Game Something to think about...

[Kirthag]

My gamer son shared this with his gamer mom (me) who happens to be a marketer so yeah... I know some of the ploys mentioned in this video.

Is scary as hell to think of what I do professionally (and for fun) can be used in this way....

Tell me what you guys think.....

 

[Captn Norrington]

That is really disturbing....in so many different ways.

Whoever came up with that idea is a genius though.....it really is the perfect way to force citizens to do what the government wants or face punishments both from the government itself and society in general, which leaves them no way to escape it.

It's really twisted that a country would be willing to turn its citizens against each other socially like that just for the sake of obedience.

 

[old gypsy]

Well, I will don my special hat again...since I believe social pressures have become ever more intense, even in our own supposedly "free" society. Pressure to conform to a standard of "group think" that is encouraged and actively embraced by government and/or universities, institutions, media, etc. is not new - just faster and more effective these days, thanks in large part to modern technology.

 

[Zosimus]

I travel the world and have seen much in my travels. As an American I notice we take our liberties and freedom for granted mostly. Now the video above is about China. We all know China is not a democratic country. In truth the US is not a democratic country since we rule more like a socialist country but call it democracy. That's another story though and back on to China. Even though we may not like what they do or disagree with communism as a whole its their government. It seems to work for them because communism didn't work out to well for Russia.

China is the number one world power even though America still maintains that we are the number one power in the free world. We added the free to it to still maintain the status go figure. America is in debt to China. We borrow money from China to keep our wars going. We have everything made in China now days. China has a huge population and they seem to keep that communism government even though you see reports that the citizens complain about it.

The way they rule their country is the way they rule. It works for them even though I may disagree with the intrusion of the Chinese government on their privacy. I could say the same about our US government if I wanted. The US know what we do and what we are doing. They just don't really fess up to it and admit it. That's why we have social security numbers. Its not about social security. We are branded like a cow is when you get that SS number and everything you do is shown through that number if the government wants to know.

I am not complaining about the US just stating my views and I love the USA and damn proud of my country. One thing we all should know by now that "we the people all around the world" are not so free as we all think in any form of government on this planet.

 

[Kirthag]

However, this didn't start as a government project - it started in the private sector there (and yes, they have a private sector).

If you really wanna get into it, our country (read: US of A) is run by those with the money - not so much a "socialist democracy" as some have called it. If the big-money lobbyists don't like something, those who have been voted for tend to change their votes/thinking/agenda. We see it all the time.

Lemme clarify:

The big money influences the rule makers who implement social programs paid for by the little people.

There.. that sums it up.

 

[Zosimus]

I know they have a private sector. I do business around the world. Just not in China. I also understand I have to go by any country laws and customs when I am in a particular country. Who is it for me to judge how communism works. That's their business not mine. If that video is completely true and if it works for the people because they can just lie and post/do all the good things China wants them to. They win in the end really because they get all the perks that come with it even though they may disagree with their government. I live in a free world government but it has some tendencies to communism no matter how they try to hide it.

Big money has always ran the world. Its works for their agenda. A true democratic state is where majority rules. In a true democratic state if 51 people voted for a law and 49 against it ,then it should pass law. In a socialist democratic state you would need 60 to vote for that law to pass as a quick example. That's what the US has now. I'm not complaining about it because its a good thing but it's how it is.

Capitalism works on that agenda and lobbyists bribe our officials to get what they want. That is how the senators and house delegates come out as millionaires when they walked in office to help the people and ended up helping themselves. Where is the punishment in our system for corrupt officials? When they get caught they don't even spend a day in jail and its soon forgotten. Look back at the 2008 crash and who got in trouble back then? Not a soul that I know of and that includes Wallstreet. Pretty sure China executed some of their corrupted officials and have a program called Skynet to search and find corruption.

Big money is what makes all types of governments fail because they corrupt any good in any form of government.

I don't understand why you even typed this.. If you really wanna get into it, since you asked for others thoughts. I am not even trying to argue with you. I have my opinion and you have yours.

