>SNIP
>>But I don't see DraganN arguing against capitalism (or for communism or socialism or ???). So there's no need to cloud the issue with a discussion about democracy being the optimal choice.
>
>Huh? Where have you been all these years? :o) Look at just one of his posts:
>
>Re: First Corn Ethanol Next Fat Ethanol Message #1279092
>
>I would guess 80% or more of his posts promote socialism and denegrate capitalism. It's Dragan afterall... :o)

Feels nice to be talked to in third person - but this third person is still me :).

Like I said years ago, capitalism has lost its most important ingredient: competition. In the times of cold war, both Germanies were thriving (at least compared to their in-camp neighbors) because they were the shop window to show the other side. The propaganda war was waged by means of pampering the masses and convincing them that ours was better with palpable means. I was actually lucky to be born in Yugoslavia, which was in neither bloc, but tried to prove it was better than both. So we weren't exploited (because the means of production weren't owned by any person), and yet weren't under a dictate of a planned economy (the gov't plan was just a guideline, there were no details sent to anyone below region level, and even that was a non-issue; don't remember anyone ever mentioning "fulfilling the plan" as one).

Now with socialism, such as it was, going down in crime and alcohol, the capitalism has fallen into its own influence. It does not and will not pamper the masses, instead it will go to wherever it left off in... 1945? 1930?

So let's see what indignities we had to suffer just to prove that we're better than the Soviets (as if the Soviet-style socialism was the only game in town... never mind, it will suffice for a straw man propaganda, forget the others). Social Security? What good is it if nobody's making a killing profit on it? We need to sell that.

Employment? We are not a social safety net, we're a profit making business. We'll push the mantra that the society works best when there's a 6% unemployment (which is a digit we just pulled out of thin air)(in Serbian, "sucked out of the pinky finger") while we use the lack of any comprehensive statistics so that nobody will ever know how many jobs we moved out or replaced with lower cost jobs. And we just don't count those who forget to report, who give up trying to find a job - they are not the workforce anymore.

Bankruptcy? You mean, loans can be forgiven? Well, maybe if you're one of us and we owe you something that's not secured. But if you owe us... why would we forgive you? We own this country, ergo we own you. You'll pay it all. Or your kids will. We'll spend two seconds of computer/printer/bulk mailer time to send you a letter of warning, and charge you $5 or $25 for that, and then add that cost to your debt, and then the interest.

Etc etc, the list goes on and on.

As to anyone who pulls out a Stalin and planned economy as the epitome of socialism, go back to your Michael Savage and senator McCarthy and hanging chads, they are the epitomes of democracy.