of tanks and hundreds of warships and airplanes are not being produced.

Number four is just sad. If you wanted everything to get better, privatize it. The government would tax you less, in theory, and you would recieve a bettter service that you as a buyer have more control over. Why is it bad that corporations move overseas? The use area economies to produce their product at an advantage and can then sell it to the world at a reduced cost. It seems to be a blanket attack on corporations even though it is because of them that most everything around you is produced and many people have a job.

Your whole post has a class warfare slant to it that rightfully discredits all you say.

I like the attack on my name, really proves a point; dickless.