- 04 Jun 2012 22:52
#13977242
Hello everyone,
I've gone back to lurking for some time since I felt that my political orientation shifted a bit. Since I'm no longer able to subscribe to any -ism, I want to share my current position and open it up for discussion. It should be noted that my primary goal here is to learn and broaden my point of view. Since this is probably the longest post from me so far, I apologize for grammatical errors, which definitely will occur (feel free to tell me in a PM, thanks). English is my third language after all.
Economics
I'm a proponent of a mixed economy basically, but with some radical changes. The profit motive and a more or less free market do a pretty good job when it comes to anything which is NOT considered a basic necessity, but I want the rest to be controlled by the public, based on solidarity. We need free universal health care, a public educational system, social services and public infrastructure (transportation, water supply, electricity, etc.). Re-nationalize all of them ASAP. Private insurance companies may exist, but only for additional services, which are not considered a necessity for the well-being of everyone in the country.
In my opinion it's detrimental to society if individuals are allowed to hoard incredible amounts of money/assets, so I'm in favor of a progressive income/wealth tax. We should find a balance between an incentive to try out or develop new products and the ability to rob workers. No one should live from investment alone but should be working along the people one has hired. I'm disgusted by the thought that we should 'save money' for the time we get old, this should be handled by a reformed retirement system ('Umlageverfahren' in German, I'm not sure how the term PAYGO relates to that). Ideally we should have a system where 'saving money' is simply unnecessary (beyond a certain amount).
Example: Saving 20k for a new car is fine, hoarding 20 million to build your gold-plated yacht is not.
High taxes for speculation and everything which does not actually involve work on your own. It's unacceptable that rich people can buy a company, restructure it, fire half of the employees and sell the company again without even paying taxes for their profit. Banks should be nationalized and reversed back to their primary role: Lending money to people with good ideas instead of speculating in foreign countries, especially when food is involved, just to raise prices and thereby starving people. That's plain disgusting.
Culture/Society
I guess I'm pretty moderate here. There are several things I could criticize, but these issues would disappear if the economic conditions change.
Same sex marriage should be possible, though I'm not quite sure if it's really a good idea to let them adopt kids, too. I'm pretty sure that many of these kids would fare well, but since we currently have many people opposing this way of life, the kids will inevitably experience some difficulties. This is a circular problem of course and we wouldn't have it if it was more popular. We will have to go through these complicated generations at some point and it will be better after that, but I'm not sure if it's the right time to do so now. However, I strongly oppose any movement which tries to simply reverse patriarchy and turn it into a matriarchy. This is not gender equality! We should respect every kind of family, be it male/female, male/male, female/female, extended family or a broader approach with friends or a commune.
Abortion is not a big topic in Europe, so I will just say: Yes, abortion is fine. Every woman should be able to do so.
'Soft' drugs should be legalized, but advertising must be banned for all kinds of drugs.
Crime/Punishment
The ultimate goal here should be to resocialize a criminal, punishment as a deterrent alone is not going to do much and doesn't help the society. I however support the death penalty for repeated major crimes like rape, child abuse and the like. If someone clearly shows that he's unable to suppress his urge to do such things, he has no place in the community and should be executed ASAP (unlike the hilarious death row in the states).
Nationalism/Immigration
When I look at the roots of many major conflicts on earth, I think most are motivated by religious and/or ethnic tensions. We can somewhat take care of the first (in the long run), but we certainly will not avoid the latter in the relevant future.
A culturally/ethnic homogeneous country avoids many problems which arise in multi-cultural environments. Diverse influences can be great, but we have to make sure everyone feels at least somewhat connected to the country/culture he lives in. I'm perfectly fine with foreigners who want to bring their own cultural background with them, as long as they respect the moral compass of the community.
To ensure that, I would like to limit immigration by not allowing foreigners from countries or cultural backgrounds, who already live here in a significant amount.
This allows a healthy amount of diversity without the risk of establishing a parallel society.
Environment
Our planet is not infinite in size, even if it may seem so for some. It is our duty to preserve the environment and lessen our impact on the ecosystem as good as we can while (hopefully) not reducing the quality of life. As long as we don't have the ability to colonize other inhabitable planets, we MUST protect the very earth which brought us into being in the first place. Please note that this is not motivated by ideology, but simply pragmatism. We can adapt to some changes through technology, but if we alter our environment too much, it will have an impact sooner or later.
I used to be opposed to nuclear energy (and I still think it's incredibly risky what we're doing there), but I accept the fact that we will not be able to abolish it in the near future. We should however heavily focus on the development of new technologies, which might overcome these dangers. I could slap the green party here in Germany every day for opposing ITER, for example.
I don't think eating meat is inherently bad, but we overconsume quite a bit. I try to minimize meat consumption personally and would like to see a decrease in industrial-style slaughtering.
