Yeah you'd think that with the recent "collapse of capitalism" that this would be a time for socialism to get revitalized but that doesn't seem to be the case. It seems that European socialist have reached a point where they aren't sure of socialism's direction. Basically I think we will see European gov'ts having a more targeted welfare system to adapt to their deficit situations and changing demographics. Their saftey nets will have to be better prioritized.
losing. and only because these things are cyclic. their kids are becoming more disillusioned with the system they have, just like america's kids are becoming more disillusioned with this system. it happens.
The problem is that many of those ‘left wing’ parties moved to the right, so that they became in the mind of many not that dissimilar to right wing parties. For example look at ‘New Labour’ took over and embraced right wing polices and the philosophy of the free market, and haemorrhaged membership it tied itself to a right wing neo-con foreign policy and lost even more of its membership. I believe that labour party membership is at its lowest point since its founding a 109 years ago. I’ve meet many ex-labour activist that just wouldn’t go out to canvass in support of ‘new labour’. As to the current financial crisis supposedly helping ‘left wing’ parties well in Britain, many on the left blame Brown for helping bringing it about with his ‘light touch’ regulation and sycophantic approach to the city. “No one on this side of the Atlantic – arguably no one on earth except Alan Greenspan - bears as much responsibility for this crisis as Gordon Brown” George Monbiot http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2009/09/08/the-great-cop-out/ Oh Brown turned back to Keynes when the crash came but then so did right wing government, the free market model just didn’t have a solution (besides letting everything fall into the abyss).
Socialism is bullshit, would rather see the world in dire straits than see a socialist try and fix it. After all, the recession is calming.
Socialism doesn't work. It sounds nice on paper, but that's as far as I would go. Sometimes the nicest ideas simply don't function because of structural limitations (and/or human nature). The economy? It's improving, and apparently Europe got it right. They refused to engage in any major bail-out... they seem to be the ones doing better than the US right now.
Oh you mean all those trillions of euros pumped into the European economy by the likes of France, Germany and Britain didn’t happen? Can you please try and do a bit of research otherwise you’ll just continue to post complete rubbish. Banking bail-out: France unveils €360bn package http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...ng-bail-out-France-unveils-360bn-package.html Germany and France lead €1 trillion European bailout http://business.timesonline.co.uk/t...ectors/banking_and_finance/article4937516.ece France: €360 billion to bail out the banks http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/oct2008/fran-o20.shtml And so on and so on Oh you should like the last one it’s from the World Socialist Web site “With minimal debate, the French National Assembly endorsed the government's €360 billion rescue plan for the banks, a massive transfer of public funds to the financial elite, by a majority of 224 to 23. It is part of a coordinated €2.7 trillion action by the governments of the euro zone (15 countries whose currency is the euro) and Britain.” * So what would you have done, let the whole system collapse?
*Nevermind. Won't argue with someone who uses strawmans and ad hominem attacks. What I posted is well informed. Europe has done a far less significant bail-out then what has been done in the US. Telling someone they post complete rubbish, even though they know more than you, is false. Learn how to argue like an adult in a civil manner. Either way, I'm done here.
But your statement still sounds like rubbish And maybe you do know more than me but maybe not - it just seems to me that to claim that 3 trillion Euros is an insignificant amount of money is been a bit disingenuous. Lets see one Euro is worth about one and a half dollars so one trillion Euros is about 1.5 trillion dollars so to you 4.5 trillion dollars is insignificant?
European socialism took a step forward on Sunday with good wins over the central right UMP party in the French regional elections. I hope it's a step in the right direction but a lot of the press are putting it down to a backlash against Sarkozy and disillusion with central government.
ive seen more and more budget cuts over the years. truth of the matter is, europe cant afford the socialism. they have a declining population and theres no way they have enough people to work in order to support those who dont. theres also a racist movement going on in europe and this obviously pulls in the right wingers, which leads to budget cuts, and liberalisation of the economy, and tax cuts.
socialism is not about supporting those who don't work it's about people working for the betterment of the society in which they live, rather than to benefit profiteers so, you see, there's no real socialism to worry about anywhere, okay?
Socialism does claim that in hard times we will work whether we like it or not. It's the selfishness clause that can be bothersome. We are selfish encourages to work by a system which justifies and blames itself for the Selfishness you are. How do we reconcile in History? Egoism makes no sense for justice of the lazy. But socialism determines that each one of us FINDS HIS OWN RELATION TO THE JUSTICE OF the WORLD.
yes, and capitalism claims that in hard times we are just plain fucked whether we like it or not . . .
Well the difference between social programs in the US and Europe is that Europe has more than just the handful of them. The US welfare state is like a skinny, crack-addicted hooker. Europeans can scale back on some of their programs without eliminating the most vital of them. In America, we get a recession and you get an insane conservative movement that wants to dismantle our entire welfare state. Its a joke. European socialism will be fine. Like anything else, it'll ebb and flow. In hard times where tax money is hard to come by, they'll have to scale back on some of it. It's just logic and a necessity, not a nail in the coffin situation. That's like saying the recession killed capitalism. It didn't. The free market just stumbled. Also, free markets and social democracy aren't mutually exclusive. Hell, social democracy sort of needs capitalism to function, in the literal sense (because social democracy is just a fuckload of social programs with a little extra socialism thrown on top, aint it??)