I. human nature
II. state developed tech
III. regulations
IV. recessions are blessings in disguise
V. imperfections of neoliberalism
VI. neoliberals and powerful elites are not evil
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in this rant, i will be constantly referring to this video - Yanis Varoufakis with Professor Noam Chomsky at NYPL. there's another video where chomsky warns his audience to never just believe anything he says and to always look it up to verify. so i googled to learn more about the crisis in greece. these are my opinions.
watching the video, i was astonished at how the 2 smartest intellectuals in the world were disregarding the realities of human nature. their videos are suppose to be going viral because what they are proposing is ideally great for society but normal people who live in the real world and has a good feel of true human nature will be discouraged and lose interest at their advocacy.
i admire yanis as a person and i think he is pure at heart. but it scares me that he is the leading intellectual in europe yet he is doubling down on his wrong guesses about human nature - https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/24/magazine/a-finance-minister-fit-for-a-greek-tragedy.html. he is like a father who cares so much about his drug junkie child but never even mentions the word "drugs". GREASE IS THE DRUG OF GREECE. greasing the hands of government officials to avoid paying taxes and getting favors is deeply embedded in greek culture and they can only get it out of their system if they go cold instanbul. i was dumbfounded when he and chomsky questioned why IMF proposed an austerity measure even if the IMF knew it was cruel. even the common sense of a low intellect understands there is no austerity measure for a drug junkie that is not cruel. yanis is well loved in greece but we all know a father is doing a poor job if his drug junkie son never gets angry at him. when yanis was asked to help his country he should have taken the opportunity to wake up his people and make a statement by declining the minister position and tell his people there is nothing he can do to help unless they develop work ethic and stop corrupt behavior. nobody in their right mind wants to invest real money into a place where there is rampant corruption. the only money that would come in is financial speculative capital where the decision makers have no stake on or don't really get hurt if everything falls apart.
maybe chomsky has never experienced the debilitating torment of drug addiction or substance abuse in the family where you have to lock your doors at night or the person you love the most might come in and steal your tv to buy drugs. when you see the person you love the most sleeping on the sidewalk on your way to buy groceries, and actually feel glad knowing he/she is still alive. it's quite a common problem with my family and friends. if this is the case then i envy chomsky.
if your love one is a drug junkie, the entire family gets together to discuss and evaluate how the austerity measures will hurt your love one. then once you are convinced it will hurt your love one, you implement the austerity measure. i don't know why we do that. i don't know why families hurt each other. we are like the IMF. good thing i listen to chomsky speeches because now i realize how stupid it is to intentionally hurt your love one. i know my mother loves me but i remember she used to spank me when i was a kid. what a paradox. as if not wanting to be left out, chomsky also bit the ears of amy goodman's dad. i also envy the UN human rights council who is condemning duterte for the extra judicial killings of the drug dealers because that means they never had a drug junkie in their family so they can't comprehend what duterte is doing. note i try to distinguish a drug addict from a drug junkie. rush limbaugh is a drug addict but obviously not a drug junkie because even chomsky listens to to his show.
in the video, chomsky and yanis were talking about the high level problems and solutions. but i really feel those won't matter if the low level issues are not resolved. they did not mention a word about the possible causes of the problem and what needs to be done to solve the problem. corruption and work ethics may be a boring topic but they should at least have discussed or acknowledged it briefly. any mechanic or technician with just a high school education knows that one way to troubleshoot a problem is to compare it to a similar system that is working, let's say denmark, and figure out what's different. the words laziness and corruption were not even uttered in the entire video. it's like instead of helping attend to the wound and prevent it from happening again, they were just arguing with the doctor on the color and size of band aid to apply. amazing !!!! yanis says poul thomsen crashed the greek economy. so maybe poul thomsen is some kind of dark wizard who spread the corruption epidemic all over greece. last time i checked greece is a socialist democracy which means it's the government and not the IMF who has ultimate power and control.
even funnier is both intellectuals emphatically expressing their disgust on the hostility of the private sector towards the state sector when in fact, one of the root causes of the greek crisis is that the state and private sectors are too cozy with each other. - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/03/greece-corruption-alive-and-well. i'm not an expert but i think it's good for society if the private and public sector are hostile to each other because it provides checks and balances. although it's possible the guardian is just neoliberal propaganda and there really is no corruption in greece. otherwise, i think the reason why chomsky and yanis are ignoring the problem of corruption is it might tarnish their socialist agenda. leftists want to believe that people are the same everywhere and it's the evil powerful elites that are causing all the problems. yanis and chomsky were not really trying to solve any problem or educate us, they were just trying to manufacture our consent. i'm just kidding. i'm sure they were trying to entertain. and honestly, yes i was very entertained and awed at the 2 titans of the intellectual dark web.
