Singapore: The Bell They Cannot Unring

[Cannonpointer]

A gaggle of impressionable progressives recently went on a Grateful Dead style fan-girl tour of the web, singling praise and glory to Singapore's "economic freedom" - "It's the second freest on EARTH," they jubilated.

Cursory investigation -their undone due diligence - revealed Singapore to practice "economic freedom" exclusively for corporations and the elite, not for regular people. The regular people have no rights, are kept in check by police state brutality, cannot purchase homes, and are influenced in their views by media that is almost exclusively state owned and that is entirely state-regulated with no pretense of respect for freedom of the press.

One of the cheer leaders, button-holed to explain Singapore's complete LACK of economic freedom for the bottom 88% of its citizens, spontaneously launched into a completely off-top defense of Chile's Pinochet, casting the man as a capitalist hero. Ironically, he was precisely right: Pinochet WAS a capitalist hero: a murdering psychopath who forced Singapore style "economic freedom" on his people. The only motive one can imagine for this Freudian non sequitur is that the apologist believes brutality on behalf of capital is justified.

Capitalism did not invent the free market. Indeed, it is the sworn enemy of it. Free markets existed long before Adam Smith was born. Capitalism is an economic model run by employees, on the capital of absentee owners - capital that could not be agglomerated except by exchanges licensed and regulated by government. FREE ENTERPRISE is an economic model run by owner-investors who risk their OWN capital with no assistance from government. Free Enterprise serves the market and requires a free market to exist. Capitalism attacks the free market to eliminate risks and competition. Our government's favoritism toward capitalism is why Wall Street's least hiccup makes Main Street catch a cold, but Main Street's greatest misery has no effect on Wall Street.

Authoritarian capitalism (the less regulation upon it, the more authoritarian it becomes) relies on the government gun to foist itself on populations. Left to their own devices, South and Central Americans vote for a free market, rather than capitalism. But the capitalists pretend that free markets are "socialism," and they get their servants in our government to topple elected governments and force authoritarian capitalism on their populations. A recent example of capitalist over-reach occurred in Bolivia, where Bechtel cornered the market on WATER by way of the government gun. Bechtel's wholly owned puppet government simply made a law declaring Bechtel owner of every drop of the stuff, making it a crime for a peasant to put out a rain barrel or drink from a creek. The result was a popular tide in favor of a Coca farmer named Evo Morales, whom election riggers failed to keep from office, and who has implemented free markets - or, "instituted a brutal socialist regime with no respect for private property," in neocon parlance.Our country would not have let this go unpunished, but for two land wars in Asia occupying its attention.

The folks singing Singapore's praises present themselves as "conservatives." But they did not even LOOK at capitalism's effect on their latest, greatest Shangri La's human population before festooning a brutal slave pit with the mantle of freedom. Conservatives look before they leap; reactionaries and progressives leap before they look.

The reactionary neocons on this board wil hee haw and gee gaw and slap their knees and shout hosanna for the stupidest, least-vetted **** ideas imaginable, and still pretend to be conservatives. REAL conservatives - a rare bird these days - are against rashly signing off on ANY new idea, no matter how pleasantly-wrapped and spun by professional ad-men hired to serve the interests of capital and subvert the interests of ordinary workers. Thoughtful and methodical examination of ANY policy change is in the conservative wheel house - pretty much IS the conservative wheel house. Hoo-rahing for any proposition Heritage packages for the Sunday chats is the province of neocon stooges, not conservatives. Genuine Conservatism is ANY nation's necessary steadying hand, without which the ship of state is likely to run aground.

Few believe the nation is going in a good direction - and none but retards deny the course is being set by those who control the media and the congress and the president and the economy. Ergo, the bad road we are on is unarguably the fault of Wall Street capitalism, and it leads to a lovely tropical island in the South China Sea by the name of Singapore.

Singapore - that great reveal which uncloaked the true nature of several pretend conservative perverts in our midst - also lays bare the goal and intention and natural, inevitable end of capitalism: to elevate capital above human beings in the realm of rights and power. That's why the founders picked the British East India Company's vessel as their target in the Boston Tea Party: Because they understood that their fight was against that corrosive capitalist engine as much as it was against the British Crown, and that their historical imperative was to free their nation's market from that anti-human machine.

Capitalism was allowed to sneak back in with the railroads. Its history since has been uniformly scandalous and has kept this nation down - always requiring access to the public treasury and the public credit for its continued existence, fattening itself on the nation's catastrophes right up to this very moment. We are under the boot of capital more than ever - but less than Singapore (for now). Capital moved our jobs to China for cheap labor and to pollute without consequence to its bottom line. It crashed our economy and demanded (and got) reparations from the society it had injured.

