Liberal Forum

When the Bolsheviks  consolidated power in the 1920s, Lenin suppressed all forms of free trade.  Trading some toiletries for a garden rake was something that could get you killed by the NKVD.  Lenin ordered mass hangings of peasants who engaged in this type of petty capitalism and they were labeled “kulaks”

this was essentially the state crushing small business.  I dislike drawing parallels between the economy of the 1920s/30s with today because the scale of production is so drastically different, but some things still apply.

So early Soviet Union, the state sought to have total control over all monetary transactions.  This of course is totally dysfunctional, so Lenin had to embrace the NEP    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Economic_Policy

by loosening the death grip they had on free trade among the peasants, the Soviet oligarchs sought to let the economy flourish.  Without small business, an economy cannot flourish, and the destructive effect on small business is the same whether it comes from big government or larger fish (bigger corporations)

In the US today, small business is also being strangled.  Not by big government, but by multinationals.  Multinational corporations absolutely steamroll small business in ways that even the old soviets could not.  Consider the cumulative effects of the following advantages multinationals have

1.  Lobbying firms to bribe politicians
2.  Bulk volume buying 
3.  Regulations that hurt small businesses but give advantage to dominant monopolies (see 1)
4.  Advertising (control of media)

bottom line :  if you love free trade and freedom in general, get your head out of the 1950s and stop bitching about socialism/communism .  Understand the greatest enemy of freedom in the new era :  Globalism
 

SJConspirator » 24 Jan 2022, 9:00 pm » wrote: ↑

24 Jan 2022, 9:00 pm

When the Bolsheviks  consolidated power in the 1920s, Lenin suppressed all forms of free trade.  Trading some toiletries for a garden rake was something that could get you killed by the NKVD.  Lenin ordered mass hangings of peasants who engaged in this type of petty capitalism and they were labeled “kulaks”

this was essentially the state crushing small business.  I dislike drawing parallels between the economy of the 1920s/30s with today because the scale of production is so drastically different, but some things still apply.

So early Soviet Union, the state sought to have total control over all monetary transactions.  This of course is totally dysfunctional, so Lenin had to embrace the NEP    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Economic_Policy

by loosening the death grip they had on free trade among the peasants, the Soviet oligarchs sought to let the economy flourish.  Without small business, an economy cannot flourish, and the destructive effect on small business is the same whether it comes from big government or larger fish (bigger corporations)

In the US today, small business is also being strangled.  Not by big government, but by multinationals.  Multinational corporations absolutely steamroll small business in ways that even the old soviets could not.  Consider the cumulative effects of the following advantages multinationals have

1.  Lobbying firms to bribe politicians
2.  Bulk volume buying 
3.  Regulations that hurt small businesses but give advantage to dominant monopolies (see 1)
4.  Advertising (control of media)

bottom line :  if you love free trade and freedom in general, get your head out of the 1950s and stop bitching about socialism/communism .  Understand the greatest enemy of freedom in the new era :  Globalism

I just have one disagreement. 

1920s bolsheviks were also globalist and knew all that resulted from that. 
 

FOS » 24 Jan 2022, 9:03 pm » wrote: ↑

24 Jan 2022, 9:03 pm

I just have one disagreement. 

1920s bolsheviks were also globalist and knew all that resulted from that.

this is why intelligent debate is so hard.  The passing of time is gradual, inexorable and powerful. 

1920s globalism was so much different than today’s globalism in terms of logistics.  In 1920, McDonalds wasn’t even a thing.  Today a private landowner in the Southeast Asia could become a franchise owner and have a McDonalds doing business in 5 countries by the end of the week,  and the local guy selling fried possum assholes sautéed on a stick would be losing market share

I KNOW gloabalism was around in the 1920s, but mass overnight transit.. not so much 
 
 
 

Three **** posts, and two worthy of post of the day - both by SJC.

Hey, @FOS  - I already spent my one-a-day nomination putting one of your posts up. Be a dear, and nominate your favorite of SJC's first two posts in this thread for me, would ya?
 

Cannonpointer » 24 Jan 2022, 10:20 pm » wrote: ↑

24 Jan 2022, 10:20 pm

Three **** posts, and two worthy of post of the day - both by SJC.

Hey, @FOS  - I already spent my one-a-day nomination putting one of your posts up. Be a dear, and nominate your favorite of SJC's first two posts in this thread for me, would ya?

As you wish 
 

Cannonpointer » 24 Jan 2022, 10:20 pm » wrote: ↑

24 Jan 2022, 10:20 pm

Three **** posts, and two worthy of post of the day - both by SJC.

Hey, @FOS  - I already spent my one-a-day nomination putting one of your posts up. Be a dear, and nominate your favorite of SJC's first two posts in this thread for me, would ya?

Thanks CP.  sometimes you have a point rolling around in your head and it takes a few days to figure out how to present it.  My point here is that all the things that the Cold War was supposed to be about - free trade, Freedom vs oppression, and entrepreneur vs bloodless state beaurocrat.. all those conflicts still apply, but technology has changed the game in a way that makes multinationals (not spooky socialism) the new enemy of the modern industrious fair minded businessman
 

SJConspirator » 24 Jan 2022, 10:41 pm » wrote: ↑

24 Jan 2022, 10:41 pm

Thanks CP.  sometimes you have a point rolling around in your head and it takes a few days to figure out how to present it.  My point here is that all the things that the Cold War was supposed to be about - free trade, Freedom vs oppression, and entrepreneur vs bloodless state beautocrat.. all those conflicts still apply, but technology has changed the game in a way that makes multinationals (not spooky socialism) the new enemy of the modern industrious fair minded businessman

I understand yr trying to be fair minded but I personally am way past that. 

Just **** capitalism. **** it. I hate everything about it. 
 

FOS » 24 Jan 2022, 10:44 pm » wrote: ↑

24 Jan 2022, 10:44 pm

I understand yr trying to be fair minded but I personally am way past that. 

Just **** capitalism. **** it. I hate everything about it.

well that’s pretty bold.  If anything can get you hated faster than being a Nazi it is probably speaking out as a purist anti-capitalism guy


Edit - not by ME mind you.  But all the brainwashed sheep have capitalism completely internalized to the point that it is their very soul

SJConspirator » 24 Jan 2022, 10:52 pm » wrote: ↑

24 Jan 2022, 10:52 pm

well that’s pretty bold.  If anything can get you hated faster than being a Nazi it is probably speaking out as a purist anti-capitalism guy

Edit - not by ME mind you.  But all the brainwashed sheep have capitalism completely internalized to the point that it is their very soul

I mean...nazis were anti capitalist

FOS » 24 Jan 2022, 11:50 pm » wrote: ↑

24 Jan 2022, 11:50 pm

I mean...nazis were anti capitalist

most people don’t even have good functional definitions for Nazism or Capitalism.  So they don’t even know that

 

SJConspirator » 24 Jan 2022, 11:57 pm » wrote: ↑

24 Jan 2022, 11:57 pm

most people don’t even have good functional definitions for Nazism or Capitalism.  So they don’t even know that

https://youtu.be/HWjCStB6k4o

https://youtu.be/lEGWbO91Lls

Since we are resurrecting old threads.. I noticed this one was so devastating nobody even tried to retort

Oh. More of my drunk posting I think.

Anyway Heard of the Dutch farmer riots going on right now? No media is really covering it. Kulak uprising.

https://www.politico.eu/article/police- ... ssion-cut/