I like the principles of classical liberalism, but tempered with regulations to ensure a decent portion of egality, to build fairness and trust.

I generally avoid the heavier forms of socialism. I often like their ideals, but for me the right to own your labor must be the pivot-point to which everything else moves. Capitalism, for all its grievances, is necessary outcome of that.

I think a fair and well-functioning judicial system is at the core of any state worth supporting, well-functioning also means that it is trusted. Politicizing the judicial system is one of the best indicators that a society is crumbling or built on shaky foundations.

My positions would probably land me centre-right (in my country), with a solid amount of disdain for conservatism, little trust for the far left and absolute disbelief of the current stupidity of the far right. Right now centre-right seems like a lonely, lonely place. We should probably start a support group somewhere.

Just draw a graph. On one axis you put "egoism vs. altruism" on the other axis you put "individual vs. collective". By doing so you can explain the whole political spectrum.

Some examples:
1. Capitalism (aka liberalism) has high values for individual and egoism
2. Communism has high values for collective and altruism
3. Socialism is the exact middle on each axis
4. Fascism has high values for collective and is neutral on the other axis
5. Social market economy* has high values for individual and is neutral on the other axis


* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_market_economy

https://bluedogcaucus-costa.house.gov/about/history
The [Blue Dog] Coalition’s founding members viewed the 1994 election results as an indication that the Democratic Party had gone too far left and was rejected by the American people. So, there was an effort by fiscally-responsible and moderate Democrats to form a voting bloc representing what they viewed as the middle of the partisan spectrum and one that would serve as fierce advocates for fiscal responsibility. Their goals were to hold both parties accountable to promises of fiscal restraint and, by working with both parties, to stop legislation from going too far right or too far left.

Red Dogs?

I believe in pragmatism and logic above all else. I also advocate for people saying what they mean instead of using talking points they hear on news channels.

Abortion--I'm pro choice for two reasons. One because I don't think that as man I have any right to tell women what to do with something growing inside them and potentially threatening their life and second because I think families are more functional when they're planned. I don't believe in any 'magic' when it comes to the fetus.

Guns - Guns should be as tightly controlled as any dangerous item such as explosives or dangerous biological samples. You can't walk into a store and buy dynamite or c4, you shouldn't be able to buy a gun either.

The Second Amendment is a huge disaster that is causing the needless death of tens of thousands of American each year.

Borders/Immigration Open and easy immigration is good for everyone, as shown by the very existence of places like the USA.

Affirmative action Support. Black people and other minorities (such as LGBT people) were systematically oppressed in the US for more than a century. I'm fine with doing the same to white people for a while, I think it would look good on most of them.

Free speech How is this even a question?

Climate change/ environment Obviously I believe in science, but at the same time I don't really care. I'll be dead long before much of it matters. However I do agree that the government should make logical policies with respect to people who won't be dead in 30 years.

Health care Having lived both in the US and in Canada with single payer I think anyone who prefers the US system to Canada is an outright fool. I'd literally be dead today if I hadn't moved here.


Education Everyone should have free education to the most logical level for their skill set. There is without question no greater engine for social mobility than that and it benefits the entire nation to have an educated work force. Arbitrarily saying that free education should stop when a person reaches 18 makes no sense either.

The kid who will cure cancer or solve world hunger is most likely too poor to afford college. That's not a smart situation.

Drugs Legalize pot sure. Dangerous drugs should be illegal, but I guess if you're in favor of legal guns you should also be in favor of legal drugs like heroin and fentanyl. They kill fewer people than guns do.

Capital Punishment Be nice to kill bad people but it doesn't make logical sense. Too expensive and final. Just lock murderers in a cage for the rest of their lives and hope they die young.

Adding:

Taxes We all know they suck and nobody wants to pay them, including me. But we have to. I think rich people should bear the bulk of this burden since they are the clear societal winners.

Also, charitable donations should NOT be tax deductible. If you want to give away money then fine, do so. Don't make the other taxpayers subsidize your altruism.

I'm a realitarian. I like stuff that is based on reality and really works.

I'm very pro doubt because I think that the absence of doubt (which other people call beliefs or convictions or similar synonyms) is one of the basic preconditions for horrendously bad ideas to flourish.

I'm very pro science because science is the reason why we've been progressing so rapidly since the 1400's.

