Of The 13 Wealthiest Countries, 12 Are Socialist (Social Welfare States)

Uncle Milton is an upper middle class bourgeois White worker who has a strong anti-worker, pro-boss and pro-corporate attitude and champions radical neoliberal economics. And I don’t even think he works in management. Go figure. But he’s a pretty typical upper middle class White collar office worker in the US. In this comment, he goes on and on try to say that our list of 13 wealthiest countries, of which 12 are strong social democracies, are not really socialist systems. He rules out a number of them as being “dependent on international finance” which means somehow that they are not social democracies (?). He also rules out Ireland, Sweden and Norway for some bizarre reason. He rules out Qatar and and UAE since they are not democracies and since they abuse their guest workers. According to him, that leaves only 3 “real” social democracies on the list. First of all, I use social democracy as a code for socialism, which in this case, is simply code for an extensive welfare state, an activist government with high social spending that cares for its citizens and tries to provide a very good life for them. It means you have an extensive safety nets, social welfare programs, high levels of state social spending, etc. From what I can tell, UAE and Qatar treat their citizens very well in terms of social welfare programs, a safety net, state social spending, etc. It must be very nice to be an actual citizen of Qatar or UAE. Sure, they treat their immigrant labor like shit, but those aren’t citizens. The US doesn’t even treat its own citizens right! The Gulf states beat us by a mile in that regard. Every single country on that list is a good socialist state in terms of treating its citizens very, very well. They have extensive safety nets, strong social welfare programs and high levels of state social spending. All except the US. The US shits right on top of its very own citizens, and its citizens love it that way. The US government spits in the face of its own people, and the American people, supplicant submissive masochistic sluts that they are, love it and grovel for me. And Uncle Milton cheers this on. If you think this website is valuable to you, please consider a contribution to support the continuation of the site.

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26 thoughts on “Of The 13 Wealthiest Countries, 12 Are Socialist (Social Welfare States)”

  1. “All except the US. The US shits right on top of its very own citizens, and its citizens love it that way.”
    I guess this explains why people from almost every other country in the world risk their lives to live in the United States right genius?

    1. Yeah but they leave their poor shitholes to come to the socialist states too. They really flood into those places. Most of them are leaving a poor shithole to come to a rich shithole. They’re both shitholes. The 3rd world shithole and the US shithole. They both hate their people, shit on them and treat them with contempt. But most folks living in a poor shithole, that’s all they are ever going to know until they die. Given the choice between living in a poor shithole and living in a rich shithole like the US, many choose to live in a rich shithole.
      Also, a very large number of US legal immigrants are simply the rich of the 3rd World. The rich like to live in shitholes, because they pay less taxes that way. They come from 3rd World shitholes with minimal government and a state that does nothing for its people, but they don’t care because they are bucks up anyway. The 3rd world rich and upper middle class have no use for government anyway. Most of them are typical ruling class government hating minimal government types. There’s actually probably a better a better social democracy here than in their shithole.
      This is all about money. People will flood from poor countries to rich countries, come Hell or high water. They don’t care if they are moving to a welfare state or a neoliberal minimal government shithole state like the US. They’re just going for the money.
      How bout we take your dickwad question around and ejaculate it right back at you, ok? Let’s take a survey of legal US immigrants and ask them how many of them love the fact that the US is a neoliberal, minimal government, quasi-Libertarian, wealthy version of a 3rd world state? Not too many? How many would prefer their new US home to be a good social democracy? Actually, most of them. Most legal immigrants don’t buy into this neoliberal minimal government crap. Most people all over the world want some kind of socialism. We know this because legal immigrants vote overwhelmingly Democratic.
      BTW, Chinaman asshole, you’re banned.
      HAND!

    2. ya, they come here and as time goes by they realize they bought the dream and illusion that does not exist!… if lucky they will find an $8-10 job to support a family,but mostly end up in social services for the duration of their stay in the good ole US…what this does undermine long time citizens of our country from being able to get help when needed. We could learn much from the scandanavian countries and other countries that have decent social services and a more egalitarian attitude among their people.

    3. Also, in thinking about who’s flocking here, it’s not people from first world countries with strong governments in place that have social programs that support them.
      Sure, they come here for work purposes, but have work visas and sell things and make things for U.S. and prefer to keep their own citizenship, play taxes, and vote in their home country in person or as absentees.

      1. The problem is, the people who are “flocking here” are turning America into the very Hell they just left, bringing their disease — physical, social, and especially POLITICAL — with them!

