Well, well, well.... old Commie Poland.... who'd a thunk?

[Joe Chi Minh]

Here is one of the posts in response to the article in the Guardian by Adam Michnik, linked below it.

Irresistance

I left Poland when I was just about 7, although I came back many times and have lived there recently again. For me, when I was younger, the commie times were for a very long time something I very much loved, perhaps childishly, as a time of harmony, of social cohesion, of a place where you help each other out. I still remember the nights I used to cry and yearn to go back there, to live there, to leave this orderly, seemingly cold Holland behind and go back. To this day I still dont fully understand why this feeling was so intense, so deep, perhaps, also, idealized, I am sure...

Then the wall fell, and I still longed for that time. Yes, we all drove shitty cars, yes, I remember waiting for a bit of meat in the lines, but it felt good, no matter what you said, it was the place I felt best, now being adult perhaps I can realize with some rational thinking it was all really an illusion, but I still remember it as the best time of my life.

Until one day I had the chance to put my elusive dream into practice - at the age of 16 I left Holland and decided to go back to Poland to live there. This was around 1995 or so, a few years down the track after the big transformation began to a fully capitalistic, democratic, grab-what-you-can, be better than your neighbour, own a better car, flash your goodies Poland. Only then did I realize that the time I was longing for was long gone, and people had changed beyond recogition to me. This was not the Poland I knew, this was not the Poland I wanted to come back to.

Even now, being 30 years old and at least believing I have somewhat of an understanding of societies and political systems and an idea of why things are right or wrong, I still am unable to decide what truly was the better system for my country, or perhaps even for people in general - share a mild misery but be roughly equal, or in theory be able to grab every opportunity but live in a world where no one gives a damn about anyone but himself...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/09/solidarity-poland-berlin-wall-1989

[Joe Chi Minh]

1. An East German pespective, endorsed by a young German on Channel 4,

earlier this evening - although I missed much of it through deafness, apparently with a lot of humour. He'd only see himself as a German for the purposes of football matches. The rest of the time, he's EAST GERMAN, if you please! And yet, compared to the UK and US, Germany today is positively enlightened!

Now wait for the doltish trolls to witter on about the Wall, and the fugitives!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/08/1989-berlin-wall

My! You should see them coming out of the woodwork in these responses! If there is one thing that typifies their intellectual dereliction its their juvenile harping on about the Brabant! I liked Rednorth's response:

"Look, the East wanted burgers and trashy celebrity culture.

They got it.

Stop whining."

[proteus_lives]

2. Longing for the days of Soviet domination.

:eyes:

When their country was a parking lot for Russian tanks. The yearning for the halcyon days of secret police and border guards.

Capitalism/European socialism has it's problems but it beats the shit out of the old days of the Warsaw Pact.

[Joe Chi Minh]

3. Unless you're one of the tens of thousands of homeless in the US - or is it

hundreds of thousands, now? But they don't exist for you materialist pygmies, do they?

[proteus_lives]

6. Want to trade political freedom for economy security?

Tired of being an individual on your own? Rather be one of the faceless proletariat?

Don't want to look for a job or work for a small-business owner? Rather toil for the state?

Want the awesome experience of waiting in line for tickets to the toilet paper line?

Read a banned book? Make a negative comment about your glorious leaders? Back the wrong general or Party leader? Well then enjoy a state-sponsored vacation to the gulag!

Hate how your neighbor refuses to take his trash on time? Denounce him to the nearest policeman or Party politico!

Want to lose weight? Try our state-sponsored famine! You want be able to keep the pounds on. If you can, the you are hoarding food, a crime against the People. You will be shot.

Tired of posting political comments on a site like DU? Don't worry about it! Here dissent is not allowed!

Don't want the choice of serving in your country's armed forces? We won't give you the choice! (Don't worry about learning a foreign language you mostly be used domestically to put down strikes or counter-revolutions.)


If you match at least four of these desire than you would love a communist country! Come and enjoy! (within state limits of enjoyment) Come and travel to North Korea or if you have access to a time machine, you'll have wider access to many different gray and bleak countries.

Enjoy your trip comrade! And remember you are secondary to the needs of the state!

[IndianaGreen]

11. The only political freedom we have under capitalism is the freedom to be exploited

You appear to have been well indoctrinated during the Cold War. I recognize some of the bullshit!

