On Thu, 05 Sep 2013 08:29:24 -0700, Max Boot
wrote:
snip
Like most leftists, you simply assume that it's a bad thing
/per se/. Your assumption is baseless.
snip

Actually I am far more of a rational rightist.

Please excuse the long reply, but I don't think or write in
"bumper stickers."

One of your avatars asked about specific actions to correct
wealth mal-distribution / over concentration, which results
in the over-concentration of income, assets, and
political/military power into too few hands and the
resulting threat to the state/economy/society/culture.

History is the basic of my conclusion that gross income
inequality /over concentration is a toxic, and frequently
fatal, socio-economioc condition for any state/society. It
appears one of the most dangerous effects is to produce
unjustified feelings of omnipotence and infallibility in
those with excessive wealth, so they do not clearly see and
react to the threats against "their" state. When the threat
is at last perceived (generally far too late), it is almost
always attributed to an incorrect "cause." "Outside
agitators" and internal moral decay / degeneracy are greatly
favored as excuses, as this eliminates any of their
accountability, despite the fact they had greatly promoted
both by their actions.

A complete analysis of this would requires a series of
books, but one close and recent [and chilling] example is
Argentina, which through the operation of the
free-to-do-anything-you-want market, typified by the
"Washington Consensus" and "Brave New World Order" managed
to sell of almost all of the state's patrimony. This public
property had been created/accumulated over many years
through enormous effort, for example YPF (the national oil
company), Gas del Estado (the national gas company), the
national airline, the railroads, the roads, the post office,
the utility companies [telephone, water, sewer, electric],
the banknote and security printing division of the mint
[banknotes, pass ports, licenses, diplomas]. The exchange
rates were "cooked" to set 1 Argentine Peso = 1 US Dollar,
with the result that Argentine products were first priced
out of the international markets, and then the internal
industry was destroyed when it became cheaper to import than
domestically produce, e.g. it was cheaper to import pasta
from Italy than produce it domestically.

This is the direct result of an elitist and murderous
[estimated 30,000 "disappeared in a nation of 40 million in
] military regime, the PRN [Proceso de Reorganización
Nacional], followed by a weak administration which largely
continued the failing PRN policies, which was then followed
by faux Peronista regime [like our RINO republicans in
spades] that looted what was left of the country, selling it
to the highest bidder.

While a few well [internationally] connected people at the
very top, aided and abetted by the supranational
corporations including US banks, became rich beyond the
dreams of Croesus, the huge majority of Argentineans, which
up until then had the highest living standards in Latin
America, were reduced to dumpster diving and eating garbage
to avoid starvation. The babies/children, the old, and the
weak died like flies from malnutrition and untreated
disease.

IMNSHO Argentina was weeks, if not days, away from a violent
revolution on the order of the French and Russian
revolutions, where the SOP is "kill them all and let god
sort them out, when Nestor Kirchner, one of the most
remarkable leaders Latin America has yet produced, became
president and implemented not only emergency famine relief
measures but reintroduce public health measures such as the
control of leprosy [Hanson's disease], malaria, dengue
fever, and chagas, which were again becoming epidemic. The
disastrous fiscial/financial, industrial, and social
policies, introduced by the PRN military and the faux
Peronista regimes were repealed and policies such as
re-industrialization, import substitution/restriction, and
high domestic value added domestic manufacturing using
domestic resources, e.g. lithium batteries, were implemented
and enforced. Peso/Dollar parity was eliminated and
dollarization of the economy was reduced as possible [US
drug money appears to still be flooding the country], and
the supranational corporations were increasingly brought
under monitoring and control.

The result of President Kirchner's decisive actions, and
those of his successor, President Cristina Fernandez de
Kirchner, have been to largely [but not entirely] repair the
damage done to their economy/society, and the standard of
living in Argentina, including the social safety net and
health care is again among the highest in Latin America.

Unfortunately, all is not beer and skittles. Argentina
remains a very corrupt country, with a powerful and highly
vendictive elite, e.g. the Clarín media empire and the mega
farms, [exemplified by their hiring people to paint "Long
Live Cancer" as Eva Peron lay dying] and their inflation
rate remains high. However, as Dr. Kicillof, Deputy Finance
Minister observed, "we would rather have a high inflation
rate than a depression/revolution."

The default/repudiation of much of the Argentinean sovereign
debt also remains a problem, with the American based vulture
fund, e.g. EML, domiciled in tax havens such as Bermuda
[thus evading US taxes while using US courts], seem
determined to sabotage the Argentine recovery by demanding
payment in full for the bonds they hold, even though they
bought these at 10 cents on the dollar and could triple
their money by accepting the thirty cents on the dollar
offer by the Kirchner/Fernandez administrations, which seems
a fair offer as an estimated 70% of the debt was illegal
under Argentinean law and/or odious. FWIW - a full forensic
audit of the sovereign debt of Ecuador showed 70% was
fraudulent and/or odious.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...GatJpwTFgoj-Cg