  2. Hey Robert, you’ve been ragging on Uncle Milton a lot lately. Did he piss you off or something? 😉
    It’s hard to classify Milton, but I would say that he’s more right wing than left wing, if one had to place him in a strict category.
    Uncle Milton has a cool style. He cites statistics (of course, I don’t trust most statistics, but oh well), and uses non-polemical language to make his point. He even managed to get by at Abagond for a while.

    1. Dude, I’m an economic man. Uncle Milton is a real hard rightwinger, especially on economics. He’s basically the US Chamber of Commerce, Milton Friedman and the Republican Party rolled into one.
      This is a socialist blog, and I reserve the right to beat the fuck out of people who are rightwing on economics, and I will do that regularly on here. Be warned. No mercy. To be honest, I don’t even want them here at all. But I won’t ban them. I’ll just roast them over the fire cannibal style.

    2. He doesn’t have a cool style at all. He’s contrary. You say the sun comes up in the east and sets in the west, and he’s going to argue with you. He’s going to argue no matter what you say. He just wants to argue.

    3. You’re right, he is a contrarian.
      Although I find it’s hard to get pissed at him. He never makes any personal attacks on people, he backs up his claims with evidence, and it at least intellectually honest to a certain extent.
      And I hear you about economics. I only wish that the rest of the left shared your sentiments and dropped all that BS cultural leftism.
      We’ve disagreed before, but you and I are pretty much on the same page with regards to economics, though economically I see myself as more of a mild Socialist (ie. I believe in free market economies with very progressive taxation, and a safety net for working people, kind of like in Europe) while you’re more of a Communist (at least according to your own words, you’re a communist).

  3. robert, as a “right wing Russian” Im very curious on your on the fall of the USSR. it was socialist to the bone(my birth certificate even has a nice lttle hammer and sickle on it, im sure you’d love it) yet it fell apart. also, why do Cuba, Venuzuela, and North Korea suck? shouldnt they on your list?

  4. Rob
    champions radical neoliberal economics.
    I have said repeatedly that neoliberal economics as expressed in the US is a crock of doo doo. You repeatedly ignore my comments on this matter. I stated repeatedly that I thought some sort of nationalized or single payer health care was a good idea.. a sort of social infrastructure like free education. I wasn’t finished with my response by the way – Jersey, Luxembourg, and Switzerland making money by hiding rich people’s money and or having lower corporate taxes than the rest of Europe and the US. Please explain how that is right wing..? In Qatar and the UAE you can be imprisoned for not paying your debts.. the same with Ireland. As for comparing the 80% immigrant labor (funded by oil and international finance free wheeling finance.. Halliburton relocated to Dubai..there’s a reason they did and it’s not because they thing Dubai is left wing..) that runs those countries as opposed to the 90% native and resident alien (which have all the rights of US citizen absent voting..) labor that runs the US.. I think that is absurd.

  5. I have said repeatedly that neoliberal economics as expressed in the US is a crock of doo doo.
    Ok, Ok, I’m glad you say that! Good for you! Gold star. But you say that, just to get it out of the way, and then you come back with the latest RNC talking points.
    I stated repeatedly that I thought some sort of nationalized or single payer health care was a good idea.. a sort of social infrastructure like free education.
    Good man! Silver star.
    You repeatedly ignore my comments on this matter.
    I guess the problem is that apparently you say these things, then you come back and promote pro-corporate neoliberalism and smashing of the safety net in the comments with your talking points right out of the Chamber of Commerce. So you’re very confusing.
    there’s a reason they did and it’s not because they thing Dubai is left wing.
    We are getting into idiotic semantic games about rightwing and leftwing. I’m pointing out that all of these places have extensive social welfare states for their citizens, and 0 or the 13 have adopted US radical, minimal government, quasi-Libertarian neoliberal economics. Instead, they have fully and richly funded welfare states for their citizens. For some insane reason, you keep disputing this with me with endless evasions and red herrings and arguments for the sake of arguing. I don’t get it.

