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Reimagine Capitalism: Biden’s Gamble on Alternative Economic Theories

Bill Whittle says if we’re going to dip a toe into full socialism, he’d rather take a dive so that people can feel the devastating impact of this historically-failed system as rapidly as possible.

Reimagine Capitalism: Biden's Gamble on Alternative Economic Theories

Joe Biden’s new special assistant to the president for economic policy, Joelle Gamble, wants to reimagine capitalism to remove its inherent racism. The Princeton and UCLA grad worked as a principal with the Omyidar Network, a social change venture. Bill Whittle says if we’re going to dip a toe into full socialism, he’d rather take a dive so that people can feel the devastating impact of this historically-failed system as rapidly as possible.

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52 replies on “Reimagine Capitalism: Biden’s Gamble on Alternative Economic Theories”

Archaic Defintion of imagine: Plan, Scheme.
Archaic def. of scheme: a crafty or secret plan. Always examine the Left’s lexicon of Re-imagine: to scheme or plan a crafty secret AGAIN.

Gentlemen, I my humblest opinion, you are dancing around the REAL Problem. Stated simply, “Ignorance is NEVER an excuse for Stupidity.” Far FAR too many of of Americans are told a NIGHTMARE dressed up as a Fairytale where EVERYTHING ends up happily for EVERYONE.
Education no longer for the Majority of students from K-12 through Higher Learning teaches through INDOCTRINATION using Propaganda to manufacture Activists fo9r the myopic, delusional, corrupt and very destructive IDEOLOGY and the “fundamental transformation of America.” Critical Thin king using Logic and Reasoning are dying a slow and painful death. Common Sense a foundational component of an EXCEPTIONAL America is nearly dead.
BOTH Political Parties are to BLAME, the NEW Democratic Socialist Party, the Party of INSANITY, ANTI-Americanism and FRAUD and the RHINO WHIG Do NOTHING liters.
Until the citizenry of America come to realize the HELLISHNESS of “fundamental transformation” NOTHING, yes NOTHING is going to change.

The Democratic Socialist (OXYMORON) and the Gaggle known as The NEW Democratic Socialist (OXYMORON) with ever GREATER emphasis on MORON is now most definitely ventured into the IDIOT category and completely jumped over Neurotic into a deep state of Psychosis Party. The Party has finally lost their handle on SANITY. The Party of INSANITY is even becoming MORE INSANE in word and deed is the Party of INSANITY, ANTI-Americanism and FRAUD have brought obama’s comment in 2009 to be given its necessary place within American Society. That EVIL, yes EVIL Comment declared for the “fundamental transformation of America.” It was unfortunately IGNORED by NEARLY every America. To quote the Reverend Wright of infamy, “the chickens are coming home to roost.” With the “ILLEGITIMATE & Fraudulent president elect biden, “the fundamental transformation” is under way.

You can lay the first 3 years of the great depression at the feet of Woodrow Wilson and his amendments to the constitution along with the birth of the FED.

Although I agree that Wilson was horrible, but you cannot give the credit for the intolerable amendments to Wilson. (He may have had some hand in them before becoming President I do not know.) But the 16th and 17th amendments were ratified prior to his inauguration in 1913.

“the only cure for our problems is Christianity.”
What would this cure look like?
How do you see affecting a cure when there are people like me? What do you propose doing with people like me?

The Democrat party or Socialist for that matter do not exist if we just followed the Biblical command, Thou shalt not covet.

Capitalism is a tool. Capitalism is the implementation of delayed gratification, or accumulating resources/wealth to address a need/opportunity at a future time.
Capitalism exists in Free societies and also in Socialist societies. For example, Bill will happily give you details of the country that first launched satellites into orbit and the first humans into space. That was Capitalism at work in the good old USSR. Over time, Capitalism withers and dies in a Socialist society, because the person who makes the capital allocation decisions is using “other people’s money” and if they make a mistake they do not personally lose any capital. In contrast, Capitalism in Free societies thrives, because the capital owner watches their hard-earned wealth carefully and terminates bad decisions early and doubles down on good decisions; to assure return of AND on their capital in the long term.
Capitalism (the ideology) was coined or made popular by Karl Marx so that he could point to something in a Free society that the “we all built that” crowd would love to confiscate out of envy. Marx never understood the roots of the Capitalism tool was growing food in the summer months, storing away excess for winter consumption, and as seed crop the following year. When the Soviets killed the productive farmers (kulaks), starvation ensued. Capitalism thrives in Free societies but fails in socialist societies.
So when Ms. Joelle Gamble wants to “reimagine” capitalism, all she is saying is that the capital decision maker should not be the capital owner, but that it should be an infallible bureaucrat who decides how and under what rules capital may be allocated. In short, “reimagined capitalism” means “we will not confiscate your capital if you do with your capital as we tell you”.
YMMV