but just like typical leftists, for them it's never the people's fault. i think it will just emboldened the people to ignore any effort of self improvement. instead they will just be angry at the powerful elites and might do things that will just cause them more suffering. yanis and chomsky are harming the greek people same way leftists are harming the palestinians (https://ian-crystal.blogspot.com/2017/01/leftists-harming-the-palestinians.html).
greece collapsed because the social democrats were using unbacked financial capital instead of industrial capital. they were just happy using easy money to fund the social programs and keep getting elected. yanis and chomsky blames the collapse of greece on the neoliberal bankers but to me that's ridiculous because the leaders had every right to refuse getting cocaine (fiat money or speculative/financial capital) from the pushers (neoliberal bankers). that's like blaming the shark for biting a person instead of blaming the person for swimming in shark infested waters.
the greek government was allowing it to happen because it was not their hard earned money. this is the downside of big government or social democracy. you are letting people manage resources that they don't have a stake on. when everything collapses, they don't lose money. they were just happy savoring the moment gaining all those prestige and political capital with accomplishments such as the athens olympics which cost billions. alarm bells did not go off. i may not be an intellectual but if i was the finance minister of greece i would have been screaming something is wrong because it's not like athens was producing iphones and gushing with oil and natural resources. you have to at least ask, where is the money coming from?
same with bankers making millions with CDO and exotice financial products. where was the money coming from? from poor people buying 5 houses for speculation.? c'mon man !!!! the economist were blaming their outdated models. seriously ??? you don't need models to be alarmed when a person with ordinary income is able to buy 5 houses for speculation. it's just common sense to know the whole system will crash at some point.
one of the ways to promote investments is to make laws that protect the investors from local sharks and frivolous lawsuits. but what's really great about investor protection laws is that it gives more ammunition for chomsky and the left to incite class warfare and preach to their choir that the rich are evil and the poor are oppressed. search in youtube "chomsky free trade agreement". chomsky could be right that the investor protection laws of the free trade agreements worsen the plight of the poor but if chomsky really wants normal people with common sense to listen to him he should be objective and acknowledge investor protection laws are important but it has to be a case by case basis or it has to be fair. in fact there are many cases where the leftists are the ones taking advantage of the poor and causing their suffering. i have a few examples in https://ian-crystal.blogspot.com/2019/05/tony-stark-has-a-heart.html. poor people in third world countries do need serious intellectuals on their side and not just agenda flame throwers. chomsky is no different than scientists and super intellectuals who only focus on their field and waste their ability to truly help the oppressed people of the world.
school kids picking stocks can easily outperform economists with phds. that's because economic models and policies depend a lot on human behavior or desires which cannot be scientifically studied. this is why marxism may be a sharp tool for diagnosis but a blunt one for prescription. there are too many factors involved and those factors keep changing. unfortunately, we still need to make decisions even if there is no science to back it up. economic theories are just like the rules of golf. if economics was golf, yanis and chomsky would be like golf instructors who know all the rules and history of golf better than anybody but but cannot qualify for the PGA. donald trump would be like john daily (https://ian-crystal.blogspot.com/2019/06/leftists-mock-tiger-woods.html). tiger woods didn't win the masters because he knows about the rules of golf better than anybody. economists and intellectuals can be more effective if they spend time outside their intellectual bubble once in a while. maybe yanis should live in greece so he will realize the root of the problem is corruption which is turning away industrial capital. yanis may have a phd in economics, but in the past 5 years, economists with phds have been incorrectly predicting a bear market.
i'm not really an intellectual but my feeling is that economic theories are also like trading strategies in the stock market. execution is more important than the strategy. in fact almost any strategy will work if you execute it with discipline. and any strategy will fail if you are reckless, emotional and lazy. chomsky and yanis are like my friends and family with their business ideas that always fails. i keep telling my family that execution matters - hard work, discipline, attention to details, etc ... you can get rich selling ice to eskimos in alaska if you execute well.
economics is less about formulas and more about complicated human wants. the problem with chomsky and yanis is that they assume that human wants is the same as their wants. fortunately for them they can never be proven wrong because human want is thinly studied. you cannot quantify or measure human wants. which means even the best economic theories can never be perfect. this bodes well for chomsky and yanis because they can always use the imperfect economic theories as their punching bag on stage to entertain the audience.
no matter how perfect the system is, society will still implode if the people don't have discipline, selflessness, and appreciation for the simpler things in life. in other words, people should strive to be more like the danish and norwegians.
i saw another video where yanis details his proposal on fixing the EU (Yanis Varoufakis on what's wrong in Europe today and how to fix it tomorrow morning). but his proposal is assuming union leaders are not corruptible. it's common knowledge that union leaders can be just as corrupt as the cartel. just look at the labor unions in america. there is lack of enthusiasm on yanis' diem25 movement because normal people who live in the real world knows their fellow citizens can easily be corrupt and ruin any idea no matter how ideal it sounds. also renewables are not very effective in combating climate change. nuclear is better (Why renewables can’t save the planet | Michael Shellenberger).
