Socialism vs Capitalism containment thread

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

The National Debt, Tax Farming and Patent Monopolies
Dean Baker
December 22, 2023

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) It increasingly looks like the Fed and the Biden administration have nailed the notoriously difficult soft landing, with inflation rapidly falling towards the Fed’s 2.0 percent target and the unemployment rate still under 4.0 percent. All the signs are that the economy will continue to grow and create jobs at a healthy pace in 2024 and that inflation will remain moderate for the foreseeable future.

With near-term economic prospects looking pretty damn good, we can be sure that the deficit hawks will soon be coming out of the woodwork. We can count on being regaled with talk of unprecedented levels of debt and deficits. We will hear of the need for cutting Social Security and Medicare, or cries for the creation of another deficit commission, which is the backdoor way of cutting Social Security and Medicare.

Since we all know what’s coming, we should arm ourselves with knowledge of tax farming. You’re probably wondering what tax farming is, and what it has to do with our current debt and deficit situation. In an odd way, it can tell us a great deal about how we should think about our deficits and especially our debt.

Tax farming was the practice of selling off the right to collect a specific tax. It was a common practice in pre-revolutionary France and in many other countries in prior centuries. The idea was that the government set a tax, say a customs duty on the goods that came through a specific port, and then sold off the right to collect the tax to a specific person. This gave the government an immediate infusion of cash, although it meant that it did not have access to the future revenue from the tax.

We actually still have similar practices. For example, back in 2008, Chicao’s then mayor, Richard M. Daley, sold off the right to collect revenue from city parking meters for the next 75 years for $1.16 billion. This gave Daley money to pay the bills in 2008 but cut off a stream of revenue to the city for the next seven and a half decades.

Read more here: https://www.eurasiareview.com/22122023 ... analysis/

caltrek: Why does this belong in this thread?

Well, tax farming is generally favored, or at least tolerated, by pro-business conservatives because of the opportunity for private sector profit.

Retaining control of revenue generating mechanisms to fund government is more socialistic in nature.

[wjfox]

[raklian]

Yikes.

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

From Argentina to the United States, Libertarians Come to Destroy the Common Good
by Thom Hartmann
January 30, 2024

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) Please name one country, anywhere in the world, any time in the last 7000 years, where libertarianism has succeeded and produced general peace and prosperity? There literally is none. Nowhere. Not a single one. It has never happened. Ever.

Usually it’s Republican politicians bragging that they’re “more libertarian than conservative” but this time it’s a former Democrat, Bobby Kennedy Jr., who’s reportedly thinking of running for president on the Libertarian Party ticket.

This bizarre experiment of libertarianism — now officially a political party with ballot access in all 50 states — has been promoted by the billionaire class ever since World War II. And it’s literally killing some of us, along with threatening our democratic republic.

Reporter Mark Ames documents how, back in the 1940s, a real estate lobbying group came up with the idea of creating a new political party to justify deregulating the real estate and finance industries so they could make more money.

This new “Libertarian Party” would give an ideological and political cover to their goal of becoming government-free, and they developed an elaborate pretense of governing philosophy around it.

Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/f ... mon-good

caltrek's comments: One of the more startling revelations of the uncited portion of the article is that Ayn Rand admired a psychopath who kidnapped, held for ransom and then killed the daughter of a banker.

[wjfox]

libertarianism

The most selfish ideology on earth.

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[firestar464]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/compani ... r-BB1itgEC

Are We Transitioning From Capitalism to Silicon Serfdom?