Off Topic Political Debate

Venezuela, now you're hitting on my second home so can comment. Not been any sanctions, my mother in law is on the poverty line struggling for food, that's real poverty and its not been a result of any profiteering but a complete state destruction of the means of production. They are following the classic communist model of make sure the population is dependent on the state for everything and the first stage in that process is create scarcity and control. additionally they use fear to maintain power by their "home mission" putting people in government housing under the threat of eviction if they do not continue to support the regime, same in the government industries either support or die, not for nothing did they adopt the motto "Nationalism, Socialism or Death"!!! I'm sick of their "world owes us a living" attitude, despite numerous aid attempts many of my extended family there are too goddam lazy to deserve what they want, when they have money they prefer to party and piss it against the wall, its a venezuelan disease!!! Much of this comes from the ease of wealth in the past from oil and the belief that there are no costs involved just always benefits... The Socialist unions are now attacking the one remaining productive company providing food and drink "Industrias Polar" and Mendoza who is a very effective capitalist. The company has the best paid workers with good conditions but the unions would you believe are moaning about the fact that the CEO earns more than the shop floor and point to the wages paid in terms of cases of beer ignoring all production, raw material and overhead costs. ts the same old socialist belief in the magic wand providing everything and people should just turn up to take an equal share of the output without any input into the process. Thankfully the opposition have made recent gains and I may be able to step foot on the soil again within the next decade...

 

Pretty much in the middle for me too..

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Hah!!!

 

....or just possibly:

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Economic Left/Right -10.0
Social Libertarian -6.0

Just to the left of Toby. How do you move pictures onto here ?

 

Right click on picture.
Copy Image Address
Go to Image above and click on it.
Paste your Image Address into the box that comes up
Press Insert

 

or right click, copy image then right click paste.......

 

The joys of socialism...Pretty much why I left too.... Ask our new signing... "On 18 April 2015 Peñaranda and fellow Deportivo La Guaira teammate Charlys Ortíz were both shot after going to a party. While Peñaranda suffered only a minor thigh injury, Ortiz undernwent surgery in the following day.[7]"

 

Rather a facile comment there aberdeen. Socialism = gun violence? One could hardly call the USA a "socialist state" - they do like their guns (and using them) however.

 

Vic facile or factual,,,,,???? In the USA the gun crime per capita is much lower than Ven and tends to stay within the criminal communities. In Venezuela you can't go to the shops without fear of being attacked, it really is that bad and it's cause is directly associated with the Castro/Chavez instilled culture.... Nothing wrong with guns in the hands f good people, in fact its very natural. Humanity could always return to natural principles and survival of the fittest. Given free reign I think we could rid society of crime.....

 

Agreed.....

What we are talking about is the corruption and greed based on criminal gangs who seek to fill their own pockets... endemic in all of humanity.. faith, creed or political persuasion... just more out in the open in the more corrupt and also legalised in more outright capitalist societies

BTW Aberdeen

You have a gun.... you are of the right persuasion
I do not.... I am more of a socialist persuasion

 

You're using causality to try and prove something completely irrelevant due to your irrational hatred of socialism.

https://www.sovereignman.com/trends...hen-venezuela-imposed-gun-control-laws-17984/

Honduras and Brazil both have very high homicide rates. Yet Brazil has highly restrictive gun laws, while Honduras has fairly lax gun laws.

Pakistan has some of the loosest gun laws in the world. Chile’s are fairly restrictive. Yet both have low homicide rates.

Bosnia has a very liberal gun laws. Belgium has very restrictive laws. Yet their homicide rates are similar.

Luxembourg has few privately-owned guns per capita, yet its murder rate is much higher than Germany’s, which has over twice as many.

Hawaii and Vermont have polar opposite gun laws yet nearly the same homicide rate.

Maryland and Virginia have vastly different gun laws, yet almost identical rates of gun-related deaths.

The numbers are all over the board.

Staunch advocates for gun control tend to think that more regulations and fewer guns make us safer.