EU's problem will never be solved because their leaders and experts are a bunch of cowards, who are too afraid to tell the people the ugly and painful truth that they need to get off their asses and work hard just like the asians. that's the only sustainable way to attract private investments. no investor in their right mind would put their money where the taxes and wages are too high. for a long time europeans were able to get away with being lazy because first they colonized the world and plundered it's riches. example spain colonized the philippines for 400 years. then for decades they had the advantage of engineering and technical advantage as the world industrialized and technlogoy was developing. but now industrialization and technology has peaked which allowed the slower learning asians to catch up. so now europeans have no tricks left in the bag.
the problem with the left is they lack exposure in the real world. maybe it's because even if they visit the slums the people will be in their best behavior. the leftist or activist's charisma or "savior status" will make the slum dweller want to impress the activist. they will never see people throw away their trash everywhere even if there are proper trash cans. so of course the leftists will blame the trash problem on the powerful elite.
fortunately for leftists, nothing can be perfect and there are always imperfections of our current neoliberal society that you can cherry pick to denounce it. i know there are numerous and huge cherries that you can pick with neoliberalism but the bottom line is that the world now enjoys smart phones and all my poor childhood friends can now travel to other countries (https://ian-crystal.blogspot.com/2019/01/knowledge-bombs-on-inequality.html). the alternatives that the left are proposing will fail because of the imperfections of human nature.
II. state developed tech
i found their comments on state developed tech ridiculous enough to warrant a separate article - https://ian-crystal.blogspot.com/2019/06/state-developed-tech-lefts-worthless-trophy.html
III. regulations
i also disagree on chomsky's and yanis' opinions about government regulations. for me too much regulations can be just as bad as too little regulations. of course the regulations we have now always needs some tweaking because it can never be perfect but it's not as bad as chomsky and yanis tries to make you feel. leftists think people are too dumb to take care of themselves so they need to be controlled to prevent them from hurting themselves. the problem with their idealistic but unrealistic ideas is that it usually leads to everyone in society getting hurt (https://ian-crystal.blogspot.com/2019/05/socialism-demystified.html).
the amount of regulation depends on the competence of society. a competent society don't need much regulation while no amount of regulation can save a weak society.
yanis and chomsky loves to point out the recessions such as the 2008 housing crisis. but note that during that housing bust the home prices in texas remained stable because of less regulations. unlike other states such as california that had more restrictive land use regulations causing a bubble in home prices. the association between more restrictive use regulation and higher house prices has been noted by a wide range economists, from left-leaning nobel laureate paul krugman. it's the law of supply and demand. as the home prices go up, home builders will build more homes. the increase in supply keeps a ceiling on the home prices. but if the home builders cannot build more homes, it leads to a housing bubble.
regulations are like speed limits. people just need to use common sense not to drive like a maniac. anyway, they are the ones who are going to get hurt. in the great recession of 2008, investors who played it safe weathered the storm and in fact was able to make more profit because of the recession. yours truly is an example - https://ian-crystal.blogspot.com/2011/09/once-in-a-milenia-opportunity.html.
that's the beauty of capitalism. bankers did not put a gun on people's heads and forced them to take the loans. on the other hand, i was playing golf with my friend named adrian cempron and he told me he speculated on 5 houses and after the crash he bought a 9mm pistol because he was planning to commit suicide. good thing he realized his wife is a doctor and they can still continue to live a luxurious life. meanwhile, all my poor friends who did not speculate in the housing bubble where just happy playing golf and collecting their unemployment check for 2 years. i've never seen my poor friends so happy and smiling all the time. i am not a big fan of regulations, i'm more of a proponent to just use common sense (https://ian-crystal.blogspot.com/2018/10/road-safety-knowledge-bombs.html).
chomsky and yanis also fails to point out that the system recovered quickly. in fact i'm even hoping for another crisis so i can even make more money. and the leftists should also pray for a crisis so the labor unions can use their $400 billion in funds to buy insanely cheap distressed companies and assets. then they can let the workers run the company and maybe convert the factories to upgrade america's railway system. heck the bailout on GM was only $13 billion. that's miniscule compared to the $400 billion controlled by the jimmy hoffas.
