Monday, May 31, 2010

Euro Socialism: A View

Socialist Parties in Europe are in turmoil. Why? Because they seem to have the problem of divorcing themselves from an existent Capitalist system.
Capitalism largely doesn’t work. It does on minor level when people start small businesses, or even organic pasta factories.
In Europe even the small businessman have a picture of Che in their pizzeria. Here in America, the local Republican Politician.
In America people are elite minded. In Europe people are Social minded.
The Socialist Parties and Social Democrats have done a more successful job the any other form of Socialism. Why?
Lets look at the Nordic countries. And even Italy. When I went Sardinia, the streets are named after famous Italian Socialists. The Un-socialist thing about Sardinia is poverty and joblessness.
The major problem of the failure of Socialist International Parties is that they lean toward Euro Liberalism. Party leaders cannot even relate to workers and apply elitist values close to conservatives. But many bottom rank and file members are the true radicals. They are the ones fighting the true revolution.
Even now the Party of European Socialist are concerned with initating a more Social Europe. Since the Social Democratic Socialist Parties of Europe are electable, they are the ones delivering the goods. But in very shallow terms. Scandinavian Socialism is the only Socialism that works. They are the happiest countries in the world.
The adoption of Third Way ideology by many social democrats has proved divisive within the broader social democratic community. Traditional social democrats argue that Third Way ideology has caused the movement to become too centrist, and even that the movement may be becoming center-right. In general, apparent reversals in policy have encountered significant opposition among party members and core voters; many of the latter have claimed that their leaders have betrayed the principles of social democracy.
So there are Social Democrats who are Socialists and Socials Democrats who are Euro Liberals.
The Major problems with Euro Socialists, they are suck in a Capitalist mode. Conservatives and Right Euro Liberals have made it impossible for Socialists to maneuver. American Socialists blame The Greek, Spanish, and Portuguese Socialists for austerity and other problems. Socialist inherit horrible government policies from conservatives and Euro Liberals than get blamed for these horrible policies.


The failure of the American Left. In Europe they can at least fashion Coalition Parties, In America Socialist are also political isolationists.
Socialist in America do not practice the democracy they preach. They expel members for free thought, and compromise the liberty and freedom of members who disagree or function on their own. This a is especially done with a Trotsky mentality.
American Socialists blame Lula DeSilva and Bernie Sanders for compromising. Sad to say, that is also what politics is about, unless there is a clear majority. Sanders is the only Socialist in Congress. Lula and even Evo Morales is stuck with their conservative fringes.
Democracy from the top isn’t Democracy, Democratic Centralism isn’t Democracy, it is a form of control. It is a mafia type system where the powerful rule.
Most American Socialists are ignorant of other peoples culture and societies. Not realizing even if people are Socialists in their country they still will not have American Socialist values, nor should they. Even many feminists are not about Liberation. Many are petty despots. (I am a Barbara Ehrenriech feminist.) They studying SOCIAL ANTHOPOLOGY.
Although I appreciate Communism, it has a difficult time in the United States. But one of my heroes is a Communist.

I am a Communist Bastard Sometimes:

Enrico Berlinguer (Italian pronunciation: [berliŋˈɡwɛr]) (25 May 1922 – 11 June 1984) was an Italian politician; he was national secretary of the Italian Communist Party (Partito Comunista Italiano or PCI) from 1972 until his death.
On an internal side, Berlinguer's last major statement was a call for the solidarity among the leftist parties. In June 1984 Berlinguer suddenly left the stage during a speech at public meeting in Padua: he had suffered a brain hemorrhage, and died three days later. More than a million citizens attended his funeral, one of the biggest in Italy's history.
[Enrico Berlinguer has been defined in many ways, but he was generally recognised for political coherence and a certain courage, together with a rare personal and political intelligence. A serious man, he was sincerely respected even by his opponents, and his three days' agony was followed with great attention by the general population. His funeral was followed by a large number of people, perhaps among the highest ever seen in Rome.
The funerals of Enrico Berlinguer produced probably the largest crowds ever to gather in Rome; here they are shown making the clenched fist, symbol of the Communist and leftist movements
The most important political act of his career in the PCI was undoubtedly the dramatic break with Soviet Communism, the so-called strappo, together with the creation of Euro-communism, and his substantial work towards contact with the moderate (and particularly the catholic) half of the country.

