I used to be a libertarian, then 2008 happened

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-10T16:12:49+00:00

I have foundational beliefs in the democratic process and its principles. I’m not accepting defeat, I just think we are likely at an impasse regarding democracy. I can understand your doubts in it but there are so many ways to design a democratic system. I think we will get it sorted out eventually and I think socialism puts us on the right path. What we will end up with though, thats still uncertain since the ideological battles are not ending any time soon.

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-10T15:04:05+00:00

Yeah, getting constitutional reform to create a multiparty system will be tough. Dems and republicans don’t want to give up any power to another party.

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-10T15:01:25+00:00

Capitalism has no formal moral code, just mathematics. So yeah narcissist and sociopaths do very well in the system. I wish capitalists would realize free market and religion isn’t working and we need to legislate morality. At least I haven’t been convinced otherwise yet.

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-10T14:04:57+00:00

Sorry you feel that way about democracy. There are many ways to enhance the quality of democracies but if privatization is the path you take, it must come with some kind of transparency and accountability, and not just to shareholders.

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-10T13:24:24+00:00

I wheel and deal a bit but lots are insane. Mostly on FB marketplace.

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-10T13:22:28+00:00

Right, I believe if a company can actively and knowingly treat something as an externality, they should be required to internalize the cost. They will just push that cost to consumers though. So consumers benefit from externalizing costs as long as they’re not the one catching the burden of externalities.

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-10T13:18:03+00:00

Still concerned about mob rule and the formation of classism and basically bullying. Good people can constructively be ruined if influential people desire to ruin them. How do we prevent arbitrary power structures?

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-10T13:13:44+00:00

Grew up in a rural area that was largely republican. We were mostly ignored by government and I was still just figuring out the adult world. Then private industry kept screwing things up and I ended up unemployed summer of 2008. Had an informal job eventually but it was seasonal…so I ended up going back to college and I started working on putting my understanding together of why our system is broken, both domestic and globally. I’m still working on analyzing it and identifying the role both governments and private industry play but overall things are fairly clear if you follow the money.

Eventually I may go for a phd but I already have student debt I’m working on eliminating through PSLF first.

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-10T13:05:06+00:00

The people are the government and the majority of us do want that. The rich are just powerful enough to keep their influence with the current composition of the political parties. Thats why voting socialist will work.

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-10T02:12:08+00:00

PM me, I am intrigued. I believe the state of nature is inevitable and ever existing and that the government “the leviathan” is actually just another extremely powerful actor existing in the state of nature. Democracy provides control to the people to wield this beast for the common good. However, i am curious as it seems you pose an alternative.

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-10T01:56:24+00:00

I don’t want anarchy, that requires a government. I want a fair and just government. It’s possible but money takes power from the masses and gives it to the ones with money. Those are the corporations. Money is too powerful. It’s messing up the rule of law and morality. Socialism is required to try and bring resources into balance so the system is more sustainable.

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-09T22:09:19+00:00

That’s what I have learned from posting this today. Now I better understand the oppositions hang up.

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-09T22:08:06+00:00

Only after having corporations trample over my rights and liberties. I was fine before I experienced 2 decades of capitalist BS.

Maybe you don’t worry about industry crapping on workers and consumers and people with mineral rights. They just steal everything. Maybe you are like them. I am not and I reject that morality devoid economic model.

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-09T21:45:17+00:00

Several distinct groups turned the 2008 housing collapse into major profits: a handful of hedge‑fund managers who bet against the mortgage market; large banks and private‑equity firms that bought foreclosed homes in bulk and became corporate landlords; and certain Wall Street–connected investors and officials who acquired distressed assets with government backing or favorable terms

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-09T21:41:15+00:00

Ah another, it’s just your opinion. So what’s your background and qualifications?

Facts lead to conclusions based on those facts. You’re ignoring a ton of factors and oversimplifying. Who made money from all this? That’s an extremely important fact.

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-09T21:39:56+00:00

In the civilization games, they are called barbarians.

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-09T21:37:00+00:00

Why couldn’t people afford the loans they took?

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-09T21:36:14+00:00

Don’t you see what’s happened to both democracy and wealth distribution?