that's another thing that baffles me about the left - they denounced the bailout yet GM repaid the loan AHEAD OF SCHEDULE PLUS INTEREST. buying the distressed assets and giving them to the workers is the best way to expose corporate tyranny and display how amazing it is when the workers control the means of production. but how can they do that when they can't even get their acts together with the much simpler labor union? so much so that the workers in nissan texas even voted to boot out the labor unions.
not only did the system recover quickly, but if you just read history you will find out that the more socialist a country is, the less it is able to recover from an economic collapse. and most of the time a country can only recover if it adopts a more capitalist system - i.e. maost china and the russia transitioning into capitalism. and in a socialist society, you don't have the option to position yourself such that you can take advantage of a crisis. in capitalism, there is a saying, buy when there is blood on the streets. in state socialism, if there is blood on the streets, that's probably you or your love one dying on the street. with libertarian socialism, LITERALLY for sure there will be blood on the streets and there is nothing society can do to stop the outside or even internal aggression.
in the video, chomsky is wondering why the collapse of the whole system in the 2008 housing crisis did nothing to ruin the prevailing orthodoxy in economic capitalist theories. that's like saying why are we still driving cars when someone who was driving 300 miles an hour crashed his car? why are the professions of car engineers and car manufacturers not ruined after a person driving 300 mph crashed the car? that's because there really is nothing wrong with the car. there was something wrong with the person driving the car. i had many friends in america who were using loans to buy 5 houses. that's just insane. that's not the fault of the powerful elites. that's like driving a car at 300 mph. also, GM repaying the loan ahead of schedule and with interest answers chomsky's question why the reputation of the neoliberal economists where not ruined.
and it's easy to know if people are driving dangerously. you don't need to be a genius to figure out that something is not sustainable and the system can collapse soon. it's just simple math or common sense to know the situation is dangerous when people who can't afford to buy a house are given loans to buy a house and a lot of people with just an average income are buying 5 houses each using loans with no down payment. if a lot of the value being created is from nothing (margin trading or subprime debt), then we are driving too fast.
where was yanis and chomsky when people were driving too fast? did they specifically warn people that the subprime loans were unsustainable? yes they've been warning people about the dangers of deregulation but i think it's a case of "a broken clock is always correct twice a day".
the left wants regulations and policies that gives the individual less control of his/her destiny. we all know there are pros and cons to each opposing ideology. example if an individual has less control (higher taxes and more regulations), then the government has more capability to help the poor. that's great. that's why norway and sweden are great societies. but the downside is if the government screws up through corruption or making bad decisions, then everyone suffers and it will take longer for the country to recover. an example of this is greece and venezuela. if people have more control of their destiny (lower taxes and less regulations), people have the choice or option to save and diversify their investments in s&p500, bonds, gold and even cash. they are not tied up to the possible corruption or incompetence of the government. this is why america was able to recover from the 2008 great recession in a decent amount of time.
instead of endlessly blaming the sharks for biting people, yanis and chomsky should at least also tell people not to swim with sharks. brexit is basically the british people refusing to swim with sharks. brexit won because british people were afraid that what the evil bankers and corrupt politicans of the EU did to greece might also be done to them. this is because in the EU system, people are too tied up or dependent on the big government (social democracy). so when evil bankers and corrupt politicians go haywire everyone is so screwed. this is why a small libertarian government is safer. austerity cutting of government pensions won't be a problem if people were allowed to take more control of their money through low taxes so they can invest it in gold, bonds. or even land where they can plant crops. your vegetable garden won't die or your sweet potatoes won't turn bitter if there is a recession. of course the downside is the incompetents will suffer poverty but at least it's just a small portion of the population.
let me give you an example of how an individual can avoid swimming with sharks. if greece had a small libertarian government, then the people would not have been that affected by the craziness of the bankers. even if my house has no monetary value because of the financial crash, i can still live in it (housing). no financial crisis can stop people from raising tilapia, poultry or plant crops (food). heck any moron can easily raise tilapias in a barrel. just watch the movie the martian who planted potatoes even if mars has no fertile soil and water. i'm sure the clothes you already have can last 5 years. you may need to keep patching it, which is the fashion nowadays anyways (clothes). that's food, clothing, shelter. no wifi for facebook? talk to your neighbors. i'm sure they can still bike to the sea and enjoy swimming or boating. a financial crisis doesn't cause boats to disintegrate. i'm sure the basketball courts are still standing. people can still play frisbee football in the parks and beaches. this is why right wing libertarians are fond of buying gold. and what do the leftist do? they make fun of the gold buyers as paranoid racist right wing morons.