[proteus_lives]

13. I was under ten when the Cold War ended. Not much time to get indoctrinated.

You remember the end right? When communism crapped itself and died? My view actually comes from reading a lot of books and taking a lot of classes on politics and history. For example I'm glad I grew up in a country where the only classes and books available were the ones "approved by the Party".

"The only political freedom we have under capitalism is the freedom to be exploited" I recognize this shit too. Usually you hear it from college freshmen too young and naive to know better. Never took off the that Che t-shirt (Mass-produced and sold in the true spirit of capitalism) and beret huh?

I bet you've near even been near a communist country. Or you just see what you choose to see. I've noticed how you make vague allusions to communist advantages but you haven't tried to refute the history of brutality, oppression, censorship and utter-bleakness of the communist regimes. Because you can't. Next you'll deny all this and pretend you're not an authoritarian who wants to live in a gray world where you can't vote for other party, worship as you choose, live where you choose, work as you choose, speak as you like, read any book you want or listen to a minority opinion.

But hey, if we have the health-care we want, who needs freedom of speech or religion?

[Joe Chi Minh]

59. "But hey, if we have the health-care we want, who needs freedom of speech or religion?"

With that one remark, you reveal yourself as a pampered, monied, right-wing lout, and evidently don't even know your shame.

Health care is life, you purblind greedhead. Something you would evidently be the last to sacrifice for any cause.at.all!

[Joe Chi Minh]

14. YES, PLEASE!!!!!

[no limit]

18. Really? wow.

Jesus fucking christ, have you people never taken a simple middle school history lesson?

[proteus_lives]

21. Wow. The "Helpful Idiot" in the cyber-flesh.

To quote Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would trade freedom for security deserve neither."


Think about while you wish for a totalitarian regime to overtake the UK.

[Joe Chi Minh]

26. One person sleeping on the street is worth any number of you egoists.

[no limit]

30. Are you totally out of your fucking mind?

you wanna fight homelessness then do that. You don't need to have a one party system that pisses all over your rights and imprisons you if you disagree to eliminate homlessness. In fact if you like communism so much take half of your paycheck and find a homeless guy each month to give that half to; and you can do that without having any of your rights taken away.

Seriously dude, you can't be fucking serious.

[Joe Chi Minh]

35. There there. I'm only talking about helping homeless, hungry people,

from the more than ample, disposable income of Mammon-worshipping materialists. Your poorer fellow-citizens have as much right as any of you to material security. And some disposable income, if it comes to that.

You look set fair to lose far more, as a result of the greed of your pals, than even Albanian Communism would have been able to do. And wouldn't it serve you all right!

[no limit]

38. Do you have any idea how many homeless and hungry people China and Cuba have?

why don't you look it up before you talk any further. You can start here:

http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y00/jun00/07e7.htm

I asked you a question, why don't you give half of your income away to the homeless? In fact what the hell are you doing on the internet? You don't need that materialistic bullshit, take that money and give it to a poor person. How many TVs do you own in your home?

[Joe Chi Minh]

45. You idiot. How on earth do you know I don't! We're on a pension appreciably lower than the

national minimum, but until recently, we've managed to give 15% away per week. Quite a bit more, when we can. Recently, half of that, but it will go up again asap. Satisfy your barmy suspicions?

You'll find less threadbare carpets in any hostel for the homeless than ours. But it's really more complicated, because my wife has not entirely lost all her normal, female, home-making aspirations, so I'm not a totally fee agent as regards an ascetical life-style. But even she isn't really covetous at all. We have one TV, this not bad computer, and a nice, little Citroen CV3, a few years old, bought by her son. A good few years ago, her ex had offered to buy her a new car, but while appreciating his goodwill, she did not taken him up on it. We are very fortunate compared to many other people, who have to worry about a mortgage, etc. The flat is owned by my step-son.

Happiness cannot be be found, first and foremost, via possessions. Every human being needs interior peace, peace in their heart. The young goalkeeper of the German, national team recently committed suicide, as a result of losing their young daughter, fearing losing their other one, and the pressures of professional football, degraded and debased as it has become, thanks to the influence of the business types who own the clubs. They should all be nationalised. I'd be surprised if he was not a very good man, but his death is indicative of how important a spiritual anchor is, not just to society at large, but to each one of us, personally. If we are fortunate enough to have such an understanding to fall back on, times of crisis serve to remind us.

[no limit]

46. Way to completely ignore the main point, nicely done. and being called an idiot by you is ironic

Fact still remains cuba and china have more homeless and more hungry than the US ever had.

