tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post6677488538855135167..comments2023-11-22T09:11:01.567+00:00Comments on George Szirtes: Amusements at the Reichenbach FallsGeorge Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08889600788146987089noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-11578961577833350822008-10-02T07:28:00.000+01:002008-10-02T07:28:00.000+01:00To put this US$700 billion fix in perspective, com...To put this US$700 billion fix in perspective, compare with cost of Iraq War up to now US$648 billionGwil Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03305768121713053837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-69969889180182599612008-10-01T22:08:00.000+01:002008-10-01T22:08:00.000+01:00By now, I think my first response did involve over...By now, I think my first response did involve overanalysis: many of the reps (Rep reps) who voted the bill down did so for the silliest, pettiest reasons. I gave them much too credit for being thoughtful, I think!<BR/><BR/>(Sorry I could not respond sooner.)Andrew Shieldshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02804655739574694901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-66325106223572731582008-09-30T12:37:00.000+01:002008-09-30T12:37:00.000+01:00We may be analysing this too deeply. On BBC World ...We may be analysing this too deeply. <BR/>On BBC World News today a Zurich gnome accused the US of hillbilly politics. And yes, there was yesterday a State Senator who said he wasn't prepared to eat the cowpattie (sic) to get to the marshmallow. That's about hillbilly level I should say.Gwil Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03305768121713053837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-79192813079475164572008-09-30T11:47:00.000+01:002008-09-30T11:47:00.000+01:00Realism sounds good to me George. And as you say, ...Realism sounds good to me George. And as you say, capitalism is the only system we have at the moment. <BR/><BR/>But capitalism is awash with unrealities too. I am presently trying to work my way through 'The Shock Doctrine' and much of it confirms what I had half-known or suspected about the gory background to the system we live by. It was (and presumably is) ideologically fueled by Milton Friedman's economic theories (which Klein calls Disaster Capitalism) which Thatcher and GW Bush and the Neocons were keen supporters of. These theories were put into practice in Latin America in 1970s and resulted in rivers clogged with corpses of the disappeared. Friedman's solution to everything, it seems, was wholly deregulated, rampant capitalism. So he would have insisted that the only thing wrong with the present economic system in the US was that it had too MANY regulations. There's irony there alright, along with all those buckets of blood.Mark Granierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09899629187771913398noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-84994320233636213712008-09-30T08:15:00.000+01:002008-09-30T08:15:00.000+01:00I don't think it's a GOOD bill, Andrew. It just se...I don't think it's a GOOD bill, Andrew. It just seems to be the only possible short-term bill. There is no alternative to the capitalist system to hand without an extremely bloody revolution (physically and metaphorically speaking). There is only - as far as I, in my layman's way, can see - a better regulated version of what we have. Mixed economies, and so forth.<BR/><BR/>There are deep moral issues involved, of course, but if we don't want mass unemployment, hunger and despair, I think it had better be <I>realismus</I> rather than abstract principle. What do you think?George Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08889600788146987089noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-44887942196405065942008-09-30T06:28:00.000+01:002008-09-30T06:28:00.000+01:00Before I looked at the numbers and heard the comme...Before I looked at the numbers and heard the comments, I thought that the defeat of the bill might have been a principled thing that the bill, though not as bad as the original proposal, is still not a very good bill. <BR/><BR/>But I was making the mistake of thinking that the current Republican Party has principles that extend beyond the ends of their noses!Andrew Shieldshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02804655739574694901noreply@blogger.com