Politics, Society etc.

[Nailec]

i need your voice once more.

what about the belief that it is a good thing to buy stuff for more money ( to make sure it wasnt made by children) or to buy fair trade products?


i myself am a student and i dont see much sense in buying fair trade stuff because i have not much on the bank. for example, if i would buy fair trade coffee, that would only mean that i cant afford some other product which probablly is bad for another producer.

i hope u know what i mean and can give me some input

[alvarezbassist17]

Umm for the most part it seems like your logic is pretty sound.  I dunno, if you're sure about the integrity of the company and all that and it's important to you, I say go for it.  But what you were saying about having to spend less on another product is also very true, it mostly just comes down to is if the amount you think it will actually help is worth paying X amount extra. 

I dunno if i answered your question, so I'll wax on about the topic a little bit more.  I am personally not against child labor if it is voluntary, in that no one is threatening them with violence to work for them, they're not slaves.  But if the fact that they have to work in order to sustain themselves and possibly their families is a factor of poverty, then I think there are worse consequences if you take away a source of income from an impoverished family.  That income could mean their starvation, which I personally would regard as more torturous than working in a factory or what have you.  That's not to say at all that I'm against people paying more than the bare minimum or donating money or going to help these children, I just think it's crap to say that earning an income and supporting yourself is worse than starvation.  But think about it, the first factories built in industrialized society were shit, probably worse than the ones in these poor countries because of the technology, but you can't just all of a sudden put up a Japan or a Germany or whatever other modernized economy.  The capital investment needs to start from the ground up, and the solution to the problem is as close to completely unfettered trade as is politically possible so that countries can get access to the wonderful technology around the world.  So by that token, the ideologue in me says you should use the difference in price to support organizations that support global free trade.  But make sure it's actual free trade, for a true free trade policy is just two words: free trade.

freetradefreetradefreetrade

[alvarezbassist17]

So, yesterday was a sad day.  Peter Schiff lost the Republican Primary in Connecticut to the wife of Vince McMahon, who set a record for spending in Connecticut at $25 million of her own money, and she hasn't even spent on the general election yet.  So that coupled with a complete media blackout (it was a 3-way race and the only media to ever mention anyone but the other 2 candidates were the local newspapers) made it pretty expected that he wasn't going to take the race, but he did get 23%, which is great for a self-financed non-billionaire.

On that note, I thought I'd post this video called "Why The Meltdown Should Have Surprised No One" by Mr. Schiff from last year.  It's kind of talking about the whole macroeconomic picture of the globe since the 1990s with an emphasis on United States' policies.  It's so fucking good, and he doesn't have any notes at all, he just says this all from his head.  The amount of knowledge he's got up in his dome is just astounding.  Definitely check it out.

Why the Meltdown Should Have Surprised No One | Peter Schiff

[Necrocetaceanbeastiality]

Vince McMahon? General Manager of the WWE?

[alvarezbassist17]

Yessir.  Deep pockets if I've ever heard of them.  I followed the entire race, his scumbag wife only did one debate the entire time with the most cookie-cutter, political responses you could possibly give and just let her money and spokespeople do the talking for her for the rest of the race between the other two candidates, when even with the complete blackout, he was only 6% under the next guy..  Meanwhile, Schiff busted his fucking ass, raised around $2.5 million from individual people donating from around the country (myself included), and the media still would only talk about it like it was a 2-way race.  Not that I should've expected anything different, it's just truly disgusting that we as a country finally had a chance to send someone that would make a difference and once again, all people cared about was wealth measured in paper dollars.

[Necrocetaceanbeastiality]

People vote based on hype, not policies. Just look at who our fucking president is. It's disgusting.

[E-Money]

Im calling on Republicans to take back the House, picking up 46 seats... Fuck, at leas I hope they do!  At least they couldn't pass Cap and Tax then.  Global Warming is a joke! 

[one weak]

That'd be great! I love creationism and abstinence only education! And build that dagnabit wall to keep them mexicans outta our country. They tuuuk errr jurrbs!!!

Bit of a stretch, I know, but please....

[oldgentlovecraft]

That'd be great! I love creationism and abstinence only education! And build that dagnabit wall to keep them mexicans outta our country. They tuuuk errr jurrbs!!!

Bit of a stretch, I know, but please....

Lol.

[alvarezbassist17]

That'd be great! I love creationism and abstinence only education! And build that dagnabit wall to keep them mexicans outta our country. They tuuuk errr jurrbs!!!

Bit of a stretch, I know, but please....

Yeah, I too am concerned that if we just elect Republicans they might start acting just like liberals, a la George Bush et al.  I just don't want them to come in talking all free market, private property, etc but then espousing those typical left-wing, evangelical values and then ruining the free market/capitalism name.

I still couldn't be more stoked on Ron Paul, that fucking guy is the shit.  Not to mention he's probably more devout of a Christian than most of these social justice Republican types, and he doesn't espouse any of those "they took our jarbs" or creationism shits. I'd also argue he's one of peaceful Islam's greatest allies as opposed to many Republicans.