I know my history which means that I know that this moment in time is not particularly special or interesting. We can claim that technology is changing the world faster than ever but my great great grandfather immigrated to America on a boat with sails (mentioned because this mode of transport has been disrupted twice since then), fought in the civil war (which itself was the beginning of what we could call modern warfare.. fought with old strategies that got a lot of people killed) and in his lifetime saw electrification, the telegraph, and the transition from horses to automobiles. My great grandfather, grandfather, and father all also saw crazy technological and societal changes in their lifetimes. At this point things have been changing rapidly for such a long time that we should be getting at least a little bit used to it.

My big concerns right now revolve around the fourth industrial revolution and how we're going to adapt society to a changing set of variables.

seems like everything is falling apart. im not proud to be american one bit anymore.

i’d like to lean Democratic, but i have issues with sensationalism. i’d almost rather vote for the gun party than the one lying about fixing the issue.

i go to read the news and theyre still on about russia and god knows what else. it seems impossible for me to care about a machine running on pyrite and debt.

edit: i’m still tilted by a speech given by HRC’s running mate during the election. he said something about “following the north star in our hearts” or similar....a pile of good-sounding nothing, like he was trying to lull america’s 5-second attn span into hypnosis. these people are human ****bags; why shouldn’t i distance myself entirely?

there are 100s of people assisting the president. each week a new scandal, distracting from more important truths, all it does is keep these guys A-list celebrities. sick advertising, can’t wait to pay $35 to read each memoire.

What ever happened to a majority of people in this forum being interested in libertarianism?

Abortion - Pro life personally. I reject the use of the state as a solution to the problem however. With more advancement in the development of contraceptives their effectiveness will become flawless and abortion will hopefully become a non-issue in the future.

Guns - 100% for the unrestricted right to keep and bear arms. Eliminate all gun control.

Borders/Immigration - open boarders. Get rid of the welfare state, the war on drugs, and have government be of trivial importance and the problems associated with immigration will go away.

Affirmative action - repeal affirmative action. People and institutions in a free society should be able to associate and disassociate with whomever they please for what ever reason they see fit.

Free speech - free speech is a property right. People can say what they want on their property.

Climate change/ environment - temperatures are increasing and man is probably causing it. It is unlikely that there is anything we can do about it so we should wait around, see what happens, and adapt.

Health care - should be separate from government and left up to the market 100%

Education - should be under the control of parents and local communities.

Because there's much more than just the right-wing of the Democrat party and the left-wing of the Republican party?

I really don’t get all the angst over that. Outside of the sci-fi stuff, it’s not like robots are going to run around and take all our stuff or subject us to their rule. I mean the whole reason for their existence is to provide us more stuff or at least the same amount of stuff with less human effort.

The goal of the automation industry - which is still in it's infancy - is to capture the value of the entire world's middle class and it will succeed. We on here know that w/ regard to poker there will never be another human that is the best and that applies to chess, Go, and Jeopardy. We can live w/ that but what happens when no human will ever be the best mathematician? It has taken evolution hundreds of millions of years to create a CPA and that profession is going to be done by computers sooner rather than later and so will most other knowledge based jobs.

The World Economic Forum says that capitalism is in urgent need of change:

Although anti-establishment politics have tended to blame globalization for the loss of traditional jobs, the WEF said rapidly changing technologies have had more of an impact on labor markets.

“It is no coincidence that challenges to social cohesion and policymakers’ legitimacy are coinciding with a highly disruptive phase of technological change,” the WEF said.

Proposals for a Universal Basic Income are put forward because of this and if the promised undreamed of new jobs of the future (esp for persons of average intelligence) do not appear and massive numbers of people end up on a basic income there will be only one political slogan: 'Vote for me and I will give you more.' That is unsustainable and people are going to be very upset and you don't have to be much of a historian to appreciate what upset people in large numbers are capable of doing.

When we reach the stage where robotics can do everything we can do and even better, I see it more like that ‘law of attraction’ stuff whereby whatever you ask the universe for – through some mechanism – the universe manifests it in your life. Just substitute “through some mechanism” with technology and ai. In other words: a world without scarcity or heaven on earth or as opposed to some techno-Orwellian hell.

