While on vacation, we visited an area in Germany where they used to mine coal. I'll post pictures later. The last mine was closed somewhere in the mid-1970s. Europe industrialised on coal, however later the industry was demonised as contributing to global warming. Yet, in the 1970s global warming wasn't heard of, so I guess it was "pollution" or something similar, I didn't really look into it.
I just keep wondering whether pollution back then and now global warming is the real reason behind destroying the coal industry or was the closing of the mines the 1st step in the ongoing campaign to deindustrialise the West and turn it into a "service economy" as a part of a larger globalist project?
The truth is that in the mid-20th century the miners had strong unions and achieved many rights. I once read someone talking about his family online, his uncles were coal miners in Britain in the 1950s or thereabout, they enjoyed high quality of life, vacations, good pensions, only had to work for like 20 years and were all single income families, with like 4-5 kids each.
When these workers got on strike, they could paralyse the whole country, which the government obviously didn't like, and neither did the financial capitalists behind it. So the whole branch of economy was eliminated. The powers that be of that period then had a genius plan to buy gas from a neighbour, the same neighbour that is now turning off the tap. It's working great, isn't it???
A strong country is a self-sufficient country, something which so-called Western elites appear to have forgotten, yet they are mostly sheltered from the consequences of their policies which are now causing inflation and instability for the common folks.
I realise some Americans are so afraid of "socialism" that they'd rather side with predatory financial institutions and big business than with working people, but here in Europe it's neoliberal economic policies which are driving population replacement through immigration, feminism and other social ills. They are also behind the recent attacks on the farmers, who constitute a real force.
The corona years taught us a bit about which sectors of economy are really important and which can be closed for like a year and nothing happens. Schools were closed and parents homeschooled. The whole of entertainment and hospitality branches were closed and nobody cared. Yet, when our government was planning to give the employers the power to enforce vaccine mandates, something happened. The dockers of the Port of Rotterdam went on strike and blocked one of the harbours for several hours.
After this, there was no more talk about vaccine mandates. Strange how it works, isn't it? So, everybody is free to draw his own conclusions. I drew mine.
I see your point about predatory financial capitalism, but that's just another form of socialism that punishes the working class thanks to rent seeking government regulations. The US is under economic control of a private central bank that has never been audited since it's inception.
ReplyDeleteWe do have socialism in the US such as water utilities, electrical utilities in some cities, gas utilities, public schools and universities. But in the end, these institutions are just another monopoly under control of the government.
I don't want the government to be in medical care other than licensing and prosecuting criminal incompetence. Funny that some libtards here want to make an educated person like a doctor a slave, but they will demand top dollar for their skills if they have any. Capitalism for me but not for thee.
Anyway, this post is a nice history lesson.
Well, your situation is more complicated as you have the Federal government and state governments, isn't t? It's like we have the EU which most people hate and the national governments which could be OK.
ReplyDeleteIn general, I think there should be some balance between the freedom and the gov-t rules and between the labour and the capital.
That's one of the beauties of 'federalism' and was what the founders of America intended. The states were could handle their stuff like schools, marriage, taxes, infrastructure on their own terms while the federal government mostly kept to big jobs like a federal court system, minting money (not a federal reserve as it is today), tariffs, and national defense.
DeleteThis why the communist here in the US have to go work city by city and state and state. Federalism is a strength if used to defend the Constitutional rights of the citizens. It's a weakness when things get soft and there are states like California, New York, and others doing dumb stuff like giving drivers licenses to illegal immigrants.
We are still supposed to be independent countries, and yet, more things are getting dictated by the EU every day. And then some countries, like ours are those who pay the most, while others nicely profit from the subsidies while contributing only debt. I won't point a finger but they know who they are...So they have communism for themselves while we are supposed to be fiscally responsible.
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