[MD] socialism

[Steven Peterson]

Hi Platt,

On Fri, Jun 4, 2010 at 3:50 PM,  <plattholden at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 4 Jun 2010 at 10:53, Steven Peterson wrote:
>
> Hi Platt,
>
>> Back in the 1930's America came to a fork in the road and chose the road to
>> serfdom. In MOQ terms, social patterns of coercive cooperation have overcome
>> intellectual patterns of individual liberty.
>
>
> And yet the twentieth century is often called "The American Century."
> Despite it's choice of serfdom in the 30's, apparently the US still
> managed to emerge as the most wealthy and influential nation in the
> world. Not a bad record for the American brand of "coercive
> cooperation."
>
> What was that ideal time in America's pre-1930's history when things
> were better than they are now? If you had to go back to that time now
> but could not choose whether you would go back as a wealthy white
> heterosexual male or a chinese immigrant or a female or a native
> American or a black person would you?
>

Platt:

> Going back to pre-1930's I would choose to be born in the U.S. where the
> prospects for a better life for all children, regardless of sex or color, were
> better than anywhere else in the world. The millions who chose to emigrate to
> the U.S.(and continue to do so today) were living proof of how capitalism, the
> economic system of freedom that allowed individuals to to responds to DQ,
> created opportunity and prosperity unseen before in all of human history.


Steve:
That wasn't the question. I wasn't asking where you would like to live
if you had to go back to the 30's. I asking if you could, would you
rather live in the 30's U.S. right now. Was any time in America's past
better than it is now? Perhaps, but when? And when you answer that
question, there is always a "better for whom?" in there. Was it better
for a racial minority or a woman or a homosexual, etc. than it is now?
Would you rather be born into that era not knowing in advance what
sort of situation you would be born into? I don't think I'd want to be
born in the 30's unless I got to be born into a wealthy family...and
I'd definitely want to be a dude (women only got the right to vote in
1920).