The internet sure seems like something you don't need especially since you think free internet shouldn't even exist. So take the monthly amount you pay for your internet and give that money to someone that can't afford internet. And why don't you just move to China? Obviously you think communism will solve all your problems.

[Joe Chi Minh]

47. In both cases, the US and the West, generally, are the reason. The spread poverty like they spread

democracy; with an iron fist. Grow up. I don't have problems of any moment. It's immaterial to me personally what kind of regime I live under. Though it sure helps having social security. Not something that came to the US without fierce opposition from the Republicans, the "Party of Business".

If I had a problem, I would avoid arguing about the related subject, simply because of venal idiots like you, who would automatically assume it was the reason I was concerned about it.

You sound like Judas, complaining that Magdalene was wasting money on Christ, when she could have given it to the poor - though the reality was that he stole from the public purse - from the poor.

[no limit]

51. Right. China's problems don't stem from the corruption of the state. Its all the US's fault

Of course if you actually did your research you wouldn't be making such an absurd statement.

[LeftishBrit]

40. Is an authoritarian regime that crushes dissent and locks people up for the slightest thing...

the only way of helping homeless, hungry people?

It's not either/or! Scandinavian countries are pretty good at preventing homelessness and hunger, and they don't send people to gulags.

[Joe Chi Minh]

44. Here is your answer, Muttly:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/11/lessons-of-1989-new-alternative

Seemingly, yes, if they're heartless vermin. The same kind of trouble-makers that plunged the Russians into penury, and set China on its current disastrous course.

Oh, and I suppose you've been a great supporter of Scandinavian socialism. We've heard precious little about it in the MSM in the UK. It's always been France and Germany, and that, grudgingly since they show a sense of society, of social responsibility. And I'm darned sure you'll have been hearing zilch about their politics.

[LeftishBrit]

52. China and Russia have to some degree ended up with aspects of the worst of both worlds...

The social authoritarianism of Communism combined with the economic insecurity and poverty of free-market capitalism. Nonetheless, the worst periods in both countries were when communist dictators went nuts and murdered an awful lot of people.

Poland has had lots of nasty authoritarian regimes: before Communism (I should know, my ancestors include refugees from there); during Communism; and to some degree after Communism. Communism didn't cause *all* the problems in Poland but it didn't stop or prevent them either.

'Oh, and I suppose you've been a great supporter of Scandinavian socialism.'

As a matter of fact yes. And I don't get all my info on Europaean countries from the British MSM - I have a number of Norwegian and Finnish friends and colleagues.

[proteus_lives]

31. What's that supposed to mean?

I would bet you that most people on the street would prefer not to sleep in a communist gulag.

[Joe Chi Minh]

34. What a dopey strawman! It figures. It would be your type in the gulag.

[no limit]

37. Lol. Jesus fucking christ. This has got to be a joke.

[Joe Chi Minh]

48. Your eloquence is matched only by the subtlety and profundity of your "thinking"..

[Joe Chi Minh]

27. My freedom for their economic security? That kind of trade-off is the basis of

Christian morality. I hope I'll be honoured to 'be my brother's keeper' as long as I draw breath.

[proteus_lives]

32. Wow. You really have no clue about real life do you?

You're trying to paint yourself as a martyr (failing miserably BTW)

You're an authoritarian. (You want to take freedoms from people)

You're weak. (You don't want to make choices, you want the state to make them for you.)

I must reach the conclusion that you've had everything in life given to you. If you had worked for anything then you wouldn't be so eager to give it away.

You're willing to feed the body but want to starve the soul.

[Joe Chi Minh]

33. "You're willing to feed the body but want to starve the soul." Love it! You're priceless!

[proteus_lives]

43. You respond with LOL and IndianaGreen stopped responding.

Why?

Because you can't defend your positions. And IG can't think any new ways to defend communism.

You're an authoritarian. You're willing to trade political/religious/social freedoms for a vague sense of security. You might be one of the most pathetic posters I've ever encountered on DU.

Read a history book or two about the Soviet Bloc. You might be surprised.

[Joe Chi Minh]

50. The First Circle could have left no-one with any illusions about life

under Stalin, yet, after little, old babushkas had had to stand by the roadside selling their last few knick-knacks, during the Russian winter, if Stalin had ever lost his popularity with the poor, he became very popular again. Just how evil does US-UK capitalism have to get for people to hanker for Stalin's rule?

