Socialsim built the middle class in America

[Josephus]

c'mon i haven't done this in a long time:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/04/25/bill_maher_socialism_built_the_middle_class_in_america.html

BILL MAHER: I'm glad this issue of economics came up because this is an important story this week. The United States middle class, for the first time, not the richest in the world. That was kind of crushing when I heard that. It's -- Canada is beating us, I guess. Some of the European countries are still behind, but you know what? When you factor in the fact that those countries have like free college, free healthcare, lots of free good stuff, I don't know, we be even more behind than number two.

But it came out during an interesting week, this story, because this book called Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century (sic) by a French economist named Thomas Piketty -- sold out on Amazon. It is like the most -- you can't get near this book. Not that is anyone is reading this doorstop. I'm sure it's wrong to basically break down a 700-page tome into a few words, but I'm going to. Because, you know, everything is too long today. Movies are too long, books are too long.

Basically what this guy is saying is that under capitalism, income inequality is inevitable, and that when we had a thriving middle class after the war -- after World War II in the '50s and the '60s -- that was the aberration. And, by the way, the reason why we had a thriving middle class then is because of socialism. Because the tax rates on the rich then were 70- to 90-percent. And the house I grew up in was under the G.I. Bill, because my parents were veterans and they could -- that's socialism! That's all socialism.

Socialism built the middle class in America. Deal with that, conservatives!

CHARLES MURRAY: Being the victor in World War II and being the only economy to come out of World War II ruling the world, that didn't hurt either, you know?

MAHER: That's true, that's right. Nobody else was even standing. (HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, April 25, 2014)

[Admiral Yi]

Bill Maher is a stooge.

[crazy canuck]

 

The ad before the video was for Goldman Sachs 

[Josephus]

Blashpemy


Actually, I'm not a HUGE fan of his...but I do like some of the things he says. But he can be a dick.

[HVC]

Bill Maher is a stooge.

He's a cocky smarmy fuck. Even when I want to agree with him I find it hard and kind of disappointed in myself.

[Ideologue]

Maher can be a huge tool.  But of course he's right on this issue.  Socialism built our interstate highway system, schools, atom bombs, industrial infrastructure... capitalism merely directed it into inefficient automobiles and systems of suburbs that cost our nation a trillion dollars extra a year to support.  Fuck capitalism.

[Admiral Yi]

Socialism built our interstate highway system, schools, atom bombs, industrial infrastructure

By this logic socialism also gassed six million Jews and threw Chinese babies onto bayonets.

At work I was reading an essay in which the student wrote "If you only watch news that tells you what you already believe, you're watching Fox News!" (Bill Maher).  The irony was so thick I could cut it with a chain saw.

[Ideologue]

Show some gratitude.  Socialism rescued South Korea from the terrors of socialism.

[Josephus]

Socialism built our interstate highway system, schools, atom bombs, industrial infrastructure

By this logic socialism also gassed six million Jews and threw Chinese babies onto bayonets.

I thought we'd get to at least 10 posts before Hitler was brought into it. Close.

[Admiral Yi]

I thought we'd get to at least 10 posts before Hitler was brought into it. Close.

Hey, blame Ide, not me.

[jimmy olsen]

Show some gratitude.  Socialism rescued South Korea from the terrors of socialism  communism.

Fixed

[Caliga]

'Socialsim'?  It's like Tim posted this thread or something.

[Valmy]

I, for one, am glad a carefully designed socialsim was run before the middle class was built.

[fhdz]

With a nation this large and diverse, a social democracy is essential.

Unless of course we want to go back to being a very loose federation of states. That worked out really well before the Civil War; I can't imagine why we wouldn't want to return to such an idyllic time.

[Admiral Yi]

I have argued before that social democracy can only be successful in small, homogenous countries, like Scandistan.