How Badly Does Modern Collectivism Hurt You?

Posted by CircuitGuy 11 years, 5 months ago to Culture
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How bad is collectivism today? Clearly the US is not Galt's Gulch or Stalin's USSR. We're somewhere in between.

I'm writing down some negative ways collectivism could affect individuals, from most innocuous to worst.

A) Collectivism is an annoyance at present. I usually find good ways to work around it.
B) If it weren't for poor gov't policies and collectivism, we might have fantastical things like a cure for cancer, affordable space travel, robots than can do most human tasks.
C) Collectivism keeps me from my dreams. (e.g. “A union or affirmative action is keeping me for being promoted out of turn, and there are no other options for me to do the work I love.” “A personal passion of mine is illegal.” “I can't get funding for my organization because of a sweetheart network around gov't, financial institutions, and my industry.”)
D) One or more Gail Wynands, Ellsworth Tooheys, or Wesley Mouchs are out to sabotage my life and are having some impact on me. We all agree these types exist. This item says your name personally is on their “list” of enemies or people to sabotage.
E) My business or career is failing because of collectivism and poor gov't policy (e.g. regulation, taxes, monetary policy).
F) We are on the cusp of totalitarianism and/or severe economic collapse similar to in Atlas Shrugged.

This is not an exclusive list, just the first six things that came to mind.

I'm curious which of these things are happening to Gulch members. Is it we're at A and B and just mindful of preventing the more severe items? Or we over halfway through a real-life Atlas Shrugged?

Note: I expect it varies depending on location, industry, interests, experiences, etc. Also, it could be a mix, say A and F but not B-E; they don't necessarily happen in order.


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  • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 11 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Bastiat and Montesquieu... I am paying attention. I have read these words before... even quoted these giants myself. They still ring true with much force and eloquence.
    Regards,
    O.A.
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  • Posted by grizzld 11 years, 5 months ago
    Obamacare has clearly moved collectivism further down the road and now today, Reid destroyed the last rule a minority party could use to block appointments of socialist judges or whatnot, in effect the filibuster rule has been eliminated. Now the senate can pass anything without opposition. Viva StalinObamaReid!
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  • Posted by j_IR1776wg 11 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    "My current thought on schools is there's no panacea, no substitute for the parents staying on top of it." I agree. Building a new school system as I am suggesting will require nothing less than an intellectual revolution that will alter the relationship of the Individual to the State. The Progressives are approaching a peak in their belief that the State owns our children and should solely and totally control their upbringing.
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  • -1
    Posted by Boborobdos 11 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    But before the law it was difficult to to pin things on the individual perps. Now, rather than simply claiming something is "outrageous" please explain exactly how a law promoting responsibility and honesty is a hindrance to business, unless you proclaim that business is generally how much cheating one can get away with. Your claim, you support it.
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  • Posted by rossabh 11 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Amazing insight and wisdom. I learned about his influence on the Founding Fathers in The 5000 Year Leap.
    "The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced. If the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt, people must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance." -- Marcus Tullius Cicero, 55 BC Quotation #23141 from Rand Lindsly's Quotations
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  • -1
    Posted by Boborobdos 11 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Again, read the law and it's up to you to explain how it is a deterrent to an honest business situation. It's YOUR claim, you support it that the law is hostile.
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  • -1
    Posted by Boborobdos 11 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Check out the law. It's clear what it is and who will be held responsible. I can lead you to knowledge, but I can't necessarily make you think.
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  • Posted by rossabh 11 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That is the problem. We, who value liberty, must defend ourselves from both sides. My passion in this battle is looking for a way to communicate with the Politically Braindead who either do not learn from history or are more comfortable with a master. That is the reason for my collaboration with others in this battle which resulted in my blog post http://rossabh.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/...
    “Despotic government has fear as its principle; and not many laws are needed for timid, ignorant, beaten-down people…
    After all we have just said, it seams that human nature would rise up incessantly against despotic government. But, despite men’s love of liberty, despite their hatred of violence, most peoples are subjected to this type of government. This is easy to understand. In order to form a moderate government, one must combine powers, regulate them, temper them, make them act; one must give one power a ballast, so to speak, to put it in a position to resist another; this is a masterpiece of legislation that chance rarely produces and prudence is rarely allowed to produce. By contrast, a despotic government leaps to view, so to speak; it is uniform throughout; as only passions are needed to establish it, everyone is good enough for that.” -- Charles-Louis Montesquieu and Social Anthropology #9
    “If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” -- Samuel Adams
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  • Posted by 11 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    We started with an independent school that didn't work out for us. We've found a daycare/K program that works, but we're considering sending our oldest to public school for first grade b/c we're not that impressed with the other options. The nice thing about the public school is it's two blocks away.

    My current thought on schools is there's no panacea, no substitute for the parents staying on top of it.
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  • Posted by airfredd22 11 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    As one of Al Capp's comic strip characters in Li'l Abner once stated. "i have met the enemy and the enemy is us." We let it happen by voting in corrupt politicians year after year and we are now reaping what we sowed.

    I can only remind us that everything Ayn Rand wrote about in Atlas Shrugged is happening right in front of us day after day.

    Fred
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  • Posted by Hiraghm 11 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Cicero was a patriot and a hero, imo.
    I was introduced to his orations against Cataline via the book, "Prince of Sparta", which led me to research him further, and at some point I had the revelation that Julius Caesar was executed, not assassinated.
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  • Posted by $ Genez 11 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I would agree that we are halfway there. We are at the point where the captains of industry still feel some freedom and are trying to fight. However, the chains are being forged, the noose tightened, etc.. Obamacare is HUGE step in that direction. Give it a few years and it will be government health care.. Then the next step will be true wage equality or profit equalization or some other buzz phrase, which will mean nothing more than the final destruction of the capitalist endeavor which made this nation great.
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  • Posted by $ Genez 11 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Cicero is my favorite Roman. Great reading when you realize that he was dealing with similar issues in Rome, the destruction of a great nation by it's politicians.
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  • Posted by $ Genez 11 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That's why we home-schooled. and while our kids can be annoyingly independent in their thinking, I would not change our decision.. They know how to think, analyze and question and finally, come to their own conclusions. I love it when they come up with something I've known for sometime, but they come to it themselves rather than me or someone else telling them..
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    Posted by Boborobdos 11 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    "Most of us have no idea what wonderful things were stopped by the company not being able to raise capital unless we happen to know someone in that start up." Oh darn, that money being raised honestly is such a hindrance to those who want to steal.
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    Posted by Boborobdos 11 years, 5 months ago in reply to this comment.
    "My point is before SOX was passed, the level of corporate fraud was less than AFTER SOX passed." That's because nobody was held responsible. Now they are caught, sometimes.
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