Every attempt to create a ‘Paradise on Earth’ has ended in a river of blood. Maybe you know of one that hasn’t. What is going to happen is the collapse of civil society, the end of democracy where it exists and a distopian future with the government handing out drugs like candy. Those of you younger than 30 will live to see it. All I ask is for you to remember that you heard it here first.

Mostly because of the bolded:

Economics is the study of the use of scarce resources which have alternative uses.

But remove scarcity and it’s more like the (head-splod’n/coffee spittin) result I just got:




^that should put an end to the question of whether or not the socialists at google are manipulating search results.

So all I have to do is hold on and the Universe is going to provide me with the 300 foot yacht with the helo-pad that I've always wanted! Sweet.

Basically, because value is ultimately predicated on the totality of human capital* involved in the production of goods. So once the totality of human capital* is replaced by robots, goods become worthless or worth less or free.

*labor to produce the goods, labor to produce the machines that produce the goods, labor that went into generating the capital employed in the entire process, etc.

Humankind is ensconced within an instinctual will and an ameliorating reason of spirituality. Economics, which is not the only concern of the human being, is directly involved with the clamour of instinctual behavior.

As a man has hunger which he sates, or sex which he sates, or the passions and desires of his place in time and space he is in all cases enslaved to these passions or impulses to action without cognitive reason. This is the world of the animal to which man can and does succumb in a decadent welter.

The only way for the individual man to come forth in strength of activity in this realm is to bring living and vital thinking to the fore in order to ameliorate this fall into crasis.

As an example , in our age it has become more difficult for the individual to eat on a regular basis and so he nourishes himself hither and thither and succumbs to the impulse of hunger in a haphazard style, thus living within his instincts (they are spiritual too) which control him and negate his freedom.

His solution ? He plans his nourishment within a regularity which is planned by him and thus comes the planned meals of 7,12,6, ....By planning his nourishment and of course following though he gains strength, a strength of living, through his reasoned and thoughtful powers. this is a picture of the individual.

He has brought fort a spiritual activity (thinking and thoughts) to his life in a creative manifestation.

First off; there is no "heaven on earth" for we are not beings of the earth but cosmic beings who, in these times, are beginning to return to our home and this is accomplished through vitalized thinking, or giving warmth to the individual thoughts of man.

And so, in economics, so long as we contend over who gets what or who to attack for more of the earth or whatever the classifications of the social scientist melds into our thought processes we are only continuing our instinctual activity and as mentioned , in this case obliquely, we enter into the realm of decadence and degeneration of humankind.

The USA is the apotheosis of the economic man and in this is our work to abridge the difficulties of the instinctual economic stylus. This will hurt some, but the idea of competition must balanced by cooperation. The individual man cannot project his own particular economic life but only through cooperation will this be accomplished for the men of the economic.

The ancient Egyptians had silos of grain for lean years and so should the economic mavens begin to bring this life (instincts) under a reasoned management of planning for the fruitful and lean years of individual men.

Economic planning is paramount but not the planning of the "winner" and "loser" but that planning that comes about through associations of men, involved in various aspects of economic life (automobiles,power, foodstuffs, etc...) who can bring forth a reasoned and ameliorating aspect to the human soul.

This does not negate the ability of the individual man to start his business and it certainly doesn't mean that all powers are given to the associations vis a vis man in a autocratic state of behavior. the economic realm falls to dyscrasia without the ability of the individual to initiate his own particular economic enterprise.

But economics is only one aspect of the realm of the human being as the legal aspect is changed into the instilling of the progress of the individual man which means this aspect of life insures that the impediments to progress of the "individual" is overcome .

The third aspect is the cultural or science, education, religion, medicine or all that to which man reaches beyond the earth as a spirit/soul being.

the three realms economic, legal, cultural in progress are divorced from each other although men can certainly obtain education and become involved in the economic aspect of life.

Our present times has the economic pervading the cultural and certainly the legal attempting to blanket the other realms to which they have no knowledge or comprehension.

It goes on and on....

Sorry to be the one with the bad news but you ain't going to make it.

but give it a few 100 years or so and a lifestyle identical to owning your yacht, helo-pad etc will likely be available to all.

and yet to much of past humanity, many of us do live in what they would consider paradise on earth. We live better than their Kings did. Barring an unlikely extinction, the future will be ****ing amazing for those who live in it. Some will still moan about it no doubt and hark back to the good old days.

