500 Days of Capitalism

500 Days of Capitalism

I was going to go with Capitalism: A Love Story, but that's been used and you'd probably think I was just talking about a Michael Moore film.

But you see, we owe a lot to capitalism. It's literally the best thing possible! Never mind what the poor people starving in the cold winter weather have to say about it. Capitalism - Literally the cause of everything awesome in life...



I mean, I keep shoving money into my baby's mouth but it keeps crying. What the fuck, Capitalism. Maybe I should just take it to the store. I hear that food is very abundant there thanks to the wonderful nature of capitalism.

But don't you see!? Literally everything in this video is true. The capitalist mode of production is wonderful, but it has inherent contradictions which must be resolved by executing that narrator.

CapitalismIsLife posted a video "Capitalism = Longer Life" which proves that capitalism only cares about perpetuating itself. Look, look, I just made a big sloppy mess all of your argument. Keep the change.

Don't you realize that without capitalism, that baby wouldn't live a better life than babies of color. Indeed, this is in the proper location on Youtube as marked by the whole EDUCATION. Though I do have to say that they're actually sort of right. The socialist in me hates to admit it, but maybe they're on to something here..

Here is the current life expectancy in nations where capitalism has significant presence (abbreviated list)
82 -- Australia
78 -- United States
82 -- Japan
81 -- Israel
80 -- Italy

Current life expectancy in nations where capitalism has only modest presence (abbreviated list)
71 -- Philippines
66 -- Russia
70 -- Honduras
65 -- Pakistan
59 -- Senegal

Current life expectancy in nations where capitalism has little or no presence (abbreviated list)
30 -- Haiti
47 -- Nigeria
45 -- Afghanistan
40 -- Zimbabwe
64 -- North Korea



You see, Capitalism ended this nightmare of a short life for Western Europeans. In a historical blink of an eye, it virtually wiped out poverty, countless diseases, hunger, child mortality, human misery and the need for child labor. It also ushered in, for hundreds of millions of people, unprecedented levels of wealth, health, and abundance. Life expectancy in Western Europe, as a result, more than doubled to at least the age of 75.

Though, I'm pretty sure governments were responsible for most of those things. By instituting national healthcare systems and labor laws. Capitalism is like that guy who runs a pyramid scheme. For the majority of the time you trusted him things were going very well and you thought his system worked out perfectly. That is until your investment drops rises drops drastically because of him yet you continue to do as he asks of you because you are told things will get better if you just hold out while still supporting him.. then bam!

I would also like to take a moment to point out that longer doesn't necessarily mean better. If anything, capitalism can be summed up with the opening to Soylant Green...

In communism you would get to own everything! Capitalism is like the last 3 weeks of summer when its rainy out and maybe your friends are out of town and you're bored and you wish school would just start already.

Just in case that you want to have a further discussion of how capitalism was a tremendous improvement over feudalism, please refer to the works of Karl Marx. Just don't fear, the more they talk about capitalism, the further we will slide back into feudalism.
Capitalism is basically an improvement on feudalism and has coincided with growth. Marx wrote about this, as bizzarofry pointed out. This doesn't mean it's the only system that could have accomplished that growth or that we should continue on with it. I mean, if we do stick with it we end up with more of this sort of shit.



So I guess the question is how much you value your ability to buy whatever you want and most of all, are you one of the upper crust who actually can live out your dreams of capitalistic involvement?

Spongebob China Man

Sponge Bob China Man

With people driving to Walmarts in droves for the Holiday shopping, perhaps you should take a look at where your gifts are coming from in the form of this colorful cartoon about a Chinese Sponge Bob.



So maybe you'll buy American next time. Ha. Just messing. We can't produce anything worth a damn.

A Communist Party

A Communist Party

50 years ago today Cuba faced a new change and Castro took over. You remember from The Godfather II or the Buena Vista Social Club... or Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights.. It was a crazy time and here we are 50 years later celebrating the festive years under a socialist dictatorship!

HAVANA (AFP) — Cuba on Thursday celebrates the 50th anniversary of its revolution with its iconic leader Fidel Castro withdrawn from power, still at odds with the United States and facing new economic challenges.