my uncle abelardo pages is still a huge supporter of big government and the democrats even after he lost about $50,000 of his hard earned money because of california's insane red tape bureaucracy or regulations which caused his nursing home business to fail before it even started. if he was in texas his nursing home business would be running smoothly by now benefiting poor retires. maybe there will just be regular inspections from the state authorities to make sure the patients are safe and well taken cared off. texas is a blue or democrat state but the democrats don't vote that is why the people in texas get what they need, not what they want. texas even leads the country in wind power capacity, despite being rich in natgas and oil. meanwhile california is having rolling blackouts. although the youtube video i saw on the destruction of texas wetlands by oil companies is just despicable. that is why i say the left has it's merits, the right has it's merits, it's stupid to have a to choose between one or the other.
also note that deregulation was helping poor people buy a house through subprime loans. if president bush did what it took to prevent the 2008 great recession, he would have been crucified by everyone for preventing poor people from owning a home.
IV. recessions are blessings in disguise
the austerity measures are hurting the greek people but that could be a good thing. the 2008 crisis was a blessing in disguise for america because it improved america's values. and contrary to what yanis said, the improvement was not temporary. i know yanis was talking about regulations but for me regulations are not as important as values and behavior of the people. before the crisis, americans used to be so spoiled. they would not work as nurses and call center agents. they just wanted to be marketing executives and fashion designers. thank god for that because this gave many of my classmates in the philippines an opportunity to migrate to america to work as nurses to fill in the void.
right wing conservatives have been preaching the value of work ethic. but why would anyone listen to conservatives? they are just morons, right? it's better to listen to leftists because they are smarter. but the problem is the leftists are too busy demonizing the powerful elites because they believe values such as hard work has nothing to do with society's prosperity and that all of society's problems are caused by the greed and evil of the powerful elite. fortunately an economic crisis can force people to improve their values.
it was pure dumb luck that the evil george bush administration changed the nursing course from 4 years to just 18 months and you can just take it in a cheap community college. then you can easily start $60k a year and easily go up to $120k a year just like my brother and sister. maybe bernie sanders should live in america so he knows these things (https://ian-crystal.blogspot.com/2017/10/education-racket.html). bernie sanders should also read the news so he will learn that bill gates, steve jobs, and mar zuckerberg dropped out of college. i'm also glad my brother and sister went to community college instead because universities discourge creative and independent thought and inquiry. it discourages the challenging of received beliefs. when i was in the university, i was constrained to writing pro communist essays to please my professors and receive high grades. i am now free from that mental prison so now i can write blogs that challenge received beliefs.
V. imperfections of neoliberalism
of course banks and corporations are never perfect. example just recently wells fargo opened accounts without consent of the customers. the CEO had to resign and had to forfeit the $40 million in pay. the unexpected fees (around $20) were refunded to the customers. but it did cause mental anguish and suffering to the customers. $20 is a lot of dough and it can rattle anyone. give points to leftists on that one.
seriously this time, i believe the IMF has done a lot of bad things especially to the global south. the way i see it, the IMF is basically the new era of colonialism. colonialism has always been about resources - land, natural resources, labor, etc ... the 2nd era of colonialism was during the cold war when the US would use the pretext of communist threat to crush 3rd world nationalism by overthrowing democratically elected governments that commits the sin of providing the needs of it's people and threatening the rights of foreign investors. the US would then prop up their puppet government that would give foreign investors access to the natural resources. a good example of this is the United Fruit Company in latin america.
after the cold war, the world's powerful elite (multinationals) can only access a country's natural resources if the country screws up, i.e. elect a corrupt government that burdens the country with too much debt. the IMF, owned by former colonials and imperialists headed by the US, would then swoop in to bail out the country. the IMF will demand austerity measures to make sure the debt is repaid. these measures will hurt the poor but not the rich. example, foreign investors still need the airport control towers running so they can travel in and out of the country. the deal would also give the multinationals cheap access to the resources, and relax the labor laws in favor of the investors.
for countries that don't screw up, the powerful elites fall back to another instrument called free trade agreements that would give the foreign investors immunity to not just labor but environmental laws. the IMF and free trade agreements makes the poor suffer even more. not to mention unfavorable trade tariffs and flight of capital out of the country that would push the country down further into the abyss.
but i don't think these have anything to do with capitalism and free trade. in fact i even feel the evil policies of the IMF are a violation of the economic formulas and theories that yanis and chomsky were making fun of in the video. in the greek crisis, i don't think the IMF is letting multinationals access the natural resources of greece. it wasn't mentioned in the video. the accusations towards the IMF were just abstract and no examples were given. they didn't specify clearly how the bailout deal is benefiting the foreign investors at the expense of the greek people. maybe the countries bailing out greece will get a return on their investment but it looks like they are the ones making the sacrifice because they can easily put their money in much safer US treasuries.