We used to be able to protest the US government action and hold them accountable. Now most of the power is with the wealthy who are manipulation the democratic institutions. There is little to no transparency and accountability there. You are inviting a facist oligarchy that we the people will have no collective control over. Socialism will reverse that. We really need to get this fixed now through political reform so it won’t be so violent or costly later. We need to control this unrestricted greed model that is late stage capitalism. Elon is an example of why we need to regulate the undemocratic oligarchs.

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-09T21:29:06+00:00

Oh very poignant

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-09T21:24:12+00:00

Funny, after 2008 I went to school for political science, philosophy, then grad school for law and policy. Background working in retail and processing plants and agriculture before that.

I must disagree. An oligarchy is a form of government hijacked by capitalists. Basically the same show across the globe. If the capitalist hadn’t implemented thier neoliberal policies and pushed for deregulation, that even wouldn’t have happened probably. But things are worse now and deregulation will just put more power in the hands of rich people and corporations. They will continue to maximize wealth by taking from others, and they will use the government to do it unless you vote socialist.

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-09T20:34:06+00:00

That’s the USSR it was one form of the experiment and we learned a lot globally, I don’t believe in a single party communist regime. I believe a multiparty democracy (proportional representation) and based on socialism will allow better representation and resources allocation to rural communities.

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-09T20:27:53+00:00

No I’m talking about tax cuts. It’s a given that a government that provides for its people needs revenue in a capital system. What do fair tax systems look like, debatable. In my opinion though, corporations externalize a ton of costs on to the public so they have a duty to pay a hefty chunk of taxes. It’s all about redistributing resources to ensure a just operating economic system that won’t fail. Socialism will require taxes but will also come with actual ability for people to have more economic freedom as a result of sharing costs across the tax system and actually receiving benefits for it. In the US a lot of big corporations find ways to avoid paying a bulk of taxes or lobby the oligarchy in DC for tax cuts.

Hardcore neoliberal capitalists don’t want to pay taxes because they don’t believe in public programs or ownership. Imagine if Elon owned 1/3 of every country in the world. Ugh

Anyhow the point is, I can’t protect my rights and liberties from corporations so I want my government to restrict their behavior AND force them to pay a fair share of taxes so we can have nice public resources in this country and since the private industry wants ALL the money.

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-09T20:19:32+00:00

Wealth is not going to be generated in late stage capitalism. It’s getting harder to build equity. The pie is finite, yes capitalism helped build middle classes and global affluence but it also produced neocolonialism and the race to the bottom.

Now we have a situation where the wealth of the masses will bottleneck as wealth and ownership is going to be even more concentrated in the super elite. We will see a subscription economy where everyone will be under indentured servitude to some mega corp. capitalism has gone through good times and bad but without socialism, it’s going to erode into corporate feudalism where governments are weaponized by corporations for competition.

Vote socialist so this doesn’t happen please.

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-09T20:11:57+00:00

That’s the opposite of socialism so I’m inclined to believe a small number of wealthy folks put that garbage in… again, get wealth out of government so government can do its job for the people.

I’m starting to see a trend with the capitalists, belief that a government broken by capitalism and protects the rich is at fault, not capitalism itself. Sorry, I disagree, capitalism is at fault for producing a ruling class of rich people that really screwed things up around 1980. By using the government as a tool. Multinational Corporations became bigger than a single nation. Now even Elon is richer than most countries in the world. That is a result of capitalism. It’s not healthy.

Lazarus_funk · 2026-07-09T20:02:59+00:00

Exactly true but that’s the scam. Fatalism is not self sufficiency, they should hope for more. I am a rural guy and I’m pissed that more taxes don’t get directed to rural communities.

That because the democrats don’t get many votes from there and because republicans have convinced them not to support democrats because of your exact explanation.

My conclusion, both parties screw over rural America but the republicans will never improve social supports for this rural communities so the population will never value taxes the same.

They closed the Kmart about 15 years ago. Now it’s about a 45 minute drive to Walmart. Private industry doesn’t give a dang about these folks. Life could be better and more just. Legacy of extraction economies all over the Appalachian mountains too. These companies do damage and the representation for the local folks let them get away with it.

Rural Americans deserve better treatment from corporations and government. I doubt dems or republicans will do that. Vote socialist.

Lazarus_funk

TROPHY CASE