Fifty year festivities, led by President Raul Castro, 77, who officially took over from his older brother in February, were due to center on Santiago de Cuba -- the southeastern city from where the revolution began.

It was unclear how 82-year-old Fidel, who has not appeared in public since undergoing major surgery almost two and a half years ago, would participate.

Leftist Bolivian President Evo Morales has pulled out of the party and it was also unclear whether Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who considers himself Fidel Castro's "spiritual son," would attend.

"Celebrations won't be as grandiose as we had wished due to the economic situation," a Cuban official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

A 32-year-old Fidel Castro announced the start of the revolution in the island's second city after the victory of a 25-month guerilla war over dictator Fulgencio Batista.

The communist revolution -- also led by legendary Argentine guerilla Ernesto "Che" Guevara -- took on Marxist overtones in May 1961, one month after the attempted invasion of the Bay of Pigs by CIA-backed Cuban exiles.

Former US president John F. Kennedy declared an embargo in February 1962, before the Soviet missile crisis, which almost set off nuclear war.

US president-elect Barack Obama, due to take power on January 20, has, however, promised to soften the 46-year-old embargo, and Raul Castro has said he is ready for talks without "carrot or stick" with Obama.

The Cuban president has also promised "structural reforms" -- a departure from his older brother and leading members of the communist old guard.

The Cuban Communist Party is split between backers of the status quo who, like Fidel, refuse to loosen the regime's tight controls, and pragmatists pushing for a Chinese-style, controlled opening up of the economy.

But Raul's promised changes have taken a back seat to the global economic crisis as the president signaled in July, when he announced greater government control of revenues and tighter management of agriculture.

"It's my duty to speak frankly, because it would be unethical to create false expectations," he said after telling Cubans to expect tough economic times from spiraling international fuel and food prices.

On Saturday, the president called for new government spending cuts, but assured Cubans the economic and social reforms he had promised "have not been shelved."

The Caribbean island, also battered by three hurricanes in 2008, causing 10 billion dollars in damage -- equivalent to 20 percent of Cuba's gross national product -- no longer manages to meet its debt repayments.

It is still officially in the Special Period in Peacetime, an extended period of economic crisis that began in 1991 after the collapse of its main backer, the Soviet Union.

Although the island of 11.2 million people has since found new partners, particularly oil-rich Venezuela, life remains difficult for most Cubans who earn an average of 20 dollars per month and survive due to a parallel economy.

Branded US puppets by Havana, Cuban dissidents, divided and without a leader, say there are 219 "political prisoners" on the island.

During his decades in power, Fidel Castro expropriated foreign companies, jailed his political enemies and drove some two million Cubans into exile.

But he also introduced historic reforms, including major education and health advancements that raised the island nation to the level of leading western countries.

Cuba had Latin America's best life expectancy and infant mortality in 1959 and one of the highest literacy rates. Caloric consumption is significantly lower on average today than it was back then. The Cuban "revolution" was a joke. They overthrew the old rulers but had no idea of how to resist the U.S. by taking an independent path (like Albania did with a far smaller population) so they subordinated themselves and became a Soviet Neocolony. Their economy was organized around exporting agricultural products with horrible terms of trade.



Even though Americas embargo has been around for this long, I doubt it's as crippling as many would believe. If 50 years of supposed revolutionary socialism can't break free of dependency on rich nations, then they mustn't have been trying very hard. But hey... let's forget about all that cause it's PARTY TIME!!! I wonder if they'll have some Red Velvet Cake for the celebration. It's a shame that they can't trade with America as I've seen plenty of red party cups for them to use.



Then again, it's going to be like Weekend at Bernies. Imagine Castro's two year old dead body being draped around like a puppet. I suppose the celebration could be titled Cuba: At least it's not Haiti.

So hey, Cuba. Happy 50 years under some very strange times. I would come to visit, I really would. Your food is delicious and your music is very interesting. But I don't have a duo citizenship with any place that doesn't hate you. I would buy you a gift but.. yeah, that wouldn't be following that whole communism thing you seem to like. I suppose the closest I can get to you is in the Keys.