The idea that giving people socialism good and hard will convince them to change their ways makes rational sense, but if rational sense were so effective, nobody would even think of adopting socialism in the first place. Looking out there at the history of these socialist movements for the past century, can you think of a single case where once they took over and saw what a wasteland was the consequence of their policies that they ever reversed themselves?
Nope, they keep on doubling down until the whole society is destroyed. Look at Detroit for example. The whole city has been destroyed as thoroughly as if by nuclear weapons, and STILL nobody has been willing to change course there. Then the CHAZ turned out to be a hell hole did they protesters running that show do an about face? Nope, they descended even further into chaos, rape, murder, and filth.
Why is this? I think there are a couple of reasons. One is that if you are part of some leftist cabal of 100 “leaders” if you are the first guy to say “Hey, maybe we are doing this wrong.” you will be (metaphorically or physically) be the first one up against the wall and shot. Second, the people running these shit shows owe all of their money, social position, and political power to the party. Turning away from the nightmare means that they will no longer have a job. They will need to move out of their mansions. They will need to give up their fancy cars, fancy dinners, fancy staffs, and return to the status that their actual talents could justify which is at best handing out over-priced coffee to commuters for minimum wage. It should come as no surprise that historically a rebellion from within the revolutionary party when they see that they have wrought the whirlwind never happens.
But let’s say a miracle happens and all at once the whole leadership class is struck by a pang of regret and they decide that their whole movement has been wrong from the start. What would they know about what to do instead of what they have been doing? Has one of them ever read Locke? Or Jefferson? Or Madison? Do they know what makes a good judicial system? Do they know anybody who does (if they have not already killed such people or driven them from the country)? Do they know anybody who knows how to set up and run a business? Do they know anybody who understands how to write a better constitution? No. You might as well ask them to build an airplane. It’s a topic they know nothing about and they don’t know anybody who knows either. So even if they wanted to reform they would never in a million years know how to do any better.
At best what happens is after several generations maybe the whole thing collapses and maybe those people can get back to something better in the ashes of their civilization, with all of their problems and bad social patterns still in place.
All I can conclude is that we need to either politically fight to win against these guys or flee to somewhere we can be free from them. As distasteful as both of those are, those are the choices before us.

Sounds like Steven hasn’t really read what happened in 1877. Yes Rutherford B. Hayes’ election lead to the end of reconstruction reforms, the KKK rose, and brought segregation. Yet it set in place safeguards that Trump and the Freedom caucus understand and the Democrats deny. The 6th will be a long day.

I’ve been thinking on this and I can’t help but be reminded of a true story I told here a few months ago, which I’ll repeat to save anyone (especially me) searching for it:

My first job out of college was at what was then Western Electric, at their big manufacturing plant in Allentown PA. My dad was working there, too. Western was a few months away from the official breakup of the old AT&T so we were still part of that HUGE company. This was the summer of 1983. One day we had lunch together and he said something I’ll never forget:

“You know, this company is so big that we could be out of business right now and we wouldn’t know it for 20 years.”

Well, Western separated from AT&T and became AT&T Microelectronics. A few years later, losing money at the rate of one million dollars per day, we merged with Bell Labs and became Lucent. Then in 2003, Lucent died and it’s assets were bought up by other companies.

That was exactly 20 years after what my dad said that day in 1983. (I had left the company in 1990 for a small startup.)

So, regarding the idea of getting full socialism right now so people can see right away how bad it is, I wonder if that’s what would happen. Consider just how enormous the U.S. economy is and how much wealth already exists in this country. I’m not talking just money but all the value there is here. It’s, well, a lot.

Would we see the horror of socialism/communism right away? Or, like Western Electric, would we last for a long time – 50 years? 100? – surviving on what capitalism had produced and not knowing that we’re already “out of business?” How long would this giant frog boil before actually dying? After all that time, what would be left to save, or even be worth saving? Would people just gradually adapt to worse and worse so that when the end comes they won’t even notice?

I think I’d rather fight now than risk subjecting my grandchildren to that.

In the USSR socialism started in 1917 on the tail of the world war followed by a civil war, so the not so developed country was mostly in ruins. (The war communism was not run out of being evil, a big portion of the population was literally starving.)
And it lasted to 1990-ish. And could have gone much longer really, with the iron curtain in place. What lead to collapse was too much cultural exchange with the outside — so people were aware of the difference –, the oil crisis, and most importantly Gorbachev, who just didn’t feel like playing the tyrant. And certainly the cold war was an important factor in creating the difference mentioned.
In the USA it could potentially run much longer till all the internal resources are squandered. But to keep it together massive oppression is needed pretty soon, as the population moves in the other direction on the wealth and comfort. It will not be possible to tame them with shiny trinkets, even less showing 5 year plans with a much better world at the end.