[wheresmysnare]

Controlling a country as big as the U.S efficiently is impossible, it's a case of muddling through, trial and error, learning from past mistakes. Present political parties are made scape goats without fail, the next presidential canditates on the converibelt will point out the mistakes of the last in order to get into power. This endless cycle will continue but in my opinion it's a perfectly natural evolution.

The running of the country will gradually improve over time but there will always be growing challenges, history is already showing this. Each generation will discuss the pressing matters that are relevant to their place in this jigsaw, we now fret about banking institutions and wars, all of this is nothing new. Probably the most individual issues of our generation is the threat of global terrorism, that and the drying up of energy resources, both of which governments world wide are trying to get a handle on, it will be a messy process, that is for certain.

[lostpilot]

I hate it how you're all into politics and economy basically.
Metaphysics RULEZ

[Variable]

That'd be great! I love creationism and abstinence only education! And build that dagnabit wall to keep them mexicans outta our country. They tuuuk errr jurrbs!!!

Bit of a stretch, I know, but please....

Yeah, I too am concerned that if we just elect Republicans they might start acting just like liberals, a la George Bush et al.  I just don't want them to come in talking all free market, private property, etc but then espousing those typical left-wing, evangelical values and then ruining the free market/capitalism name.

I still couldn't be more stoked on Ron Paul, that fucking guy is the shit.  Not to mention he's probably more devout of a Christian than most of these social justice Republican types, and he doesn't espouse any of those "they took our jarbs" or creationism shits. I'd also argue he's one of peaceful Islam's greatest allies as opposed to many Republicans.

True story.  That and the rent is too dam high

[alvarezbassist17]

Picture STOLEN!

[Variable]

That pic belongs to the people as far as I'm concerned

[alvarezbassist17]

That's very gracious of you. Everyone deserves to know how high the rent is/how to have an AMAZING beard.

[Nailec]

a nice definition of communism i found. i just want to show some of you guys, that not every commie out there loves stalin and mao and seeks to tax the shit out of you.

i imaged that someone like alvarez could sit down at a table with a communist as described below, and then tell him, why his assumptions of capital are perverted by false capitalism.

Communism, anti-German criticism and Israel
An interview with Stephan Grigat by Jens Misera
(First published in ,,Israel Nachrichten", the German daily newspaper in Tel Aviv in 2004; first published
in English at http://info.interactivist.net in 2005)

Jens Misera: You are a member of the Viennese group "Café Critique", a pool of anti-German communists.
What is your definition of communism?

Stephan Grigat: Communism is a concept which cannot be defined in terms of the established social
sciences. Strictly speaking, communism is nothing more than the movement of materialistic criticism. And
communists, who detest propaganda, should refuse to deliver too detailed descriptions of a possible
communist society. Not because one could not imagine a society beyond the utilization imperative of
capital and the domination imperative of the state, but rather because of the simple reason that people
should talk about and criticise the existing reality in the first place. People who are only interested in how
the bananas will come to Europe and who will remove the dirt from the streets in communism – questions
which appear to be rather strange, by the way, in view of the fact that approximately two thirds of humanity
live in misery – those people don't find fault with the existing system anyway. But criticizing the existing
also basically implies, how it should be instead: Communism is not about a dictatorship of people over
people, but rather about a dictatorship of the will and the wishes of people over the objective-material
conditions of their existence. Therefore, materialistic criticism is about creating social conditions, which
enable people for the first time, to plan their lives self-confidently, that is, beyond the utilization imperative
and domination imperative of state and capital. This is not paradise on earth, where there are no problems
and contradictions any more, but a society established according to the requirements of reason, where no
one, anywhere in the world, must starve because he does not have enough means. Communism, in this
sense, has nothing to do with either traditional marxism nor with alternative renunciation ideologies. It is
neither about an equal distribution of misery, nor about consumption renunciation. "Luxury for everybody"
is much closer to Marx's intentions. Communist criticism does not want to create pre-bourgeois
circumstances, neither concerning productivity (with all necessary criticism of a technology developed
under the capital relation), nor concerning the emancipation of the individual from the chains of archaic
communities, which had begun just then. Communist criticism does not accuse capitalism of creating
luxury goods, but rather that such things are withheld from most people, although that would be not
necessary. Withheld not through the evil will of some individuals or the conscious acting of a class
(although this may play a role), but rather through the logic of a system, that is not oriented towards
people's needs, but towards the realization of capital. Communist criticism does not accuse bourgeois
societies of creating certain freedom rights and individual rights, but rather points out that a society that
requires such rights remains a violent society. We do not argue against the fact that the bourgeois citizen is
promised the pursuit of happiness (Glücksversprechen), but rather try to point out its ideological essence
and to clarify that this promise actually cannot be kept in a bourgeois society.

[alvarezbassist17]

Yeah, i'll respond to that when i get a bit more free time for sho.

So who's gotten their vote on today? I was literally the first person at my polling place, i felt wicked cool

[bright lights, big city]

i did. there was actually a line this morning when i went. froze my ass off.

[E-Money]

Voted this morning.  I just hope Boxer goes down. I hate that bitch.  Probably not happening tho.