  6. Rob
    Dude, I’m an economic man. Uncle Milton is a real hard rightwinger, especially on economics. He’s basically the US Chamber of Commerce, Milton Friedman and the Republican Party rolled into one.
    The Republican party is veering towards becoming crony capitalists.. (rewarding friends that reward them… ) as are the Democrats. Never voted for Bush by the way.
    I have stated repeatedly here that I thought the rampant outsourcing of jobs (first factory jobs, then IT and accounting..) was an very bad idea. We are running head long towards a major crisis such as the one they had in Argentina in the late 90s early 2000s.
    What I do have problems with is the US borrowing money hand over fist (remember that debt has to be paid back with interest…) for one absurd project after another.. Iraq.. the 9 year war in Afghanistan (1 year then leave..) rewarding AIG counter parties at 100 cents on the dollar. (When internal projections from those companies thought they were going to receive $0.25..) Buying chickens in Minnesota (one of the weirder stimulus spending programs..) Or depressingly … social outreach programs in a rural Texas county that are going to be cut soon.. oh why was the employee so high in that county.. a factory had closed down and moved to Mexico. Hell the GM bailout allocated funds to relocate a factory to Mexico. Que Buena I guess.
    What’s been happening for decades in the US is that the connected get rewarded and the not so connected get screwed. Hell you can apply for funding from the US government to outsource…!
    “upper middle class bourgeois..” I am quite certain I grew up with less money than you… also I don’t have a trust fund like you have. (Although you did say that it is managed by people who only dole out a little a time…)
    As for pro.. Boss.. what a joke… I tried to organize a walk out 15 years ago at a workplace to increase our pay and change work rules. (It failed… some twit went to management and they co-opted the effort by increasing everyone’s pay by $0.50..) That said some Unions have basically killed their companies. (UAW at GM albeit GM management sucked anus also…. you said why didn’t GM open up their books.. their books where open… I knew in 2003 they unless they made major changes they would go bankrupt.. GM was cash flow negative and increasing debt every year… unfortunately pension funds (State pension funds for one that fund state worker retirement…) continued to have faith in GM till it was too late.
    I know something about finance and accounting.. by the looks of it.. our fearless leaders (most of the Republicans and Democrats..) don’t and continue to blow steam out of their ass. That said I really wonder if envelopes of cash are being exchanged in back rooms.. or perhaps money deposited in Swiss, Singapore, or Carribean bank accounts of various politicians. Maybe top off by blowjobs from $500 hookers. The best government money can buy. If so.. it would make some of their behavior rational.

  7. To Rob:
    Instead, they have fully and richly funded welfare states for their citizens.
    The idea then would be to see how they are richly funded. (and Switzerland and Luxembourg are not so much..)
    Borrowing money from the Chinese.. then sending factories overseas (sometimes with US government funding…!!) and importing docile labor to drive down labor costs… is sheer lunacy and simply unsustainable.

  8. To Rob:
    Ok, Ok, I’m glad you say that! Good for you! Gold star. But you say that, just to get it out of the way, and then you come back with the latest RNC talking points.
    Like it or not, some (not all) RNC talking points are entirely valid…but often their solutions are not.
    At one site I visit often http://www.wallstreetexaminer.com both the admin and several of the commentators voted for Obama but are now very disappointed that he didn’t really take action against the banksters. Obama is talking about letting the Bush tax cuts expire for people who make 200K or more a year which would affect roughly 1.5% of the tax payers yet most of the Republicans are making hay (pretty successfully..) over the issue.
    I am just looking at what I see will be a coming fiscal disaster that will strike the US. (and basically most of OECD, we are already seeing it in Greece and Iceland…) The numbers for promises (Medicare and Social Security.. ) don’t currently add up. Major adjustments will have to be made to accommodate all of the promises…. higher taxes, lower benefits, higher age for retirement, or possibly a combination of all three. Absent this, the US will default on it’s debt either directly (perhaps first to foreign bankers….) or indirectly. (with high inflation eroding the value of past debt…)

  9. lololol You didn’t answer any of the hard question idiot like this one
    robert, as a “right wing Russian” Im very curious on your on the fall of the USSR. it was socialist to the bone(my birth certificate even has a nice lttle hammer and sickle on it, im sure you’d love it) yet it fell apart. also, why do Cuba, Venuzuela, and North Korea suck? shouldnt they on your list?
    can’t answer that cuz socialism is a stupid fucking idea.

    1. Cuba doesn’t suck. Venezuela certainly doesn’t suck.
      It took Russia a full 20 fucking years after the transition to capitalism to even reach the GDP they had under the USSR.
      I do not believe in replicating the Soviet model. I believe in a role for the market.
      And you are banned.

  10. Mr. Lindsey must be the King of morons. Yes people are going to Sociaalist countries, but not because they love the systems. It is because of all the freebies they can get and nothing else.

  11. I agree with your analysis. I travel to Europe regularly and see the benefits of social democracies – good education, health care and social welfare, and healthy economies. There is some poverty, there always will be, but not much. The US, on the other hand, has become a cautionary tale for the rest of the world. Even right wing types in my home country, Australia, are looking askance at the US. Our conservative party (somewhat ironically called the Liberal party) is actually starting to tear itself apart, as conservatives claim it is not conservative enough and try to follow the Republican party into total imbecility, and “small ‘l’ liberals” desperately try to drag it back from the destructive path it has followed over the last few decades having sold out completely to big business.

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