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| Thread ID: 149285 | 2020-10-04 20:38:00 | Pope: Market capitalism has failed in pandemic, needs reform | zqwerty (97) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1472074 | 2020-10-05 20:50:00 | I am certainly not religious, even more so not Catholic, (baptised Anglican actually) not pushing any personal beliefs, just pointing out that a wise intelligent man has spoken and the leaderless and philosophically bereft should be studying and pondering because after all, all they have is nay-saying and iconoclasm. Finally this is PressF1 Chat and that is what I am doing. As you all are saying as well, I too couldn't give a f**k what the pope or anyone else is saying but I like to keep up with the latest just to stay informed. |
zqwerty (97) | ||
| 1472075 | 2020-10-06 03:10:00 | Here's another interesting article in similar vein: . co/essays/postwar-prosperity-depended-on-a-truce-between-capitalism-and-democracy?utm_source=DamnInteresting" target="_blank">aeon . co With the end of the Second World War, the economies of western Europe and North America began a period of spectacular growth . Between 1950 and 1973 GDP doubled or more . This prosperity was broadly shared, with consistent growth in living standards for rich and poor alike and the emergence of a broad middle class . How did western countries, in one quarter of the 20th century, manage to increase both equality and economic efficiency? Why did this virtuous combination ultimately fall apart by the end of the century? The answer lies in the awkward relationship between democracy and capitalism, the former founded on equal political rights, the latter tending to accentuate differences between citizens based on talent, luck or inherited advantage . Democracy has the potential to curb capitalism’s inherent tendency to generate inequality . This very inequality can undermine the ability of democratic institutions to ensure that the economy works for the majority . The Second World War cut capitalism down to size . Total war meant that nations couldn’t afford to allow normal patterns of private investment for profit to drive the economy . Instead, governments retooled capitalism to serve the purpose of military victory in ways that placed a greater burden on the haves, by taxing and even expropriating their wealth, while relieving the pressure on the have-nots . In the aftermath of the conflict, popular pressure and international threats established a more equitable distribution of resources . These changes ‘democratised’ capitalism: the market economy was regulated and attenuated in a variety of ways to meet the broader needs of society, rather than the narrow requirements of the investor class . Not only did income gaps close, but wealth also became more widely held . In the United Kingdom, home ownership increased from just a third of the population in 1939 to more than half by 1971; in the United States, it grew from under half to more than two-thirds in same period . Luxuries such as private cars, televisions and regular holidays became widely available . For this to happen involved a major role for the government in shaping the productive system, reallocating capital and redistributing income . Government also reallocated a large share of the labour supply to military service through conscription . In some cases, mass consumption was restricted to essentials such as food and heating (often rationed) to free up resources for the war effort . The state took over a much larger share of spending in the economy, raising taxes and borrowing to pay for it . In Britain, for example, the Beveridge report of 1942, at the height of the war, outlined a comprehensive welfare state that could banish ‘Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness’, while pensions, unemployment assistance and support for child nutrition all grew in budget allocations . By 1950, western Europe, North America and Japan had all established, with varying degrees of generosity, the basic foundations of the modern welfare state: public pensions, sickness and unemployment benefits and family allowances . Taxes on the wealthy were raised to pay for it all, leading to marginal tax rates on top incomes that today appear unimaginable: in 1943, Canada raised its top income tax rate to 95 per cent; in 1944, the US began to tax its richest citizens at 94 per cent . Taxes on capital were also hiked across the democracies: inheritance taxes reached average rates of more than 40 per cent in the 20 most advanced economies, while in the aftermath of the war some countries levied one-off taxes on the largest estates, which in France reached a confiscatory 100 per cent for those who had profited most from the conflict . etc . . . . . . . . . . . . |
piroska (17583) | ||
| 1472076 | 2020-10-06 06:45:00 | C'mon you guys, get your act together and support our saviour! HERE ( . facebook . com/ApostleBishopBrianTamaki/" target="_blank">www . facebook . com) :D |
B.M. (505) | ||
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