The debunked pretense that capitalism desires or even tolerates free markets is given the lie by the Singapores and the Chiles of this world. The "freer" capital, the more the PEOPLE are enslaved.

[Str8tEdge]

http://www.heritage.org/index/

[Cannonpointer]

There it is.^

That is their only answer. Don't use sense - just listen "think tank" publicists who are paid not for their "thinking" but for the narratives their thinking generates.

He cannot answer. In truth, Heritage cannot either - the truth never loses to a lie in a fair fight.. But their paymasters own the media, so their voice is heard over a megaphone and mine is heard by a paltry few who still can read, thanks to what Wall Steet has instructed its puppets to do to our once First World education system.

[Str8tEdge]

There it is.^

That is their only answer. Don't use sense - just listen "think tank" publicists who are paid not for their "thinking" but for the narratives their thinking generates.

He cannot answer. In truth, Heritage cannot either - the truth never loses to a lie in a fair fight.. But their paymasters own the media, so their voice is heard over a megaphone and mine is heard by a paltry few who still can read, thanks to what Wall Steet has instructed its puppets to do to our once First World education system.

If you have a complaint with how the economists of the Heritage Foundation rank the countries, perhaps you should file a formal grievance. I'm sure they'll take you just as seriously as we have!

[Annoyed Liberall]

Great OP.

But, look at the neocons who are blindly supporting Heritage.
Not the cream of the crop by any standards.

[Cannonpointer]

Great OP.

But, look at the neocons who are blindly supporting Heritage.
Not the cream of the crop by any standards.

They represent mainstream republicanism. You're not gonna find a hundred in the whole damned country who'll think of Heritage as PR flaks or who'll unconflate capitalism and the free markets capitalism attacks at gunpoint. Heritage says a police state is free - it's free.

[Cannonpointer]

I cheat on my wife with men, and took a graveyard shift job to avoid heterosexual intercourse.

Okay, fine.

I just wanted to point out that I got my font size back in my OP, ******* - and I'm laughing at you, impotent Al Yankfermen.

[Southern indep]

All this on Singapore **** because it was #2 on your socialist countries list?

[Neo]

Authoritarian capitalism (the less regulation upon it, the more authoritarian it becomes) relies on the government gun to foist itself on populations.

This is what we are moving towards and it should be resisted at all costs. I do not agree that capitalism and free market are as different as the article states but the more government gets involved in it the worse it is for everyone except for those with enough money/power to influence the governement itself. I am afraid we are already pretty close to a government of the lobbyists, for the lobbyists, and by the lobbyists.

[Annoyed Liberall]

All this on Singapore **** because it was #2 on your socialist countries list?

The Heritage Foundation ranked it as second freest economy on Earth and a few contards here are grabbing their ankles and biting pillows with glee over it.
The problem is, they don't even understand why.

[RichClem]

Capitalism did not invent the free market. Indeed, it is the sworn enemy of it. Free markets existed long before Adam Smith was born. Capitalism is an economic model run by employees, on the capital of absentee owners - capital that could not be agglomerated except by exchanges licensed and regulated by government. FREE ENTERPRISE is an economic model run by owner-investors who risk their OWN capital with no assistance from government.

Authoritarian capitalism (the less regulation upon it, the more authoritarian it becomes) relies on the government gun to foist itself on populations.

That's Crony Capitalism, which anyone advocating Free Market Capitalism opposes.

Left to their own devices, South and Central Americans vote for a free market, rather than capitalism.

When did countries ever vote for the free market in Latin America, moonbat?

But the capitalists pretend that free markets are "socialism," and they get their servants in our government to topple elected governments and force authoritarian capitalism on their populations. A recent example of capitalist over-reach occurred in Bolivia, where Bechtel cornered the market on WATER by way of the government gun. Bechtel's wholly owned puppet government simply made a law declaring Bechtel owner of every drop of the stuff, making it a crime for a peasant to put out a rain barrel or drink from a creek. The result was a popular tide in favor of a Coca farmer named Evo Morales, whom election riggers failed to keep from office, and who has implemented free markets - or, "instituted a brutal socialist regime with no respect for private property," in neocon parlance.Our country would not have let this go unpunished, but for two land wars in Asia occupying its attention.[/size]

Morales is a leftist, moonbat, even according to Wiki.

The folks singing Singapore's praises present themselves as "conservatives." But they did not even LOOK at capitalism's effect on their latest, greatest Shangri La's human population before festooning a brutal slave pit with the mantle of freedom. Conservatives look before they leap; reactionaries and progressives leap before they look.

Singapore is authoritarian, so it almost certainly rigs the system to a considerable degree in favor of the elites, but it went from dirt poor to prosperous, even for the average citizen.

So I consider it to be a partial success, hopefully on the way to fully free markets.

