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  • From: Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Education---Catch 'em early
  • Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2004 16:42:25 -0700

clanSkeen wrote:


tvoivozhd---because we should be emulating success wherever we find it.
Why constantly be reinventing the wheel?


Is not the premise that the education system is the base foundation of the
success of an economic system? The Soviet system collapsed. I'm still
having a hard time 'success' and 'Soviet' in the same sentence. However
successful the system might have appeared on the surface, it was the basis
of a system that collapsed.


tvoivozhd---insufficient research inhibited by the "Communist"pejorative. Russia was a kleptocracy, never Communist by any definition and nowhere near the the closest to it, Cuba. By the way, I could never figure out why Cuba became and remained so poor. I can see why the removal of the Soviet subsidy would be a temporary setback, but the U.S. trade embarge should have had no long-term effect---Cuba could trade with other nations if they chose---no other country worries about doing business with Cuba if they have something of value to export---sugar is one, they have a pretty good health system, lots of doctors and capability of manufacturing medicines, and sure as hell could build up a tourist trade---anyone living in frigid North Europe (or Canada) dreams of a tropical paradise as their refuge from subzero weather. And there's the ubiquitous banking business---I used to own half of one in the Bahamas, always refuge capital to fill the coffers in any out-of-the way country with lax (and confidential) banking regulations. Should have kept the damned bank so I didn't have to hide my money from Uncle Sam in the Bank of Foreign Commerce in Zurich. Every other tinpot island makes tons of money in the banking business---can use it to revitalize other local businesses if they have good sense---like Trinidad and Tobago does.

Also, the Soviet Union had a hell of a good education system, their basic scientific research was almost equivalent to our own, ahead in many respects, with far fewer resources. And their applied research in heavy metal, i.e. tanks, artillery and aircraft was equally good. Do not forget the herculean accomplishment of moving almost all heavy industry thousands of miles beyone the Urals and thousands of miles beyond reach of German aircraft---all in the matter of a few months in a vicious climate. I'm not sure the U.S. could or would have done it. We still rent Russian aircraft to haul our rockets around---we never developed that capability at all. The myth of Soviet ineptness in production is and was the product of American mythmakers who had an ideological axe to grind. The only thing they didn't have was a decent assortment of consumer goods---that had to go in favor of military production in any event---the U.S. did the same, for example no civilian automobile production, no civilian aircraft productionl rationed civilian food and fuel throughout WWII.

Also the Soviet union (heavily at the expense of environment)---they destroyed the very productive Aral Sea and converted the surrounding area to a desert of poisoned, blowing sand) had an enormously productive economy---could have been improved by abandoning Central Planning (don't like that trickle-down stuff there or here). They supported a military effort vastly in success of ours in WWII, more tanks, more military aircraft other than bombers and literally wiped out German military forces long before the U.S.became seriously engaged

The Soviet (non-communist) system collapsed for totally different reasons than usually recited---they had to rebuild German-destroyed eastern Russia, and without the whip of a survival war, they relaxed, so the still-maintained huge Army, Air Force and Tank armies getting ready to overrun American forces in Europe bankrupted them---it sure as hell wasn't because Reagan saying, "Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall."

The only effective alternative
is to fund Mom staying home to watch and care for the kids---you know
that is not going to happen in today's political climate.


No, it isn't going to happen -- not going to happen en masse at any rate.
Neither major party can in any wise afford to have families reclaim their
autonomy. But it's the term 'fund' that catches my attention. My solution
to this would be to bar government from interfering in the economics of a
family in any way. A few years ago there was the example of a single mother
who baked confections in her home and sold enough of them to support herself
and her children (this was in Mass, by the bye, the state whose muckings
started this thread). The government (in the guise of the state dept of
acriculture) threatened her with legal action if she did not cease and
desist. The community knew her, knew her products were safe and preferable,
and very much supported her. In that guise, says I, it is none of the
state's business what arrangement people have among themselves. The
community volunteered her the use of the kitchen in the fire hall, which
kitchen was inspected. Then the dept of health stepped in and said it was
only a valid inspection for fire personnel and she could not use it.


tvoivozhd---ideal solution for entrepreneurs. In Depression days there was no such thing as business permits and licenses or zoning laws preventing small business from operating out of the living room. My parents started up a teahouse and pie bakery in our house between the railway station and public library in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. It was a good economic brdge to more successful endeavors. One of the regular customers was a Kraft chemist who devised the Velveeta shit---never forgave him for it, or Kraft either.

Funding could easily be arranged by removing the tax burden from families -
I don't mean direct withholding tax but Self Employment tax and the hidden
taxes in everything they use - and also making such people exempt from
'guild laws' which are designed to do nothing more than eliminate
competition from the big businesses and unions that have bought those laws
for themselves.

James


tvoivozhd---I think you're right on that.




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