Welcome login | signup
Language en es fr
OccupyForum

Forum Post: Free enterprise is basically Dictatorship

Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 18, 2011, 12:07 a.m. EST by FriendlyObserverA (610)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

Is this what Americans call freedom ? To be a Dictator . Is this the great American Dream !

29 Comments

29 Comments


Read the Rules
[-] 4 points by JPB950 (2254) 12 years ago

A missing link perhaps?

[-] 3 points by WildMan (27) 12 years ago

Perhaps a concrete example would be better than just blurting out a hypothetical statement.

[-] -1 points by FriendlyObserverA (610) 12 years ago

Perhaps I should have wrote " private enterprise, in place of free enterprise.

[-] 2 points by smallMObizowner (6) 12 years ago

I've spent my adult life as a laborer. My Capitalist employers trained me, feed me, gave me health insurance, and provided me the means by which I stopped being a laborer and opened my own business. Over the years I've made as little as 8k a year, up to 220k a year, and now as a business owner I scrape for every dollar I earn. Don't have enough to pay an employee, so I do everything myself. I do this not because I have to, but because I want to, and I live in a country that gives me that freedom. But if I'm understanding you right, you think you deserve a part of my business just because you exist? What about all my work? Are you saying that if I do start to hire labor, and thus perpetuate knowledge, training and tools that will allow them to someday go out on their own, that they should be "owners" of my business? This is where the so called 99% lose me. I'm definitely not in the 1%, but you do not represent the true hard working, Free, American. You represent Socialism and I consider you a threat to our nation and our way of life. And I will fight this enemy within to my last breath.

[-] -1 points by FriendlyObserverA (610) 12 years ago

I understand , as a now dictator of your own private enterprise you do not want to give that up. Unfortunately most of us are not as lucky as you to enjoy such freedom. We are at the bottom. We are told by dictators like you that we are the enemy. That we are lazy. When every day we do the work you dictate us to do. Why did you not stay a laborer ? Because there is truly no freedom in it. Majority of Americans are laborers for dictators. Yes you may fight us all the way to maintain your control. But just think of what eventually happened in late 18 th century France. We have no dignity left to lose.

[-] 1 points by hchc (3297) from Tampa, FL 12 years ago

You have plenty of dignity left to lose. This "poor me" stuff is getting blown WAY out of proportion. Ive been involved in this stuff since day one, and before it, but some of the people involved are near delusional.

Things are heading in a bad direction, and may end up there. But we arent there yet. As long as there is still welfare, foodstamps and medicaid, the basics are still taken care of. There was none of that stuff in the French Revolution.

Life is never fair, never has been, and never will be. Reason? We are humans, with certain traits that will never change. Strive for better, yes. But lets not act like we are in the dark ages here.

[-] 0 points by FriendlyObserverA (610) 12 years ago

That box you live in barely fits you anymore.

[-] 1 points by hchc (3297) from Tampa, FL 12 years ago

Its the box of reality. Look around. 50 million people eating for free. Another 100mill getting some type of gov handout. Another 150mill on gov healthcare.

Thats a far cry from the conditions of the French Revolution my friend.

[-] 1 points by smallMObizowner (6) 12 years ago

I did not stay a laborer because my employers cared enough to teach me skills. As I worked harder for them, they rewarded my efforts with additional knowledge. What you want is for everyone to hand you everything so you don't have to work. Where is your pride? What are you going to do all day while living off the government, and who's going to pay the government to pay you? The fact is, without "business owners" small and large, there would be no income to share. Pull yourself up by the bootstraps and quit blaming those that have worked hard for your own failure. The real problem is the money in politics that corrupted the system causing the enormous gap between the 1% and the rest of us. If left to work as intended, Capitalism would punish those that have corrupted by bankrupting their businesses and we wouldn't be where we are today. Stop the bailouts, let those that need to fail, FAIL, and have a goal in your life other than living off the fruits of mine.

[-] 0 points by FriendlyObserverA (610) 12 years ago

But the dictator capitalist feels it is okay for him to live off of the fruits of my labor.

[-] 1 points by FrogWithWings (1367) 12 years ago

I'd like to show you how Stalin would treat you. My guess is you probably are lazy, can't fix your own lunch and largely inept. I hear there is a huge calling for mime$.

[-] -1 points by FriendlyObserverA (610) 12 years ago

That's a common reaction from one doing wrong. Pointing at worse wrongs.

[-] 1 points by FrogWithWings (1367) 12 years ago

That's a predictable reaction from a inept quickly sent to the work camps instead of being appointed a Communist Party Leader. You failed.