(Some Items extricated from Wikipedia.)

Right now as a Euro Socialist I am supporter of the PES and Socialisti Italiano.

“I am a Socialist because I believe that Socialism and Democracy are the only Political Ideologies that allow people to be completely Human.”
Tino Rozzo

“True Socialism is something that must be Evolved into”
Eugene V Debs


Dedicated too Chegetz, Mike Marino, Vito Anthony Marcantonio
Vitov Valdez Munoz (Candidate ALP), Buyana Badrakh (Mongolian Socialist)

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Free Market Capitalism

. I keep hearing only Free Market Capitalism will save us.
Free-market capitalism has come to dominate our economic thinking. It has even led to the mistaken view that there is no other variety of capitalism than the free-market kind. Capitalism is the view that a nation’s economy, for the most part, is better left in private hands rather than being centrally planned by government. In this respect it differs from political and economic systems.

There is no such thing as free-market capitalism . The government championship of free markets make exceptions for patents, and copyrights, which constitute government regulations that favor publishing companies and pharmaceutical companies.
DNA and Seed genes can belong to companies who can ruin our lives if we use them. Seeds farmers have had free and used for 600 years in America are now owned by private companies.

With labor exploitation, poverty, industrial pollution and the lack of compassionate efforts, capitalism has a history of destruction. Sure one could argue the entrepreneurial value and goods for services and jobs. But these can be had by alternative economies.

There is also further empirical evidence to show that even when individuals act selfishly from perfect economic freedom they rarely enhance the good of others, or even themselves. One such bit of evidence is known as “the tragedy of the commons.”

“The race to the bottom,”, whereas the optimal outcome for each individual is not to cooperate while others do cooperate. An example is tax competition among nations. Each nation may benefit from having a high tax on corporate profits to promote income equality. But nations can benefit individually with a lower corporate tax rate to attract business from other nations. This hurts all but the one that lowered the tax rate. To be competitive, each of the other nations would have to lower its tax rate, thereby “racing to the bottom” with a result less favorable in promoting income equality and the good of all.
The poverty rate in the world is 90%.

Universal Health Care and other social programs have a evidence that they do work and are beneficial to society. With our current Corporateocracy our futures maybe hopeless.
Wit such a record of destruction, it is difficult to see how Free Market Capitalism will save us. Is this a Utopian pipe dream? Of course.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