As for "LOL", it seems like your kind of pathetic response. Though you do favour a certain, crude, blasphemous dimension, where possible. I fear however, I must leave you to your ignorant ravings now, as arguing further with such a nit-wit, would make an idiot of me. The "penny" evidently "dropped" with Indiana Green about arguing with ignorance, before it did with me. Kudos to him. Or more like, shame on me, perhaps.

[proteus_lives]

54. Actually IG is a woman.

Once again you can't defend your positions.

You're a spoiled westerner who naively admires a political system you don't understand. It's childish, BTW how old are you? I could understand your rants a little more if you like 19.

And now you defend Stalin. Pretty sad and it confirms your ignorance. I again suggest a more serious path of study. Ignore political pamphlets and people in coffee-shops. Read actual books.

[Joe Chi Minh]

56. If you think I am defending Stalin, you're command of English is still somewhat wanting.

I pointed out that many of the Russians did.

However, this whole Communism 'kick' I'm on here is really mainly to wind you unconscionable greedheads up, and it's been successful beyond my wildest dreams.

Personally, I reckon you'd love Stalin to bits, if you were one of the unfortunate Americans this article refers to:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/13-0

If only because your sole concern seems to be Number One, in affluent circumstances. How you'd behave, if the boom were to be lowered on you, I dread to think.

Stalin's regime was extraordinarily oppressive, but in terms of torture, does not seem to have been as demonically cruel and vile as Pinochet's CIA-backed hell on earth; nor, indeed, as the US and its proxies today.

Whatever the comparative degrees of social and political oppression of the various right-wing and left-wing regimes, historically, any attempt at a moral justification by our current neo-liberal capitalists of their creed and motive is beyond risible. Morally, the neo-liberal capitalism of the US and UK today, though particularly the US, is seemingly infinitely inquitous. I await with interest a report stating that the latest torture of the US/UK Axis is impaling. You know... a sharpened telegraph pole hammered up some poor soul's backside. Where else is there to go? Surely the US, Chile and Uzbekistan have exhausted all other recourses at refining their modes of torture. Boiling alive, sodomising children, torturing people in front of their families?

Communism, on the other hand, however hypocritically, in Europe, claimed and evidently paid some kind of tribute beyond lip-service to protecting the poor from the worst vicissitudes of indigence. In China, Communism served as a wonderful stop-gap, in preparation for the Christianity which will one day be universal - and unambiguously Socialist in terms of its economics.

[Joe Chi Minh]

28. A few home truths for you. Not that they'll mean anything to you. None so blind...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/nov/11/1989-anniversary-berlin-communism

[LeftishBrit]

41. There is some truth in this article, but it's making a different point

Namely that the USA's emergence as the sole superpower made it easier for it to do some things that were disastrous for the world.

It's not actually saying that life in Poland under Soviet domination was great. It is pointing out that life in Latin America, and later Iraq, under American domination wasn't great either. And that perhaps having the Soviet Union as a counterbalance might have prevented some disasters. Which may be true - though it's also possible that the USA and/or Russia would have finally let off the Big One and there would have been no one left to post.

[Joe Chi Minh]

49. Precisely.

[Joe Chi Minh]

29. You think that with many thousands of your fellow-countrymen living and sleeping

on the streets, in tents and in subways, and many, many more, long-term unemployed and with scant foreseeable prospects of a job, don't make the US appear 'gray and bleak'? A strange perspective, indeed. Particularly, for a DUer.

[edwardian]

57. Try millions

of homeless Americans. The American dream is no more.

[IndianaGreen]

4. 'old Commie Poland' had abortion rights and LGBT rights

Under a reactionary Catholic government, women and LGBTs have lost a lot of ground.

Thank you for your freedoms!

:sarcasm:

[proteus_lives]

7. I know!

I bet you wish you lived in a commie country right now so you could run over to the local party office and denounce me for negative thoughts about our glorious leadership!

Oh wait, if we lived in a commie country a site like DU wouldn't be allowed to exist. We wouldn't be having this conversation. Or we'd be too busy waiting in an eight-hour line for cabbage, batteries or bread.

Ooooh, if only!!

[IndianaGreen]

8. Actually, we would still have DU plus free universal health care

and our troops would be home, away from imperialist wars overseas.

