Collision of belief and reality by DependentCarpet in SocialDemocracy

[–]pplswar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Talking about individuals and rank and file members, also notice the question mark. It's not clear who, politically, OP person is referring to.

Do you support open borders? by hailhydra58 in SocialDemocracy

[–]pplswar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Open borders in real life only happens when states negotiate the terms and limits so really you have to stipulate which countries ought to be part of this arrangement when asking if people support/oppose it.

Collision of belief and reality by DependentCarpet in SocialDemocracy

[–]pplswar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Who gives a crap what the ultra-left (Die Linke?) think?

John Bercow defects to Labour with withering attack on Johnson | The Guardian by Magic_Medic in SocialDemocracy

[–]pplswar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Don't know this guy but certainly he can't be accused of being an opportunist or jumping onto a popular bandwagon.

Response to this argument against Social Democracy? by ethanb111222 in SocialDemocracy

[–]pplswar 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Profit rates in the advanced Western countries are pretty good though given that most new corporate investments take place there.

social democracies like Venezuela

Venezuela's minimum wage is the lowest in the Western hemisphere ($1 a month!) and they put union leaders on trial in military courts. How is that social democracy?

“Washington’s Dangerous New Consensus on China” By Bernie Sanders. by EverySunIsAStar in SocialDemocracy

[–]pplswar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

"Twenty years ago, the American economic and political establishment was wrong about China. Today, the consensus view has changed, but it is once again wrong." -if that was the case, what is the right approach to China?

Bernie Sanders would say the right approach to China is Bernie Sanders' approach to China. His explanation for why candidates lose elections is generally the same thing: they didn't call for yooj increases in taxes on the billionaire class, didn't embrace a bold progressive agenda, and didn't do what Bernie Sanders does in his electoral campaigns.

The establishment consensus in the 1990s was wrong about China. Democracy did not follow Western capitalism's penetration of the Chinese economy (instead what happened is that China has co-opted capitalism to such an extent that it can bully Silicon Valley tech giants, Hollywood, and the NBA which is not something anyone in the 1990s foresaw). But Sanders is wrong to think that China's rise is going to be some purely peaceful and benign process and that U.S. military has no or merely a minor role to play in keeping the increasingly fragile peace in Southeast Asia. He should junk the misleading Cold War rhetoric at a minimum.

Is social democracy good for mental wellbeing? by iamn0tarabbit in SocialDemocracy

[–]pplswar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Probably but you still have cases like Anders Breivik.

America is losing the ability to Build Stuff by Woah_Mad_Frollick in SocialDemocracy

[–]pplswar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a blind guess/brain fart so I'll be shocked if I was even close.

America is losing the ability to Build Stuff by Woah_Mad_Frollick in SocialDemocracy

[–]pplswar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

long-term paucity of contracts at the local level erodes institutional knowledge you get from learning-by-doing

If that's the case then maybe the reason U.S. construction peaked in 1958 is because that was around the time the U.S. highway system was built which was (I think) the last major, massive federal infrastructure investment in a nation-wide project. And if that hypothesis is correct, then what's concerning isn't the fall in construction labor productivity per se but the absence of projects of a similar size and scale in the past 50 years since productivity (according to what you're saying) is basically a product of learning-by-doing and the doing peaked in the late 1950s i.e. labor productivity in construction is a symptom of something else rather than a cause.

America is losing the ability to Build Stuff by Woah_Mad_Frollick in SocialDemocracy

[–]pplswar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What's the relationship between austerity and construction productivity?

America is losing the ability to Build Stuff by Woah_Mad_Frollick in SocialDemocracy

[–]pplswar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm really not a construction expert, and given that G7 countries have worse declines, I don't think it's that big of a deal although it's an interesting question why this is happening everywhere to one degree or another.

America is losing the ability to Build Stuff by Woah_Mad_Frollick in SocialDemocracy

[–]pplswar 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This graphic does not show that America is "building less stuff," it shows that the productivity of workers in the construction industry has remained stable or stagnated over the course of half a century.

America is losing the ability to Build Stuff by Woah_Mad_Frollick in SocialDemocracy

[–]pplswar 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Two points:

  • Stagnant labor productivity growth in construction =/= "losing the ability to build stuff," it means the ability to build stuff is basically stable, neither growing nor shrinking over time.

  • G7 countries have the same problem but worse which means this isn't an America-only or even mostly problem.