Don’t know about a 20 year horizon, but Since 1913 till the last non pandemic budget, the US increased its socialist spending from 0% in 1913 to 62% in 2019. 62% if US federal budget devoted to confiscating money from one citizen and distributing to another. This 62% has a stealth name … “mandatory spending”. Nevertheless, 62% socialist we are.
How much more socialism before we collapse and change our border shingle to “North Venezuela”? If we get a Democrat sweep of potus+house+senate in 2021 … grab popcorn and watch the demolition derby of our constitution and country.

Right on Bill. “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” -Winston Churchill.

To me, the danger inherent in what Bill is suggesting, that we get socialism ‘as quickly and dramatically as possible’, is that it will most assuredly come with the imposition of a slave state including but not limited to concentration camps, show trials, and summary imprisonment and executions. You can see this impending imposition of tyranny ‘to set things right’ in everything the left says and does again including but not limited to shutting down freedom of speech, calling for reeducation of Trump voters, unleashing the cheap Brown shirt thugs of Antifa/BLM, etc. The left is ready to go all out on behalf of a socialist dictatorship and what concerns me is that asking for socialism ‘as quickly and dramatically as possible’ invites them to do it.

One factor worth considering, that is not common in the world: a fair portion of USA population is armed. Bill didn’t expand on that, but going in deep now has a chance to work out and lead to outright armed civil uprising, and then restoration of some sense.
The regular switch happens when the population has no realistic defense against the state and its goons. So be alert and make sure to start the uprising the first moment the power starts the weapon confiscation programs, after that it becomes increasingly hopeless.

This was my first thought as well. They would need to come for the guns first, as Stalin and Hitler; et. al. did previously.

Most of the talk has been around economic socialism. They paper it over with “roads, schools and fire departments” and talk about taxes for government programs to help people.

If we have a major tax increase but people don’t see any improvement by the next election, that’ll be all for that and people will get interested in “voting the bastards out” though whether we vote new ones in is another question.

I understand letting them have socialism full bore so they can see what it really is, but I’d rather die fighting it.
The reason people still voted for Biden after all his gaffs, his age, his health, his 40 year political job, his crookedness, etc. is because . . .
1)They didn’t see all that on the “news” or on Twitter or FB.
2)Their hatred for Trump was so great they would have voted for a blow up doll.
3)They weren’t directly affected by the looting and riots.
4)They can no longer think for themselves (drones) & have some sort of mental health disease.
5)Add more here ad nauseum.
So, would they learn from full-on socialism that smacks them in the face?
Doubt it. If they’re living off the govt. teat and merely have to do whatever they’re told it’ll be better than having to get a job and work (God forbid). Unless the govt. forces them to work like in China.
As the “payments” dry up and all the wealth has been stolen, they’ll despise the “working class” for not giving more of their earnings to them. Crime will increase, food becomes scarce and overpriced, and it’ll become like so many other failed commie nations.
Don’t remember who said it, but “can’t fix stupid” comes to mind and also the “boiling frog” metaphor.
Yep, I’d rather die fighting. At least I’d be able to look at myself in the mirror every day. JMHO

2019 US federal budget (the last full year before pandemic spending), 62% of US federal spending was confiscating money from one citizen and distributing to another. We are 62% socialist already.
In 1913, we were at 0% socialism, 2020 62+% socialism. 107 years of Democrats wiping the floor with Republicans.

Or, have the Rep’s been in on it the whole time? Or have the Rep’s been so spineless for ages? Back in the day the men were more like men, so I’m inclined to believe the crooked angle.
If we were to review history starting in 1911/12 leading up to 1913 Fed Reserve, I think we could see the parties/leanings of the players involved, who died tragically, who was assassinated, etc.

Way to go Scott! Failure factories indeed. It is the shame of America that these poor people in the inner Democratic cities are forced to have their children attend these terrible government/teacher union run schools with no hope of escaping. I was hoping that President Trump would be able to expand school choice into these neighborhoods. It’s a testament to the good character of these people that when given a chance, put their children on wait lists to get them into better schools.

It was one of the reasons I had such hope for Kim Klasik in Baltimore. She gets it. Maybe after 2 years of real despair for those constituents she can try again.

I’d hoped Kim Klasik would win too, but maybe rebuilding a once great city wasn’t as appealing as towing the party line or the promise of “free stuff”. Who knows if her election results were legit either. ???