[-] -1 points by FriendlyObserverA (610) 12 years ago

I understand , as a now dictator of your own private enterprise you do not want to give that up. Unfortunately most of us are not as lucky as you to enjoy such freedom. We are at the bottom. We are told by dictators like you that we are the enemy. That we are lazy. When every day we do the work you dictate us to do. Why did you not stay a laborer ? Because there is truly no freedom in it. Majority of Americans are laborers for dictators. Yes you may fight us all the way to maintain your control. But just think of what eventually happened in late 18 th century France. We have no dignity left to lose.

[-] 1 points by hchc (3297) from Tampa, FL 12 years ago

I oppose you referring to me as a dictator because I work for myself.

[-] 2 points by DYLANDIRT (44) 12 years ago

If we had free enterprise instead of corporate welfare, one might think different. When the free market mates with socialism all you have is a bastard child with the rapists reaping the rewards.Like oil and water, each having desirable qualities, they don't mix.

[-] 1 points by Kevabe (81) 12 years ago

Free Enterprise is a dictatorship which is why we need communism so we can be free because, under communism we have only the choices that the government allows us to make which is usually just one and that sets us free from so many burdens like deciding what to eat, how much to eat, when to go to sleep, how long I can sleep. You are not free unless you are free from making decisions.

[-] 0 points by FriendlyObserverA (610) 12 years ago

And let's not forget the huge amount of wealth free enterprise has taken from us.

[-] 1 points by FrogWithWings (1367) 12 years ago

Have you ever lived in a commune? Give it a try, all sorts exist including even those in which clothes are banned. I'm assuming you must live in a commune, if not you should. Bye. Share your internet with people that have sense.

[-] 1 points by demcapitalist (977) 12 years ago

Goldman declared themselves a bank to acquire vast sums of cheep fed loans to gamble with.They are required to give back to the community in return. Remember folks this is our fed money based on our bank deposits. This is a great report by Greg Palast on Goldmans "giving" back to the community "Mega-bank Goldman Sachs (assets $933bn), has declared war on one of the smallest banks in New York (assets $30m), the customer-owned community bank that happens to also be the banker for Friends of Liberty Plaza, Inc, also known as Occupy Wall Street. And you thought Goldman didn't care." In 2008, the US Treasury handed Goldman Sachs a check for $10bn from the Troubled Asset Recovery Program (Tarp), the bailout funds given to desperate commercial banks. A few eyebrows were raised: Goldman was not desperate, and it certainly was not a commercial bank. Yet – abracadabra! – Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson transformed investment bank Goldman into a commercial bank overnight. (Paulson's prior post was chairman of Goldman Sachs. Just saying.)

But there was a catch: Goldman would have to return a chunk of the public's billions in the form of loans for low-income customers and members of its "community", as required by the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977. Problem: Goldman has, it seems, no low-income customers, nor a "community". Goldman was directed to find poor people and a community and hand over some cash.

So Goldman looked down from its riverfront tower in lower Manhattan and discovered Peoples. Over 80% of Peoples member-owners have low incomes. At least 65% are Latino.

For the big money-center banks, the CRA is good deal. They pay some blood money into community banks and offload their low-income customers. Indeed, bank branches catering to the carriage trade often hustle would-be customers from housing projects out the door with an admonition to take their undesirable business to Lower East Side Peoples.

Goldman's circuits blew when the credit union's management appeared in Zuccotti Park to endorse Occupy Wall Street's call to "Move Your Money" from commercial banks to community credit unions. Heeding Peoples' and Occupy's call, 23 protesters marched to their local Citibank branches to close their accounts – and were promptly arrested.

[-] 0 points by FriendlyObserverA (610) 12 years ago

Most people at the bottom don't see what's going on at the very top. Thanks for sharing.

[-] 1 points by demcapitalist (977) 12 years ago

I wouldn't say "free enterprise" is by nature a dictatorship but without campaign finance reform it sure is how it is done today in America. The word Fascism comes to mind.

[-] 1 points by demcapitalist (977) 12 years ago

Well I'm treading water in the middle but I've spent the last few years trying to find out exactly what was going on at top. I've been horrified but I have learned to speak banker.. Alan Greenspan's libertarian "free market" fed did nothing but turn our banking system into a giant welfare program for billionaires. Your welcome BTW

[-] 1 points by Farleymowat (415) 12 years ago

He is advocating employees telling the boss how things are going to be.

[-] 0 points by metapolitik (1110) 12 years ago

I like that!

Is that what you're saying, FriendlyObserverA?

[-] 1 points by metapolitik (1110) 12 years ago

Can you elaborate?

Not sure I understand what you're trying to say.

[+] -5 points by FriendlyObserverA (610) 12 years ago

Freedom and democracy is just a cover up for what is really happening in America.

[-] 0 points by EndTheFed214 (113) 12 years ago

thats prehaps the stupids post ive ever read

[+] -5 points by FriendlyObserverA (610) 12 years ago

The great American Dream : to become a dictator and make huge wealth

Maybe this is why Americans are not welcome in so many country's. They just want to come in, set up their dictator shop , and extract wealth from the nation.