Bill Maher on Mamdani, A.O.C., Bernie and Democratic Socialists. So he goes off on the failures of Socialism.

[3Hotdogs]

He shows comparison photos of countries that went from Capitalist dictatorships to socialism. One set showed a city under capitalism and next to it, wooden hovels. Imagine - cities going from skyscrapers to wooden hovels in just a few decades.


Then the warning that this could happen if the U.S. elected people like these.

Comes to my mind, most of us ain't doing too well under our present capitalist/fascists system.

[TheFarseer]

1. Under Capitalism

We have homeless encampments right now. We also have Substandard housing and 10 people in a 1 bedroom apartment because it’s unaffordable any other way. Democratic Socialist candidates are winning because Capitalism is failing a vast majority of Americans and people like you better wake up and acknowledge that before we’re staring at a violent revolution.

[QueerDuck]

2. A stopped watch is right twice a day. A blind squirrel occasionally finds a buried nut.

I'm not a big fan of socialism either. As much as I dislike Maher, he gets some nods of agreement from me... he's being very logical and avoiding the typical ad-hominem traps... but the slippery-slope fallacy has always been one of his weaknesses.

[underpants]

3. We already live in a mixed economy.

Public and private sectors. There are already tons of public subsidies of private industries and the public sector is mostly services.

Changing the mix is all Democratic Socialists are proposing.

[Redleg]

4. Indeed.

It is possible to have an economic system that doesn't reward the wealthy to the extent that our "system" does. The disparity in wealth is growing larger and many working Americans are barely scaping by, much less not able to save or invest for the future. Over the last 30 years capital has captured the majority of the value of producitivity increases, leaving very little to the workers. I expect that the use of AI and robots will only make this worse. It brings to mind Kurt Vonnegut's novel Player Piano.