The Socialist Soteasan: Chung Bin Park

Chung-bin Park also known as Soteasan - One of his mottos was:- As material civilization develops, cultivate spiritual civilization accordingly. Born in 1891 he attained Enlightenment (nirvana) in 1916 after twenty years of struggle. Object of worship is the Ill-Won-sang or perfect circle which represents the Dharmakaya Buddha. No Buddha statues. Doctrine based on Three Principles - Cultivation of spiritual stability, study of Facts and Principles, Selection of Right Conduct as well as cultivation of the four graces of Heaven and earth, Parents, Brethren and the Law. Also emphasises the practice of Son - meditation at all times. Aims to build towards United Religions (U.R) and the Asian Conference on Religion and Peace.
I can easily claim, He was definitely a Socialist.
Under Japanese occupation, he was arrested many times. Yet he even won over some Japanese followers. He stated not even alienating people who where oppressors because they where human also and could change for the better. His message was about peace and harmony amongst all people.
"If I where to have Children in many Parts of the world, and they where of different races, I would love them all the same because they are all part of me. As the human race is part of one original source."The worldwide Buddhist community, as an humane whole, transcends divisions prevalent in society today. Social and economic development efforts are undertaken by Buddhists everywhere, International Buddhist wish to foster a new world, transcending race and religions. To bring a consciousness to society in the Global Village.Buddhist feel social and economic development generally take the form of progressive reformist and revolutionary initiatives carried out by Co-operative groups of people in the Cities and Rural areas in which they live. As these initiatives evolve, some grow into more sustantial programs with permanent administrative structures. Buddhist encourage both frugal and cost effectiveness. Changing society from one of wastefulness, to one that takes care of the Earth and Communities.At the heart of all Buddhist development takes recognition of a deep and inseparable connection between the practical and spiritual aspects of daily life. Creating a desire for social change and instilling confidence that it can be achieved must ultimately come from an awakening of the human spirit. Cultivating the spiritual and humane roots of human motivation provides the essential impulse that ensures genuine social advancement.Workers in the development field have increasingly come to understand that the creation and diffusion of knowledge lie at the heart of social progress. Buddhist social and economic development is therefore focused on increasing the capacity of individuals, communities, and institutions to take concrete steps that foster Enlightenment and material well-being. This process of capacity building involves a global enterprise of Education in which Buddhists from virtually every cultural and ethnic background work to apply the methods of science and the moral and spiritual insights found in the the Buddhist teachings to their particular local conditions. It is a Karmic Process in which every local communities gradually improve their ability to define, analyze, and meet the needs of the community. From the Buddhist point of view the set of efforts necessary for building up the social, economic, and moral fabric of life must draw upon the resources of both the mind and the heart. By fully integrating spiritual principles into community development activities, ideas, values, and practical measures emerge that promote self-reliance and safeguard human dignity. In this way, patterns of dependency are avoided and conditions of inequality are progressively eliminated.Won Buddhism has a view of world peace which spiritual. WON BUDDHIST PROPOSALS FOR WORLD PEACE: Won Buddhism nor Buddhism in general, is not confined to one nation or one race. Won Buddhism goals to go beyond any boundaries or obstructions. The founder of Won Buddhism advocates and claims that all religions meet at the thought of lrwonism because the final goal of religions is one and the same. Morality(The Morality based on the Three Principles of Identity). The First Principle of Identity, "All Doctrines Have the Same Origin," suggests that each religion should expand beyond its own boundaries to open up to other religions, since all religions share one Truth and the same goal. The Second Principle of Identity, "All Living Beings Are Related by the Same Force (of Life)," suggests that the human race ought to live as brothers, free from fighting or resentment, since all human beings are of one family. The Third Principle of Identity, "All Enterprises Are for the Same Purpose', suggests that all human enterprises and assertions need to cooperate with each other, rather than rejecting one another, in order to construct a better world on earth. Chongsan's spirit of Samdong Morality is succeeded by Taesan's proposals for world peace, namely, cultivation of the mind-field, development of a worldwide market and the united religions movement "Cultivation of the Mind-field" purposes to foster the strength of mind, which can then make good use of scientific and technological advancement. Otherwise, human beings become enslaved to materialism and degenerate due to the influence of advanced science and technology. Development of a Worldwide Market" purposes to promote international cooperation without confinement to national or racial interests, so the all human beings are equally provided with affluent material conditions in clothing, food, and shelter for their physical needs. The United Religions Movement" purposes to free the individual from one's own religious egotism and boundaries, and to fulfill the original mission of religion. In furtherance of the goal of religious cooperation, the Won Buddhist community proposes to establish an institutionalized organization for world religions comparable to, and on parallel with, the United Nations organization. The Won Buddhist community will take the lead in removing the boundaries and barriers of the past, and creating one global family on earth, in tandem with other religious communities.For further readings The Kyojon and Tea Kyojon are on line. Won Buddhist Teachings. I recommend To Tuk: The Path of Humanity. In the Second Book. Read his examples.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Happiness Economics

