i suppose communism is beautiful in theory. but over the twentieth century, at least 100 million people died because of it. it especially hazardous to teh environment, and people under it live in squalid conditions.

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Life is indeed a precious thing. Once you give your freedom up to someone else, it is no longer your own life. I'd rather die on my own terms.

I agree with you, at least partly. Sure, some people would fight back. At first. When the Jews first started being rounded up, they fought back. At first. In history books, you hear about revolutions at the end of some huge war or capture, but that's not usually how it happens. What would you actually do if your family, friends, and all of your race were slowly being rounded up and killed? If there were nowhere for you to hide, nowhere you could run? If you knew they were coming for you? When they actually came for you? Any action, even fighting back, that would cause you to die, or even be hurt, is entirely contrary to human nature. Sure, a few, a very, very few would have the strength (or the stupidity however you want to see it) to fight back and you might possibly be one of those few. But this message is directed to those people who think that they have such strong wills, those 'uber-Americans' who would rather die than undergo any type of tyranny or dictatorship or controlling of thier freedom. To quote Silk, a character in a book by David Eddings: "A little desecration can be forgotten quite easily if you put your mind to it." Personally, anything is better than death. Except possibly prolonged deprivation from my PS2.

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Those of you who say 'you'd die' before subjecting yourself under the yoke of communism, obviously haven't thought enough. You'd be surprised how quickly a little desecration and slavery can be ignored when it's actually your life at stake.

You know, a lot of Jews fought back. A lot of Africans fought back. Once you're in the slave camp/plantation, there's not much you can do, so yes, it might make sense to go along with it.

But my thought process goes more like this:

The unarmed targets are rounded up into camps and gassed/enslaved in mass groups.
The armed resistors die one by one.
You're going to die either way, try and take some with you.

Now yeah you could say that I really don't know how I'd react, being that I'm sitting in the comfort of my own home. But I know myself a bit better than that. And given all the points in my life where I've been outnumbered and physically threatened, I'd bet that I'd go down fighting. I wouldn't hope for death, I'd just try my damndest to stay free. A life wasted away in slavery is a worse fate than a life that ended on your feet fighting.

Life is indeed a precious thing. Once you give your freedom up to someone else, it is no longer your own life. I'd rather die on my own terms.

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This study done by the UN shows that Canada is actually much higher in the world rankings then the U.S.

I already said America's weakest point is it's public education system. We do, however, already spend the second highest per student in the world. The problem is that with the federalization of schools, the individual problems with each district really aren't fixed. Not to mention that most school administrators seem to be a bunch of inept and ritualistic buerocrats.

What needs to be done is the increase the pay of the teachers in the poorest districts and re-evaluate tenured teachers. Most federal funding is towards infrastructure, text books, and specialized programs. Old buildings don't stop a kid from learning, poor quality teachers do.

Personally, I think a couple of ideas here are a little off. Those of you who say 'you'd die' before subjecting yourself under the yoke of communism, obviously haven't thought enough. You'd be surprised how quickly a little desecration and slavery can be ignored when it's actually your life at stake. Think of all the Jews in the Holocaust. Think of African slaves brough over here. Despite all the hardships, the pain, and the toture, physical and mental, that they went through, how many actually went and offed themselves? Not many. Oh sure, the history books say that this was a normal thing, but they mean only a few per ship. Compare that to the number of Africans who made it over here and worked and slaved for a lifetime, and never dreamt of suicide. Compare that to the number of Jews who, being hearded off to camps and knowing that most likely they'd be killed, didn't kill themselves, right up to the gas chambers. Oh sure, all of us will say, sitting in our comfortable chairs, thinking thoughts about governmental slavery, that we'd rather die. But come right down to it, and life, no matter how crummy, is the only precious thing any of us has got, and I'm willing to bet most of us wouldn't give that up too quickly.

WORLD EDUCATION RANKINGS
UNICEF rankings of educational systems in the world's richest countries, indicating the percentage of 14 and 15 year olds scoring below a minimum level in literacy, math and science.
1. South Korea 1.4 percent
2. Japan 2.2
3. Finland 4.4
4. Canada 5
5. Australia 6.2
6. Austria 8.2
7. Britain 9.4
8. Ireland 10.2
9. Sweden 10.8
10. Czech Republic 12.2
- (tie) New Zealand 12.2
12. France 12.6
13. Switzerland 13
14. Belgium 14
- (tie) Iceland 14
16. Hungary 14.2
- (tie) Norway 14.2
18. United States 16.2


This study done by the UN shows that Canada is actually much higher in the world rankings then the U.S.

Communism is an idiology, and should never have been put into practise. It works only in the land of Eutopia where one of his books is set. In eralm life it cannot function because of our life style, past events and all the conflicts round the world.


Communism is no way to govern a country.

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Just becuase the main goal of your president is to lower taxes doesn't make that the best choice. Taxes are needed to fund so many different aspects in a country, areas in which the U.S. is seriouslly lacking.....

First, the President's aspirations for lower taxes have nothing to do with why I think it's the best plan. It's just the opposite, I support the president because lowering taxes, in general, IS the best plan.