i criticize the left a lot but i think it's very important we listen to them because they say things that are important and we should do something about. if you are a normal person with common sense you would agree that we should address the climate change and put an end to US atrocities. we should also support the left's efforts to have a more efficient transportation system. i wasted thousands of hours in my life stuck in traffic because there was no light rail going from hayward to san jose. this is in california, suppose to be one of the richest places in the world. i could have done so much productive work if i rode the light rail all those 20 years. instead i wasted all that time listening to howard stern, rush limbaugh and mr. cup a feel al franken. they converted me into an opinionated person so now i'm wasting my time again writing blogs instead of enjoying snorkling the corral reefs while they are not yet ruined by climate change. i snowboarded every weekend driving for 4 hours each way. by the time i got to the ski resort i was already too exhausted from the long drive. i would have enjoyed shredding the slopes more if i took the train where i could just relax and sleep. not to mention trains are much safer. when i was in munich i was so envious at the germans getting off the train station carrying their skis and snowboards. what does this all have to do with the powerful elite? according to chomsky, the auto, oil, and tire companies conspired to kill the rail systems so more people will ride cars and buses. https://www.latimes.com/me-2003-los-angeles-streetcar-history-story.html. but then again, it's mostly the people's fault. the powerful elites were just responding to the will of the people. in the first place, it was a powerful elite who built the rail system.
VI. neoliberals and powerful elites are not evil
leftists are not really saying anyone is evil. they think it's the institutions that forces people to be evil. of course our current institutions are not perfect and has some downsides but the alternatives that the left proposes have been proven to be worse. when i listen to chomsky and yanis, i feel like they live in a world where everything is upside down.
the institutions that the left condemns and want dismantled have done amazing wonders for me. i always have a pleasant experience being a customer of corporations that the left calls tyrannical. on the other hand, the institutions that the left favors and want to take on more role in my life often frustrates me. to me it was so amazing that the bankers allowed me to own a car and my dream house even if i just started my job and did not have money. it's also amazing that i would put my nest egg in a financial institution and never worry about it getting stolen by the bankers. leftists are banking (pardon the pun) that we take for granted our peace of mind that our nest egg is safe with bankers. but the reality is that trust is hard to come by. the great thing about capitalism is that evil people are forced to win your trust or else they suffer the consequence. there's been many crashes and recessions caused by the supposedly evil bankers but people are not withdrawing their money from banks because trust still exist where it matters the most. no one in their right mind leaves their hard earned nest egg in the hands of truly evil people.
unlike in more socialistic systems where you can only pray the government officials are living saints or else if they decide to stick a pole in your ass all you can do is scream and beg for mercy. but the great thing is if the government officials are all living saints, then there will be equality, nobody will be poor, and nobody will suffer poverty. i'm comforted by the fact that i'm just an idiot and yanis and chomsky know a lot more than me. so there is a big chance government officials are saints and it's just poul thomsen's dark magic that infected the corruption plague on the greek people.
maybe it's just me that the government always makes me feel my head will explode whenever i deal with them. my blog is full of rants about government incompetence and stupidity (https://ian-crystal.blogspot.com/2017/08/taste-of-socialism.html, https://ian-crystal.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-art-of-perspective-acrobatics.html). in hayward california, the city government fined me $4,500 just for turning right on red. i talked about this in more detail in my blog "politics for dummies". in the philippines i always become furious every time i register my car or renew my license or passport. i wish these services can be transferred to powerful elites who will be trying to kill each other to win my approval. the obamacare website was also a joke. good thing corporate tyrannies came to the rescue (https://ian-crystal.blogspot.com/2019/05/healthcareorg-retrospective.html).
just think about it. if you are a state government worker (or some service provider in a libertarian socialist system), why even bother answering the phone? why not enjoy chatting with your coworker instead of attending to the caller? the caller can't transfer his business to your competition because government has no competition. all the caller can do is cry like a baby. or call for a revolution to replace the government with one that will probably be just as corrupt or worse.
what baffles me is everywhere you go in this world you can experience clear blatant corruption yet the smartest intellectuals never ever takes this factor into account when giving their policy opinions. example, poverty in haiti can significantly be alleviated by foreign investments on agriculture. the problem is no one wants to invest in haiti. lo and behold a huge firm from arkansas finally wants to invest to help hatians but the people working in the haitian government would not return their phone calls.
