Quote Originally Posted by Crocodile View Post
I would say let the people decide what they need and in what quantities.
That's because you are extremely suspicious against "the state" and I believe the state can be good.
I'd say 'let's force people to consume less, before it is too late... " We have only one planet.
I'd trust the state a lot more than I trust a privately owned company to take decisions about how much people can consume anyway. Corporations will always choose the most profitable option over the most moral or ecologically sustainable.

Quote Originally Posted by Crocodile View Post
Huh? When? There were times that LOTS OF PEOPLE died from hunger in the Soviet Union. Are you talking about the 1980s?
Yes, I was talking about modern times 60s, 70s, 80s.

Quote Originally Posted by Crocodile View Post
How many starving people there were in the US at that time? How many hadn't had roof over their head (and not on any kind of the relief like Welfare)?
Plenty, Depression and general poverty in the South and other rural areas. Plus, the USA was richer at the time that the revolution happened in Russia, so the starting points are not the same. Additionally, the USA was not annihilated by the war like large parts of the USSR were.


Quote Originally Posted by Crocodile View Post
Don't get me started. The planned economy implies the exploitation of everybody by the state.
Well the IDEA is that the state is the people, right? So it's exploiting itself in that case, which can be argued, is fair.
It just depends on how you look at it.

Quote Originally Posted by Crocodile View Post
As to the globalism... have you ever heard the USSR was a country which purpose was to become global? Have you ever heard about the World Revolution?
Yes, but not for the purpose of "liberating people" etc, etc as far as I know. It wanted to be global, but for totally different reasons than the kind of capitalism that the US represents. Plus I think the USSR was fairly realistic about the "world revolution".

Quote Originally Posted by Crocodile View Post
I'm not sure you're familiar enough with Lenin's publications. )
Not familiar with them at all - what is the relevance? I only know that he made some modifications to communism to fit Russia's situation, and thereby deviated a bit from what Marx had envisaged - and some people who were communists rejected the USSR because of it. Other than that I only know a few one liners that he allegedly said in his speeches.

Quote Originally Posted by Crocodile View Post
We have a fundamental disagreement here. I mean, do you at all support the cause of the free trade? Did you have a chance to read Adam Smith and other classical economy guys?
Yes I have read Adam Smith and other economic philosophers and I think Smith's writings have been hijacked by modern liberalists who are using it to further their own agenda. Fundamentally I think he has many good points. Unfortunately it was over 15 years ago that I read him and my memory of it is a bit hazy.

Quote Originally Posted by Crocodile View Post
Why? Have Karl Marx ever mentioned the golden standard is the must?
I have no idea what he thought of it, if anything. I am not a Marxist. I just personally think that money that is based on real value is safer than money which can be manipulated to serve an individual country's needs