 

[Taylor]

Communism didn't work for China either, initially. Mao Zedong's implementation produced a famine that killed over 70,000,000 people. It wasn't until Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms that the country begin to flourish. The reforms involved, among other things, decollectivization of agriculture, support for entrepreneurship and private industry, support for foreign investments, and privatization and deregulation of most of the state-owned industries. That's when the economy began growing so rapidly. So to call it "communism," especially anything remotely resembling Soviet communism, is a stretch. It's a more of a hybrid economic system. There are also major problems in China precisely because it doesn't have a social safety net (e.g., have 80-year-olds who can't retire, or one serious illness wiping out the life savings of a whole family unit). I think Xi Jinping wakes up every day and thinks, "How do we keep this going one more day?" It's definitely not all roses, neither here nor there.

 

[Zosimus]

It's still communism

 

[old gypsy]

Kirthag observed: "The big money influences the rule makers who implement social programs paid for by the little people."

I won't argue with that statement. It also seems to apply regardless of where the big money resides... whether within governments and corporations, or in the wallets of extremely wealthy and highly influential private folks.

 

[Taylor]

It's still communism

Then we're still a republic. Like, we can be as imprecise as we want and still be accurate.

 

[james64468]

I have watched a lot of extra credit videos. They never seem to ever get dull on their videos full of info. I remember watching that video awhile back. I don't really like government having that type of power. If you have to choose between pleasing the government or having friends. I say choose friends over government.

 

[Kirthag]

Kirthag observed: "The big money influences the rule makers who implement social programs paid for by the little people."

I won't argue with that statement. It also seems to apply regardless of where the big money resides... whether within governments and corporations, or in the wallets of extremely wealthy and highly influential private folks.

A lot of the time... the big money is the same person working in or affiliated to both (govt & corp).
A lot of those working up on capitol hill have rather high net worth. Add to that the lifetime benefits and retirement guarantees.... *sigh*
I saw a statistic somewhere that 158 [rich] families contributed all of the funds for the early part of this election year's campaigning. It is already happening - again.

I don't blame one administration or another.... is the overall system at fault.

The congress & senate have "improved" things, slowly and quietly - but at a greater cost to the little people by either eliminating programs we have been paying for and shuffling that money to something else entirely, or creating new ones they say we need.

Example:
Everyone in Hawaii pays income tax. Part of that income tax, by the state's own constitution, is directly placed into a "Rainy Day Fund" for natural disasters - specifically hurricanes and tsunami. Without this fund, when Hurricane Iniki attempted to wipe the Island of Kauai off the face of the earth, they wouldn't have been able to get basic services back up as quickly as they did. They wouldn't have been able to rebuild. Services on Oahu after Hurricane Iwa would have taken months to restore instead of weeks. When a tsunami did wipe out a small town on the Big Island, that fund help survivors relocate...
HOWEVER
Somewhere in all the shuffle of within "paradise" politics - that fund has been "re-allocated" toward other projects - to include the HIGHLY unpopular Rail project on Oahu; because that project keeps running over budget and without keeping in line with construction schedules, the state stands to lose billions of dollars in federal funds for yet other projects the general population don't want or need.

Yet... if we get hit by a natural disaster... we have no money to even fly toilet paper via a puddle jumper from island to island....

Go figure... :-/

 

[old gypsy]

...Somewhere in all the shuffle of within "paradise" politics - that fund has been "re-allocated" toward other projects - to include the HIGHLY unpopular Rail project on Oahu; because that project keeps running over budget and without keeping in line with construction schedules, the state stands to lose billions of dollars in federal funds for yet other projects the general population don't want or need.

Yet... if we get hit by a natural disaster... we have no money to even fly toilet paper via a puddle jumper from island to island....

Go figure... :-/

Sounds a lot like what happened to Social Security. Instead of setting the funds aside, the powers-that-be in Washington decided to use those funds for other purposes.

 

[Elenni]

Might help to not compare apples with oranges. Communism and Capitalism are economic structures. Democracy & Totalitarianism are political ideologies.

Ergo:
The opposite of Communism is not Democracy, it is Capitalism.
The opposite of Democracy is Totalitarianism.

Just because your economic system produces a "successful" fiscal result, does not make the case that Totalitarianism is a laudable political system.