I've started to post at least a little bit more in this forum, so figured I'd add to this thread.

Abortion--From a moralistic stand point, it was pounded into my head since Kindergarten that abortion was murder. I'm not sure if that's the reason, but, morally, I've held pretty steadfast to that thought process.

However, from a practical standpoint, allowing abortion seems like the best possible decision. This is solely based on my reading of Freakonomics, but I believe they strongly made the case that crime went down when abortions became legal. That book alone has led me to greatly question my moral belief that abortion is wrong. This is something that I've been struggling with internally ever since reading that book.

Guns - generally think gun ownership is bad. With that that being said, I also don't think that it's realistic-GL taking guns from people without it ending very, very poorly.


I think there is deeper emotional issues that need to be dealt with as a country that could help prevent gun crimes. Simply banning guns isn't going to stop mass attacks; mental health education and awareness would have a huge effect imo. Obv background checks, waiting periods, etc, would be a huge first step.


Borders/Immigration-Don't treat people inhumanly; don't try to come to America illegally

Affirmative action Support-I absolutely hate this and think it creates a victim mindset instead of the actual goal. I own a business-I would absolutely never not hire the best possible candidate to maximize my profits, regardless of any minority group they belong to. I hope that my competition refuses to hire minority group candidates, because I will snap them up and treat them better anyways.

As a minority group employee, it was always my opinion that I'd prefer to be blackballed early in my career with a company. I'd rather find a company that embraced my qualities as an employee-and not the fact that I fall into a minority group-because I'd rather have my accomplishments and efforts speak for themselves.

I think that there was 100% a time for AA, but I don't think 2019 is it.


Semi related-I think the whole "why won't this baker make my wedding cake" is one of the dumbest lawsuits I've ever read about. If someone wouldn't make my cake, I'd find someone else to make my wedding cake. I don't want to give my money to some dumbass, because eventually he's going to go out of business.

Free speech-not sure what there is to argue here

Climate change/environment-I have not done enough research into this topic to comment

Health care-Lean is certainly in the Republican line of view.


Education-I'm assuming this is mostly talking about "free" education. If you had asked me a year ago about this topic, I'd laugh at you and tell you it was dumb af. I've started to come around to this being a viable option.


With that being said, my two biggest gripes:

1) Ive worked with probably 40ish 18-21 year olds in my working life where they were in entry level positions. Maybe two of them should have been in college. I have a real fear that a high percentage of that 40 would end up in college, even though the majority of them had no business to be there. There are huge problems that come from that imo.

2) Paying off student debts is really really dumb imo. I can (possibly) get behind free education; I can't get behind paying off student debts of people who made decisions to go to college and agree to a debt. I simply can't. I've read a lot of arguments for this, and I haven't read anything that doesn't just scream politician trying to buy a vote.



Drugs-legalize weed, yo.

Capital Punishment-seems pointless to me idk

Adding:

Taxes-I know I'm in the huge minority here, but I've never understand higher income earners paying a higher percentage. Very much for a flat percentage-just because you earn more, idt you should have to pay anything more than what a flat percentage dictates. Good for you for earning a higher dollar amount, you deserve it.

Prostitution-why isn't this already legal? If a consenting adult wants to have sex for money, let them.

Sports-I've at a loss on how politics have entered sports and how the mob mentality has taken over. In the last two months:
1) the person who owns an NBA team is no longer the "owner"
2) a paying customer got banned from Wrigley for life for using the universal sign for "OK", and
3) a sports commentator got suspended for (correctly) predicting that the winner of the LPGA US Open would be named Lee.

I don't get any of this.


Blast away.

I'm a hedonist up to the point where you start causing small numbers of people huge suffering for the pleasure of everyone else.

I think that the primary purpose of every species is to try to pass on their genes, which means that the first priority is to ensure the survival of our species. This means that future generations matter quite a bit, and we should do what we can to advance our civilization in a way that doesn't make extinction significantly more likely.

Diminishing returns is my favorite concept from Econ 101 (by quite a lot... because it holds up insanely well in the real world) and I think it applies to basically everything. This absolutely includes human rights. Right now for instance I think we should be aggressively promoting social trust at the expense of free speech.

I am far left on most issues but I favor debtors prisons and the purge. Also have to stop apologizing for american values.