chomsky actually agrees with my opinions about government corruption because he is a libertarian socialist or he advocates for a system where government only plays a very limited if not zero role. there are videos in youtube where chomsky says he is against the marxist vanguard or transitory state (government) because they can easily be addicted to power and become more tyrannical than the monarch that they toppled. chomsky even blames the existence of government for the collapse of the soviet union and maoist china. that's why i feel sorry for chomsky because any normal person with common sense would think libertarian socialism is crazy so now he has no choice but to side with leftists who advocate for a bigger government.
i would like to make it clear that the philippine government has made amazing strides and improvements recently. maybe the internet and social media have empowered the people. or maybe it's because the left has a seething animosity towards duterte. duterte's biggest opponent is not really the local opposition but the UN human rights council. the left has a history of hating something that turns out to be amazing and good for mankind and loving something that turns out to be a complete disaster.
chomsky and the left talks about corporate assault on labor unions. but when i was working for autotote corp as a technician fixing betting machines for horse racing, our union went on strike. i wanted to continue to work but i was told i could get mugged. which means if i exercised my freedom and right, the institution that the left is supporting would have assaulted me. literally.
of course the corporations and workers are always at a tug of war but that's what they are suppose to do. nothing wrong with that. this is probably why chomsky frequently mentions the assault on labor without giving an example or a reference because maybe the reader will realize it's just a healthy tug of war. the leftists don't like a game where there are winners or losers. we already tried that experiment but it kills the human spirit or it kills the motivation to wake up every morning to go to school or work. who wants to play a game where there are no winners and losers? this is probably why the venezuelans are not flocking to the farms and seaside to plant and fish because socialism already killed their spirit. the venezuelans should watch the movie "the martian" where the dude is happy singing and dancing to ABBA and planting potatoes even if originally he did not even have fertile soil and water. holy cow when i was i kid i did not have allowance so i just stuck a few stalks of sweet potatoes anywhere on the ground. no need to till the soil. and in 3 months there was an abundance of delicious and healthy sweet potatoes for my snacks. if i'm an activist with millions in my bank account i would charter a cessna to drop leaflets in venezuela instructing people to do these kinds of things. i think this is the problem with the left - i know they are super intelligent and super caring people but their range of real world experience is too narrow. americans and greeks are already so lucky and so blessed with everything they need too be happy. i even wrote a poem and play about it (https://ian-crystal.blogspot.com/2019/05/ode-to-the-left.html, https://ian-crystal.blogspot.com/2019/05/hamiltons-american-dream.html).
of course corporations can also be tyrannical but the capitalist system is more diversified and flexible. anyone is free to be their own boss - an uber driver, hotdog vendor in the streets of new york (damn it now i'm craving for a footlong), get a loan to buy a bobtail truck and be an owner operator, etc ... i can join the fun and diversify part of my savings into the hundreds of companies owned by the selfish tyrannical powerful elite. this is actually what chomsky is doing because according to him, you can't expect him to be living in a shack in montana.
anyone is also free to create a non tyrannical corporation or cooperative. why i don't see leftists doing this is beyond me. i mean hundreds of thousands of americans died in WW2 to defend our freedom, why can't leftists make small sacrifices to start coops? it's not even a sacrifice because i thought it's suppose to be their dream. i remember chomsky was stunned when after speaking in front of libertarian socialists in norway, someone in the audience asked, "how should we start?". he was speechless for a while and he finally said, "just do it".
i owe most of the fun and happiness in my life to the corporations - my iphone, cheap airfare to my favorite travel destinations, netflix, connecting with my friends and love ones, etc ... (https://ian-crystal.blogspot.com/2019/05/tony-stark-has-a-heart.html).
the video also shows chomsky calling the pharma/biotech companies "predator" for establishing offices in MIT so they can prey on the latest technologies and develop them to make medicines that would cure diseases and save lives. maybe chomsky is living in a different world because in my world, every singe soul would be cheering for these companies to use the MIT technologies to develop new cures of illnesses. it's so strange that chomsky would denounce drug companies for trying to develop better drugs. i've been hospitalized a few times and would be dead by now if it's not for the drugs and medicines that they develop.
any normal person with a low intellect will cheer for lockheed martin because they are making the advance weapons that will protect us and makes us more powerful. isnt't that a good thing? actually that's an understatement because the f-22 is super super super awesome. it makes me proud to be an american. maybe we don't need these weapons. but i would rather have the weapon and not need it than need the weapon and not have it. i feel it's counter intuitive for the left to say newt gingrich is a hypocrite for being the #1 supporter of a nanny state system because the government is subsidizing gingrich's constituents - i.e. lockheed martin. really? that means newt gingrich should be our next president because his top priority is actually the most important responsibility of any government or leader. but i'm just a low intellect so maybe i'm missing something. or maybe the super intellectuals just have a poor instinct for self preservation. because if you just read history you will realize the world is a very dangerous place.