Those who oppose gun control tend to think that more guns and fewer regulations make us safer.

But the data doesn’t support either assertion, meaning there must be other factors at work.

Can you please explain this?

 

So, once again one theme in one country is being taken to prove that a whole system does not work. By the same token can I say that the number of homeless people in New York is proof of the fact that Capitalism doesn't work in any shape or form ? So, Socialism = guns - but doesn't that mean that China should have more homicides than the USA ? Can we not also lay this myth of the 'survival of the fittest' to rest - if a person is in competition with the whole world around him then he is not going to get very far - only people who are prepared to cooperate actually survive. Is there any animal on this earth which is so dependent on others of his species, for so long, as man is ? Yet it is precisely man that blabs on about how free and individualist he is - wolf cubs in comparison can join in the hunt at 9 months old. Can we try to imagine your ideal society, because when I think that you have a big gun at home then I may just go away and get a bigger one - and where does that lead us ?

 

Survival of the fittest is corruption of Darwin's theory as we have said..... the species that survive are those that collaborate....

We really need to wake up as a species IMO.... the clock is ticking

 

One country held in high regard by Corbyn, Livingstone and their ilk. No system is perfect, I happen to believe in different systems for different cultures, in the West we are best off with capitalism with social conscience. If you believe that man is fundamentally good you can rely on man to create wealth and spread it. Thats not to say all will but a sizeable majority will. In socialism you kill the incentive for production as man loses his impetus in general and turns to corruption to get ahead. In some places pseudo socialism with a capitalst backbone works eg China Tunisia Libya under Gadaffi. I can only speak as I see it and from what I've seen, Venezuela the worst system on earth, Tunisia worked as a socialist state but I worked with multi billionaires in that system and they prospered making vast profits which they maintain as private capital. Interestingly off to Switzerland in a few weeks, somewhere I would consider the home of capitalism yet I find an effectively free public transport system I'll be giving a try. Bottom line on firearms is they are good in the right hands. I'll add on the survival of the fittest you are completely wrong cologne. Nobody is suggesting that an individual should go and be a lone wolf to succeed but grouping together a bunch from the best gene pool is how nature works and adapts. In just about every species this results in survival of the best genes. In our humanitarian way we choose to protect the weak within our species but that doesn't mean its perfect to allow survival of what one can see as parts of the species who oppose our own values. Benevolence is a luxury not a necessity....

 

There are so many questionable points in there I wouldn't even know where to start...

Everything I bolded basically...

You need to actually read what Darwin wrote too.

 

To change it slightly I see that the likely date for the EU referendum is my birthday - as a committed stay in voter, I hope it's not memorable for the wrong reasons

 

I avoid using Google as much as possible, but this is ridiculous...

Google has categorically denied “conspiracy theories” accusing it of censoring its search results to please the Conservative party in exchange for an agreement to pay just £130m in back taxes.

The accusations stem from Google’s autocomplete function, which suggests search terms based on user input. The suggested searches are created algorithmically from previous searches on the topic.

Users who enter “Labour are” are offered completed terms including “… finished”, “… a joke”, and “… right wing”. Similarly, entering “Lib Dems are” offers up “… finished”, “… pointless” and “… traitors”. But entering “Conservatives are” or “Tories are” offers no search suggestions at all.

That prompted some to accuse Google of censoring its search terms to please the government. One Guardian reader, for instance, wrote to the paper to say that “in light of the recent tax scandal, it seems that the internet may be up for the right price”. Even the Daily Mail reported the conspiracy theories.

 

Some basic research would have shown you that all that is claimed above is a load of tosh - I would have thought that a Guardian hack would have at least tried first! Not one of the terms stated above are returned for Labour or the Lib Dems in Google - in fact for most of the terms that are returned and then selected, the first search result is a Guardian article on the subject. It's a huge Guardian conspiracy...

 

From my screen



I'd learn how to use Google first before trying to be smart. I checked it earlier