[proteus_lives]

9. Our troops would be at home crushing dissent.

Or forcing farmers to give up their crops so the glorious leaders can sell them abroad. Or they would be crushing reform movements in Czechoslovakia or Hungary.


"we would still have DU" :rofl: You actually believe that? That they would allow DU in a one-party communist state with the KGB up everyone's ass?

Step back from the red kool-aid. I think you've had enough.

[IndianaGreen]

10. They probably would be home repairing bridges, roads, and building schools

which is what troops do in socialist countries.

[proteus_lives]

12. You actually believe that?

I mean seriously? I noticed how you've moved from "communist" to "socialist" If you're talking about modern Europe I could see some of your points.

But if you're talking about the famously shoddy infrastructure of the old Bloc....Well you must love tomb-like apartment blocks, leaky nuke reactors and crumbling public buildings.

[no limit]

16. Lol yeah, a one party state will let you have open dissent. Again, the arrogance is amazing

[provis99]

53. why aren't you busy worshiping Ayn Rand, you libertarian clown?

[proteus_lives]

55. Rand? Libertarian?

What gave that idea? That I hold the common opinion that communism is stupid?

I don't how that connects to Rand(whom I've never read) and Libertarianism which I don't follow.

What's the connection?

[RedCloud]

19. Perhaps you could explain the wonders of capitalism to the Indian reservations

Seems to me like I understand these people better because they struggled and suffered. Of course I am sure you figured out that when Stalin's Red Army eventually routed the Nazis and saw 57,000,000 dead along the way they might not have played politics in your tiddly wink fashion and instead created buffer zones.

[Joe Chi Minh]

5. Deft hit the mark nicely: "Interesting artilce. It gives a fuller perspective

of the pluses and minuses of socialism compared to capitalism. Thanks!.

It is also interesting to see all the haters coming out this Sunday making comments displaying inane and purile, rightwing, anglo-flag-waving, insipid nonsense.

Maybe the English don't want to be distracted by the fact that England is financially broke, shattered by 50-yr high levels of joblessness, culturally broken and becoming more and more irrelevant politically with each passing year ... and, thereby, if they care to notice, becoming more and more like East Germany used to be."

[no limit]

15. The ammount of arrogance in this thread is amazing. I lived in Poland

when it was under communism rule I was too young to remember, I left Poland in 1994 at the age of 8. But my parents and many other relatives remember it very well.

Anyone that thinks those days were some glorious example of how great communism was is full of crap. All my relatives recall those times, and they don't do so in a positive light.

But hey, if you guys love communism so much move to Cuba. See how it works out for you.

[emilyg]

17. I was born in Poland. Agree.

[RedCloud]

20. And I stopped some Polish officials from abusing a Russian woman.

Amazing how Nazi they can become in seconds, despite Auschwitz staring them in the face.

[no limit]

25. Huh?

[MattSh]

23. In response…

My wife was born in 1970, in Kiev, USSR. If it was as bad as all your relatives say, one would wonder why there is still anyone left here. Probably because your relatives mastered in seeing only the bad. Yes, there is good and bad everywhere, including the USA.

She and her family lived through the collapse of the Soviet Union and the banking system, through Ukrainian independence, through the hyperinflation five years later, through the Orange Revolution and through the utter failure of said revolution. And guess what? It's not all that uncommon to hear stories, fond stories "of Soviet Union times." The 1990's, after the fall of the USSR, were a lot worse than most of what occurred in post WWII USSR.

The 21st Century has bought some of the good and some of the bad of American style capitalism. Some people have prospered, many have not.

And now, courtesy of the "Made in USA World-Wide financial crisis, bought to you and everyone else by Gold in Sacks (Goldman Sachs), and the Disaster Capitalism crew, there is a lot more looking back on "Soviet Union times."

Disclosure: my wife still resides in Kiev, along with myself, the last four years.

.

[no limit]

24. Are you really telling me that because everyone didn't die the system was great?

Yes, most people survived under communism, as most people survive under capitalism. What a silly argument to be making.

And was it all horrible, of course not. Yes, by large most people were taken care of. But that depends on what you mean by taken care off. Yes, they were fed. Depending on what you mean by fed. They got enough to survive but food shortages were extremely common and there was a waiting period for simple meats. And yes they had a roof over their heads. But they also had absolutely no freedom, no opportunity for advancement, they had to wait in lines for such simple things as toilette paper, deal with energy shortages (not good in that part of the world during the winter, believe me) and worst of all they had to watch their oppressive government piss all over them on a day to day basis until the pot finally boiled over. And I find the fact anyone would be advancing communism on an open medium such as DU is just a little bit ironic.