These “poor people in the inner Democratic cities” continue to vote Democrat time and time again. They vote for their own destruction. (Assuming the voting up until this year was legit.)
They are ridiculed if they have a different opinion of who to vote for. Called names. Peer pressure to tow the party line. How much longer will it be before they wake up and see what the Dem’s (our govt.) have done to us all for ages?
They vote Dem because they’re promised more free stuff. If a person votes for “free stuff” only, they are voting for socialism without knowing it or using their “noggin”.
And “voila!” the Dems win and we creep ever so near Socialism, because the Dem’s use (like everything else) that name to hide their true nature . . . Socialist/Communists.
I imagine they laugh every time they are elected/reelected. They see us as fools and beneath them.
200 years of deceiving the masses. 200 years of letting them get away with it because they “promised” us this and that. Beyond sad.

One great truth that Thomas Jefferson stated in the Declaration of Independence has stuck with me since I was young: “Mankind are more disposed to suffer – while evils are sufferable – than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.” Jefferson and the other members of the Continental Congress spat in the face of that truth, and the Declaration can be summarized in two words: “no more”.

Unfortunately – and I have speculated upon this course of action during the Obama years – Bill is right in saying that if “this” is the direction this dark new administration takes, then let’s get it quickly and in full force; only then may enough people understand the consequences of electing those who are anti-Capitalist, anti-Reason, and anti-American. We will all be adversely affected by this, but it is a burden that we’ll have to weather in our attempt to get this country back on track.

I think we’d be surprised at how much people will put up with to get some “free” stuff or a monthly “basic income guarantee”.
Apparently they are willing to vote for a man who’s basically the “walking dead”, okay with continued lockdowns, taking away guns, etc. all to get their student loans wiped out (their own bad decisions), free this and that.
They foolishly believe all the free stuff, debt relief, and monthly govt. checks will come without a cost. That they’ll be able to go about their carefree life of lattes, hanging out, and getting paid to riot and assault people without prosecution.
They have a big “wake up” call coming. It ALL comes with a price.
Though I’m still amazed at how little the price was for them to sell out their country. 🙁

Bill says that the only way seems for people to get cured out of socialism is to give it to them.
I really can’t disagree with that.
However I feel some undue optimism behind the statement. Look around the world, at many places people did live through socialism and maybe managed to get out of it too to some extent. Yet in all those places you can still see vast amount of people who did not get cured out. And the idea of “we just did not enough of socialism, it will work once we do more” still gets traction.
Wish I had some lifting up message on Xmas eve, but that’s the real world, and it is not changing by not looking at the dark corners.

I disagree Bill. Let them discover the realities of socialism. I read in some psychology magazine that people who want a divorce will begin intolerable behavior and become more and more irrational until it drives the other away. They are driving us away. I hope our split is amicable (it could happen). I didn’t know how happy I could be until a few years after my divorce,. and for the life of me, I don’t know why I held on so dearly to that rotten relationship that nearly ruined me.
“Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good. In area after area – crime, education, housing, race relations – the situation has gotten worse after the bright new theories were put into operation. The amazing thing is that this history of failure and disaster has neither discouraged the social engineers nor discredited them.”
~Thomas Sowell 

I don’t want to repeat socialist experiments of the last century that cost 100 million lives. What is Bill smoking? Let him talk this silliness out with his wife.

Let them discover the reality of socialism. We need to reform our country. Red and Blue. People’s Republic and the United States==let’s keep the name to piss them off. There is no way around this. They will keep moving left till we divorce. Their behavior will become more despicable, and their rants will become more chowder-headed until it happens. They want a divorce as much as we do. Sorry Bill, I don’t think we can work with them. At what price do we adapt? We already know that we can’t vote them out. Ever again.
“Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good. In area after area – crime, education, housing, race relations – the situation has gotten worse after the bright new theories were put into operation. The amazing thing is that this history of failure and disaster has neither discouraged the social engineers nor discredited them.”
~Thomas Sowell 

Bill,
I want to know your proposal about how we protect the producers if the entire economy is run by communist dictators. I have previously heard this argument for letting the system collapse, but the biggest reason that communism has ever taken foothold is people are generally fearful of incarceration and death. If fear of those things are effectively used to control individuals, then the control of the aggregate will follow.
Personally, I would prefer to die on my feet, fighting such tyranny with every last breath. Passivity will not win out.

So the same things that let covid, cancel culture, and the Summer of Rage work are the same things that let socialism get it’s nose under the tent. Not looking forward to 2021.

Anyone with even half of a functioning brain, implicitly-understands that it is impossible for money, which is an inanimate object, to be racist or seek out evil or detect one’s skin color. What sort of egregious stupidity!

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