I've gone back to lurking for some time since I felt that my political orientation shifted a bit. Since I'm no longer able to subscribe to any -ism, I want to share my current position and open it up for discussion. It should be noted that my primary goal here is to learn and broaden my point of view. Since this is probably the longest post from me so far, I apologize for grammatical errors, which definitely will occur (feel free to tell me in a PM, thanks). English is my third language after all.
Economics
I'm a proponent of a mixed economy basically, but with some radical changes. The profit motive and a more or less free market do a pretty good job when it comes to anything which is NOT considered a basic necessity, but I want the rest to be controlled by the public, based on solidarity. We need free universal health care, a public educational system, social services and public infrastructure (transportation, water supply, electricity, etc.). Re-nationalize all of them ASAP. Private insurance companies may exist, but only for additional services, which are not considered a necessity for the well-being of everyone in the country.
In my opinion it's detrimental to society if individuals are allowed to hoard incredible amounts of money/assets, so I'm in favor of a progressive income/wealth tax. We should find a balance between an incentive to try out or develop new products and the ability to rob workers. No one should live from investment alone but should be working along the people one has hired. I'm disgusted by the thought that we should 'save money' for the time we get old, this should be handled by a reformed retirement system ('Umlageverfahren' in German, I'm not sure how the term PAYGO relates to that). Ideally we should have a system where 'saving money' is simply unnecessary (beyond a certain amount).
Example: Saving 20k for a new car is fine, hoarding 20 million to build your gold-plated yacht is not.
High taxes for speculation and everything which does not actually involve work on your own. It's unacceptable that rich people can buy a company, restructure it, fire half of the employees and sell the company again without even paying taxes for their profit. Banks should be nationalized and reversed back to their primary role: Lending money to people with good ideas instead of speculating in foreign countries, especially when food is involved, just to raise prices and thereby starving people. That's plain disgusting.
Culture/Society
I guess I'm pretty moderate here. There are several things I could criticize, but these issues would disappear if the economic conditions change.
Same sex marriage should be possible, though I'm not quite sure if it's really a good idea to let them adopt kids, too. I'm pretty sure that many of these kids would fare well, but since we currently have many people opposing this way of life, the kids will inevitably experience some difficulties. This is a circular problem of course and we wouldn't have it if it was more popular. We will have to go through these complicated generations at some point and it will be better after that, but I'm not sure if it's the right time to do so now. However, I strongly oppose any movement which tries to simply reverse patriarchy and turn it into a matriarchy. This is not gender equality! We should respect every kind of family, be it male/female, male/male, female/female, extended family or a broader approach with friends or a commune.
Abortion is not a big topic in Europe, so I will just say: Yes, abortion is fine. Every woman should be able to do so.
'Soft' drugs should be legalized, but advertising must be banned for all kinds of drugs.
Crime/Punishment
The ultimate goal here should be to resocialize a criminal, punishment as a deterrent alone is not going to do much and doesn't help the society. I however support the death penalty for repeated major crimes like rape, child abuse and the like. If someone clearly shows that he's unable to suppress his urge to do such things, he has no place in the community and should be executed ASAP (unlike the hilarious death row in the states).
Nationalism/Immigration
When I look at the roots of many major conflicts on earth, I think most are motivated by religious and/or ethnic tensions. We can somewhat take care of the first (in the long run), but we certainly will not avoid the latter in the relevant future.
A culturally/ethnic homogeneous country avoids many problems which arise in multi-cultural environments. Diverse influences can be great, but we have to make sure everyone feels at least somewhat connected to the country/culture he lives in. I'm perfectly fine with foreigners who want to bring their own cultural background with them, as long as they respect the moral compass of the community.
To ensure that, I would like to limit immigration by not allowing foreigners from countries or cultural backgrounds, who already live here in a significant amount.
This allows a healthy amount of diversity without the risk of establishing a parallel society.
Environment
Our planet is not infinite in size, even if it may seem so for some. It is our duty to preserve the environment and lessen our impact on the ecosystem as good as we can while (hopefully) not reducing the quality of life. As long as we don't have the ability to colonize other inhabitable planets, we MUST protect the very earth which brought us into being in the first place. Please note that this is not motivated by ideology, but simply pragmatism. We can adapt to some changes through technology, but if we alter our environment too much, it will have an impact sooner or later.
I used to be opposed to nuclear energy (and I still think it's incredibly risky what we're doing there), but I accept the fact that we will not be able to abolish it in the near future. We should however heavily focus on the development of new technologies, which might overcome these dangers. I could slap the green party here in Germany every day for opposing ITER, for example.
I don't think eating meat is inherently bad, but we overconsume quite a bit. I try to minimize meat consumption personally and would like to see a decrease in industrial-style slaughtering.
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