And we don't have to look back at communist times, look at China, look at Cuba (both countries that are now moving away from communism). I don't think there is anything preventing you guys from moving to those countries. Try it out for a year and see how it works out for you, while you still can.

[era veteran]

58. Begs the response, Were they connected?

You know folks with special stores, traffic lanes dedicated to the new communist aristocracy, the ruling elite which, seems totally contradictory to the basic precept of communism; total equality. I only know E. Berlin personally but the oppression was in the air as heavy as a downtown tannery. Perhaps misplaced nostalgia has colored currant remembrance of the good old days. To be sure this unchecked wall street stealing masquerading as capitalism should be held in check. All political systems inspire the best and worse in believers. I always felt the Ukrainians suffered the worse from the war than other parts of Stalin's fiefdom. Peace, Richard

[Lydia Leftcoast]

22. Ya know, there are degrees between capitalism and Communism

It's not an either-or thing.

[fasttense]

36. I find it interesting that frequently the best replies to a post are at the end. n/t

[LeftishBrit]

39. It's not 'either/or'

The choice between extreme doctrinaire communism and extreme doctrinaire capitalism reminds me of the old playground saying, "Would you rather run a mile, jump a stile or eat a country pancake?" None of them is very appetizing - 'running a mile' might be the best choice if faced with either of the extremes!. There are many things in between Soviet Bloc communism and hard-right laissez-faire economics.

I knew people who lived in Poland under communism and then moved to Britain to study; and their experiences were nothing like the nostalgic rosy-tinged view given by the commentators in the OP. Time and distance often bring nostalgia. Life in 1980s Poland was harsh, authoritarian, and though people had the security of being kept from absolute abject poverty, living was far from comfortable.

I also know people who live there now. The recent governments are nasty, bigoted, and prepared to privatize everything that moves. Many people have 'voted with their feet' since they joined the EU and the EU made migration easy between different EU countries. The healthcare system always seems near collapse. The last Prime Minister, Kaczynski, was a borderline-fascist, with a literal clone (identical twin) as President. The current president Tusk is slightly better but not that much: as I said in another thread, he could perhaps be described as the Polish McCain to Kaczynski's Bush.

If I had to choose, the present system is better: you are less likely to be thrown into prison, and you can leave if you wish to. But neither is appetizing. I would much rather live in a more progressive Europaean country with a democratic socialist government and a mixed economy. The UK system is far from perfect and may get worse yet, but is much better than Poland, now or under Communism.

[era veteran]

42. Soviet/ Warsaw Pact Communism sucked

That is putting it mildly. Budapest 1956, Fucking communist oppressors. I must confess I was indoctrinated to dislike these thugs but it was for a real reason. They were thugs.

[Joe Chi Minh]

60. Just as the family is the basis of a society, accommodation, the home is the foundation-stone

of the family's material survival. It's like another version of the Republicans' incomprehension that a society must look after its own, after they have left the womb, as well as before.

'Family values' are not a 'pick and mix' business. But they are the business of the nation - before commerce. We're beginning to see the effects of the large corporations' setting themselves up as munificent Gods, to which all must bow and serve as slaves. I mean the lower orders, of course.

[Joe Chi Minh]

61. ” The problem is not how to save capitalism but how to save the unique and

successful mixed economy built in the US over the eighty five years since the new deal. Our system is not capitalism. Our economy has a large public sector, which at it’s best, was competently concerened with research, defense, financial stability, environmental safety, social security, and large measures of education, health care, and housing. Today, after thirty years of attack on government, all these functions are damaged and in peril.

“The rot comes from predators posing as conservatives and mouthing the rhetoric of “free markets”. They are not actually interested in free markets. Their goal is to use the government to build monopolies, to control resources, to block regulation, to crush unions, to divert as much as possible from taxpayers into private pockets. They have a reckless attitude toward war making and they put the financial system in peril by failing to enforce standards of ethics and transparency. “

James K. Galbraith
Harper’s Magazine, November 2008.

This was posted to the comments column of "naked capitalism" by "mechanic".

In reality, it was worse, wasn't it? It wasn't a failure to enforce standards of ethics and transparency, but a deliberate and determined abolition of those safeguards.