A variety of measures of national income and output are used ineconomics to estimate total economic activity in a Nation , including gross domestic product (GDP), gross national product (GNP), and net national income (NNI). All are specially concerned with counting the total amount of goods and services produced within some economics measure. It incures one's own personal use, or for one's family, is largely left out of these measures, although some attempts are made to include some of those kinds of production by imputing monetary values.national accounts, of which these figures are a part, this began in the 1930s, in the United States and many European countries. The impetus for that major statistical effort was the Great Depression and the rise of Keynsian economics, which addresses a greater role for the government in managing an economy, and made it necessary for governments to obtain accurate information so that their interventions into the economy could proceed as much as possible on the basis of fact.quality of life or social progress in more holistic and psychological terms than GNP or GDP. As a chief economic indicator, GDP has numerous flaws long known to economists. GDP measures the amount of commerce in a nation, but counts remedial and defensive expenditures (such as the costs of security, police, pollution clean up, etc.) as positive contributions to commerce. A better measure of economic well-being would deduct such costs, and add in other non-market benefits (such as volunteer work, unpaid domestic work, and un-priced ecosystem services) in arriving at an indicator of well-being. As economic development on the planet approaches or surpasses the limits of ecosystems to provide resources and absorb human effluents, calling into question the ability of the planet to continue to support civilization (per the arguments of Jared Diamond, among others), many people have called for getting "Beyond GDP" (the title of a recent EU conference) in order to measure progress not as the mere increase in commercial transitions, nor as an increase in specifically economic well-being, but as an increase in general well-being as people themselves subjectively report it. GNH is a strong contributor to this movement to discard measurements of commercial transactions as a key indicator and to instead directly assess changes in the social and psychological well-being of populations.Bhutan's former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who has opened up Bhutan to the age of modernization, He used the phrase to the commitment to building an economy that would serve Bhutan's unique culture based on Buddhist spiritual values. At first offered as a casual concept was taken seriously, as the Center for Bhutan Studies, under the leadership of Kaarma Uru, developed a sophisticated survey instrument to measure the population's general level of well-being. The Canadian health epidemiologist Michael Pennock had a major role in the design of the instrument, and uses (what he calls) a "de-Bhutanized" version of the survey in his work in Victoria, British Columbia.quality of life by combining economists' and psychologists' techniques. It relies on more expansive notions of utility than does conventional economics. Although its usefulness is yet to be determined, it has become a subject of interest and often a measure of comparison with the traditional forms of measuring market health such as GDP and GNP. This field of studies is also called " The economy of happiness.”Easterlin paradox and may result from a "hedonic treadmill." This means that aspirations increase with income; after basic needs are met, relative rather than absolute income levels influence well-being. Happiness economists hope to change the way governments view well-being and how to most effectively govern and allocate resources given this paradox. However, other research suggests that no paradox exists, and happiness is linearly related to the logarithm of absolute (real, PPP-adjusted) income, with little or no relative income. this would be augmented by a Livable, Quality Universal Income.

As can be imagined, arriving at a figure for the total production of goods and services in a large region like a nation entails an enormous amount of data-collection and calculation. Although some attempts were made to estimate national incomes as long ago as the 17th century, the systematic keeping of

In order to count a good or service it is necessary to assign some value to it. The value that all of the measures discussed here assign to a good or service is its market value – the price it incures when bought or sold. No attempt is made to estimate the actual usefulness of a product – its use-value – assuming that to be any different from its market value.

Gross Happiness

The concept of gross national happiness (GNH) was developed in an attempt to define an indicator that measures

The term was coined in 1972 by

Happiness economics

The goal of happiness economics is to determine from what source people derive their well-being. Historically, economists have said that well-being is a simple function of income. However, it has been found that once wealth reaches a subsistence level, its effectiveness as a generator of well-being is greatly diminished. This paradox has been referred to as the

The national income of a nation is an estimate of the yearly production of goods and services. The loss of possible uses of the non-human made physical surroundings, named environmental functions, on which humanity is dependent in all its doings remains outside the estimate. Also the present and future production is dependent on these environmental functions. The sustainable national income (SNI) in a given year is an estimate of the production level at which - with the technology in the year of calculation - environmental functions remain available ‘for ever’.

Sustainable National Income

The sustainable national income (SNI) in a certain year is defined as the maximum attainable production level whereby, with the available technology in the year of calculation, vital environmental functions remain available ‘for ever’. The production level in the same year that is registered in the standard national income (NI) does not meet this condition. Environmental functions and their preservation after all fall outside the NI. The NI is therefore always higher than the SNI. The difference gives information about the distance between the present production level and the production level in a sustainable situation. If the distance decreases then we are on the road to environmental sustainability, the part of the production that is based on unsustainable use of the environment decreases. If the distance increases then we are drifting further away from sustainability.

Transition to environmental sustainability

With the present ecological and sustainable technology, population size as well as production and consumption patterns, the sustainable situation Capitalist governments ignore or put off. Although achieving environmental sustainability will require a long period of time. A Transition path to a sustainable situation is only limited by the condition that vital environmental functions must not be irreparably damaged. But must be scenically repaired. In view of the threat that this may happen it seems urgent to wait no longer with a change of course in the direction of

Universal Income Happiness:

A livable Quality Universal Income would achieve better than what is propose by most. The Basic Income, left Basic would impeded happiness.

In Portugal there are complaints of being supported on the basics, yet there is no quality of life. People feel they are merely existing.

Just providing people with basics cheats them out of happiness, achievement, and pursuit of better quality of life. The Basic Earth Universal Network must consider this. A quality income and quality life for all.

For Barbara La Rue