And the areas in which the US is lacking? Which ones exactly? For a country with a population of almost 300 million citizens, we are extremely well off. We are weak in education, however we also have one of the highest per-student spending rates in the world, second only to the Swiss I beleive.
Throwing more money at the problem will not fix it at this point.

We also have the worlds greatest healthcare system, and it's privatized, which means you have to pay for it yourself, rather than have a beurocrat move the money around for you. Socializing medicare in the US will only lead to a huge, bloated government organization that has taken control of a little bit more of your personal decisions.

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Yes your economy is good, and therefore the wealthy are very well off, but what of the rest, are you just gonna let them disappear with a second thought to their well being?

Well, it's a bit tough to get by if the government is taking half of what you earn to feed inefficent programs. My family, due to proper money management and work has moved from the working class up to upper middle. A signifigantly higher tax rate, at any point in my grandfathers, fathers, or my life, would have made it impossible for myself or my parents to go to a decent college and move up in the world.

Just becuase the main goal of your president is to lower taxes doesn't make that the best choice. Taxes are needed to fund so many different aspects in a country, areas in which the U.S. is seriouslly lacking.....Yes your economy is good, and therefore the wealthy are very well off, but what of the rest, are you just gonna let them disappear with a second thought to their well being?

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Originally posted by Ipperwash:
I am not quite sure if any of you have been reading my posts but here it is in a nutshell, Canada is a social democracy, we take care of people with our national healthcare which creates equality in that area, and we do not have a dictator!!!!!!!!

Your live under a dictator called overtaxation and national impotency. And your economy and security is completely dependent on your more capitalist neighbors. Again, I'll say that Canada is not some paradise, and is definitely NOT a model the US should be using.

I am not quite sure if any of you have been reading my posts but here it is in a nutshell, Canada is a social democracy, we take care of people with our national healthcare which creates equality in that area, and we do not have a dictator!!!!!!!!

good idea but it'll never ever work in real life. humans are just to selfish to be concerned with the equality and good of the society as a whole.

Hi.

Ampmaster hit the nail on the head. Both Communism and Socialism are inherently, fatally flawed because both put too much faith in human nature. Yeah, as a theory they're nice, but only as theory. They never have worked and never will. To say either system "works," one has to be one of the elite lord-types that ALWAYS rise to the top in either system ( thus proving the whole thing to be a sham) or a naive ignoramus who has no idea what life is like outside of slanted textbooks. For those of you who think Commie-ism is so great, look at the piles of skulls it's created the world over -- not even the Roman Catholic church at its peak of power killed nearly as many.

Grow up.

I believe that communism is a goog idea that over time took a very wrong turn. In theory it is alright with some bumps in the road. I feel that in the mind leaders seeing the people that they love suffer, communism seems like the best way to go to make as many as possible happy. But of course you going to have the blood suckers that want everything for themselves and nothing for the people. So when the dust settles the people are the ones that suffer the most.

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Originally posted by Ipperwash:
You make some good points, and what you say may work in theory, but so does communism. What we need is a system that actually works and doesn't just look after one part of scociety like capitalism and communism does.

Hey now we're getting somewhere.

You make some good points, and what you say may work in theory, but so does communism. What we need is a system that actually works and doesn't just look after one part of scociety like capitalism and communism does.

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Socialism tries to look after as many groups of citizens a possible. We still have very rich people, and very poor people, but in retrospect we try to help them both equally by encouraging free enterprise, but also by funding programs such as healthcare, and social security.

The problem is all these programs are under control of the government, which is inefficient and, as history has proven, can turn really sour sometimes.

Social security, in the way that most countries are implementing it, are nothing more than income redistribution. What NEEDS to be done is to promote a corporate culture that favors higher wages and benefits, rather than relying on a handout from the government.

Again, this is something THE PEOPLE must do, not a government beuracracy. Government coercion is not the way to go.

Did you ever stop to think that possibly Socialism is practised as the lesser of three evils in todays society. Communism doesn't work, thats understandable, Capitalism works for everyone with a decent backround and the ability to work a good job, but thats not everyone. Socialism tries to look after as many groups of citizens a possible. We still have very rich people, and very poor people, but in retrospect we try to help them both equally by encouraging free enterprise, but also by funding programs such as healthcare, and social security.

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I can't see how you can say that socialism is precurser of communism, because i really don't see Canada headed in that direction.

The whole purpose of socialist theory is to move towards a communist system. Communism does not have the massive government control that socialism has. Socialism, therefore, is much more dangerous in my opinion. Communism, by comparison, is just a terrible waste as opposed to a threat to freedom and the individual.

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Thats the thing, it has become the everyone else against the United States,

You forgot Poland.

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Question, why is it that so many of your elderly, and those ion need of perscriptions, come to Canada?

Because the Canadian medications are largely generic/imported. This is actually a benefit of a free market.
Also, corporations simply charge more for thier drugs inside the US because they know people can and will pay more.

Ironically, Americans going to Canada for drugs is a model of why a free market works.

Now answer me this question: Why do so many of your citizens come to our country to invest and find employment?