personally, i prefer the selfish powerful elite over a corrupt government because i'm a very unlikable and scholastically mediocre person so there is no future for me in a corrupt government where likability, connections and academic achievements become the main currency. when i was in very corrupt russia, i was wondering why everyone in town knew my girlfriend. she told me it's because her dad is a professor and in russia, professors are like celebrities. i can only rely on my creativity to get the things i want in life. creativity is a corrupt government's biggest enemy. if someone wants to invent a burger made of banana peel which is just as tasty but very healthy and half the price, government red tape and high taxes can kill that person's spirit and motivation. imagine what that person would have contributed to national healthcare. i always feel the left don't really care about improving people's lives. they just want to promote their agenda.
the left thinks trump is incompetent. he was bankrupt a few times competing against other competent business people or powerful elites. but relative to government, trump suddenly looks like an avenger super hero when he renovated the wollman ice skating rink below budget which the city government wasn't able to accomplish. trump literally provided an affordable and wholesome family activity to the people of new york. although it's possible the powerful elite sat down in a close door meeting and conspired to provide trump with the most brilliant engineers to build the skating rink to make people think government sucks. i don't think the following article is propaganda because i can't find a rebuttal from new york times or other anti trump media - https://www.forbes.com/sites/offwhitepapers/2015/08/24/donald-trump-and-the-wollman-rinking-of-american-politics/#177027fd2fc8. instead all i see is a new york times article trying to figure out what other red tape bureaucracy they can come up with to avoid this kind humiliation from happening in the future - https://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/13/opinion/lessons-of-the-wollman-rink.html.
i'm not aware of stories like these with other presidents. example obama was a community leader. that's great and i admire obama for that but it's something i could have done myself. what really baffles me is trump's wollman rink was not rocket science. he did not find a cure for cancer. it was as simple as 1+1=2. but i think the difference is he worked hard, he focused and dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's. the typical untalented hard working psychopath who makes people angry (mr burns) but get things done as opposed to the typical talented or gifted leftists who gets people entertained and inspired but hardly lifts a finger to actually make a difference in society.
the government and powerful elite is just a reflection of the people. after all, the powerful elite and government officials don't come from outer space. the elite monarchy of russia was toppled only to be replaced by a more brutal powerful elite. meanwhile there are many prosperous monarchies. that is why singapore had a miraculous transformation under a dictatorship. also taiwan did great under a dictatorship. denmark, canada, norway, etc ... and many other countries are doing great under a social democracy. how about america? well, that is what i was trying to analyze in my blog "politics for dummies" and the results are inconclusive.
but i'm actually envious at the powerful elites especially JFK, his brother and his son. they are resting in peaceful luxury, unlike the poor americans who are suffering from poverty.
the powerful elite in america only acts according to their self interest. fortunately, if they ruin america they can't migrate their family to mars. unlike third world countries where the powerful elite can just migrate their family to america or australia after ruining their country. so it's in the powerful elite's interest to keep america strong and stable. also, the current power structure in america is probably better because at least you can save money and piggy back on the powerful elites' fortunes. example, pension funds of even poor people invest in lockheed martin. but with a corrupt government, all you can do is whine like a child. also we never know when the advanced weapons developed by lockheed might become useful one day. just read history and it's not crazy to believe the world can be a dangerous place. we may have nukes but if we allow other countries to gain economic hegemony around the world, they will be rich, we will be poor, our officials can easily be bribed and our enemies can have influence over our nukes. meanwhile our activists and intellectuals will be too busy finding their next meal. not to mention the powerful elite could become more lethal. they would murder or jail the critics or activists. i may sound like fear mongering but keep in mind these things happen in russia and china.
if you really think about it, the rich powerful elites are not that different from the poor people. it's the middle class who are different. example, the rich and poor have outdoor showers while the middle class only have indoor bathrooms. my rich friends have outdoor showers right by their swimming pool while my poor friends have a large drum of water on top of their trailer where they siphon off a hose to take a shower. my rich friends and poor friends each own lots of cars while a middle class family just owns 1 car. i have a rich friend who owns a bmw, a hummer, a bentley and a tesla. my poor friends also have lots of cars although they are all sitting on top of hollow blocks outside their trailer rusting and missing some wheels and engine. my rich friends and poor friends usually comes from broken families or are divorced while middle class families usually stay together. my friends who are super rich and super poor are hooked on drugs. my rich friends do cocaine, my poor friends do meth. the middle class just drinks budweiser (i got this joke from fellow libertarian adam corolla). but the middle class is the most evil because budweiser lobbies for rice farm subsidies to lower it's costs on raw material so now haiti cannot compete in the world market causing the country to starve.
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