You stupidly consider it to be a failure. So they should go back to being dirt poor? Duuuh.

The reactionary neocons on this board wil hee haw and gee gaw and slap their knees and shout hosanna for the stupidest, least-vetted **** ideas imaginable, and still pretend to be conservatives. REAL conservatives - a rare bird these days - are against rashly signing off on ANY new idea, no matter how pleasantly-wrapped and spun by professional ad-men hired to serve the interests of capital and subvert the interests of ordinary workers. Thoughtful and methodical examination of ANY policy change is in the conservative wheel house - pretty much IS the conservative wheel house. Hoo-rahing for any proposition Heritage packages for the Sunday chats is the province of neocon stooges, not conservatives. Genuine Conservatism is ANY nation's necessary steadying hand, without which the ship of state is likely to run aground.

I again express my regret for your deepening psychosis.

That's why the founders picked the British East India Company's vessel as their target in the Boston Tea Party: Because they understood that their fight was against that corrosive capitalist engine as much as it was against the British Crown, and that their historical imperative was to free their nation's market from that anti-human machine.

Bulls***. They rebelled against both the lawless authority of the Crown, against the special favors it granted by royal fiat and against Crony Capitalism, which you dishonestly label "Capitalism."

The debunked pretense that capitalism desires or even tolerates free markets is given the lie by the Singapores and the Chiles of this world. The "freer" capital, the more the PEOPLE are enslaved.

I advocate both as models of hugely important, but partial reform, not as the ultimate goal, which is fully free Capitalism.

You advocate Socialism, almost the opposite of Free Market Capitalism.

And you'll tell wild lies about anything less.

[RichClem]

Great OP.

There's the kiss of death.

But, look at the neocons who are blindly supporting Heritage.
Not the cream of the crop by any standards.

"Blindly?" I support it because from decades of reading its publications, I've found it to be factually accurate and broadly fair.

You're complimenting a lying, raving psychotic. I guess that makes you "the cream of the crop?"

[RichClem]

Heritage says a police state is free - it's free.

Singapore isn't a "police state," psycho.

And I've quoted nothing from Heritage about its political system, nor have I seen you.


So you're lying, as usual.

[Annoyed Liberall]

Singapore isn't a "police state," psycho.

And I've quoted nothing from Heritage about its political system, nor have I seen you.

So you're lying, as usual.

But I have and you haven't addressed any of it.

Look, it's clear to the real conservatives here that you are not one of them. They laugh at you. And frankly, I lose all respect for anyone here who agrees with your ridiculous ranting.

[RichClem]

But I have and you haven't addressed any of it.

Yes I have, many times. That's just the casual lie and smear that just rolls of your forked tongue.

Look, it's clear to the real conservatives here that you are not one of them. They laugh at you. And frankly, I lose all respect for anyone here who agrees with your ridiculous ranting.

Quote the conservatives who laugh at me. I in fact have been supported by almost every single conservative who's expressed an opoinion.

And who cares who you respect? You're a silly twit.

[Southern indep]

There's the kiss of death.
"Blindly?" I support it because from decades of reading its publications, I've found it to be factually accurate and broadly fair.

You're complimenting a lying, raving psychotic. I guess that makes you "the cream of the crop?"

Well Singapore is a **** hole along with China...

Only Asian country I'd visit or stay in is Japan. While the Japanese are **** who eat dolphins , their society is still based on honor, respect and work ethic...

(I really need to talk about work ethic while being at work posting here...)

I've drawn my conclusions by talking to friends who have actually been stationed in some of those countries.

[Annoyed Liberall]

Yes I have, many times. That's just the casual lie and smear that just rolls of your forked tongue.
Quote the conservatives who laugh at me. I in fact have been supported by almost every single conservative who's expressed an opoinion.

And who cares who you respect? You're a silly twit.

No, you haven't liar.

I don't have to quote them. They have no quotes. They simply ignore you.

[RichClem]

A gaggle of impressionable progressives recently went on a Grateful Dead style fan-girl tour of the web, singling praise and glory to Singapore's "economic freedom" - "It's the second freest on EARTH," they jubilated.

Hey, where are all the "slaves" you claim are in Singapore.

Are you ever going to back that stupid nonsense up?

What? You say it's lost in cyberspace again?

The dog ate your homework?

[RichClem]

No, you haven't liar.

I don't have to quote them. They have no quotes. They simply ignore you.

So like almost everyone on your side, when asked to provide evidence, you refuse and lie.

Just as I expected.

[Annoyed Liberall]

So like almost everyone on your side, when asked to provide evidence, you refuse and lie.

Just as I expected.

I have provided it many, many times. But you stonewall and evade.
I am not going to provide it again because you will just stonewall and evade.