tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post3402888166988315743..comments2024-03-27T23:28:20.274-04:00Comments on Face to Face: Should Atlas Shrugged have been about teachers instead of businessmen and inventors?agnostichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-23355524685163116112010-06-23T01:09:45.056-04:002010-06-23T01:09:45.056-04:00And tons of homeschool moms are NAMs who'd rat...And tons of homeschool moms are NAMs who'd rather invest in their kids than continue supporting SWPL policies in public schools.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-38008104728826260652010-06-17T11:46:13.211-04:002010-06-17T11:46:13.211-04:00Tons of homeschool moms are actually certified pub...Tons of homeschool moms are actually certified public school teachers who would rather invest in their own kids than the NAM's.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-84355110301990495842010-06-16T23:20:26.783-04:002010-06-16T23:20:26.783-04:00Lenin theorized that imperialism was the final sta...Lenin theorized that imperialism was the final stage of capitalism, which was allowing it to persist (and even become wealthier, bribing the proletariat into becoming anti-revolutionary) in the most advanced countries. It was the more backward (but still possessing an urban proletariat) countries that had the most revolutionary potential in his book. Remember, he was a Bolshevik rather than a Menshevik.<br /><br />The Overton Window has shifted a lot from the 40s/50s. People often say Hayek's "Road to Serfdom" was proved wrong by the success of the welfare state in avoiding totalitarianism, not realizing that in that same book he endorses a welfare state which includes even universal health-care! Back in that time the issue was not regulations altering the incentives of businesses, but stuff like the Steel Seizure cases. F.D.R was openly declaring his hostility to the business class, destroying crops and cartelizing industry while arresting a man for growing wheat on his own property. At that time it was plausible to imagine an <a href="http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2008/04/american_mugabe_1.html" rel="nofollow">American Mugabe</a>.<br /><br />Regarding teacher burnout, it's a good thing they don't matter!TGGPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11017651009634767649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-48219751803495840782010-06-16T15:34:29.552-04:002010-06-16T15:34:29.552-04:00Great Post! (I don't have anything smart to sa...Great Post! (I don't have anything smart to say, but I liked it).Auberon Quinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12777257423233561131noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-34653289315617220952010-06-14T18:10:47.855-04:002010-06-14T18:10:47.855-04:00"I have the impression there was quite a lot ..."I have the impression there was quite a lot of interest in the Bolshevik Revolution at the time."<br /><br />But that's not where the standard Marxists like Lenin and Trotsky were truly interested. They knew the revolution in Germany was going to be the real deal since there was all that capitalism to take over vs. a feudal society to take over.<br /><br />"but aren't teacher's unions (in "blue" jurisdictions, anyway) a classic example an industry group capturing the regulatory apparatus?"<br /><br />In some respects maybe, like turning the regulation for credentialing into a weapon against would-be entrants, boosting their wages as a result.<br /><br />But I'm talking about the regulation to Close All Gaps. They can't capture that one the way that lenders captured their mandate to make crummier loans and rode it all the way to the bank.<br /><br />It would look like teachers giving every student the same passing grade and getting higher compensation for thus Closing All Gaps. When it was revealed that these grades were worthless and threaten to close down the schools, the teachers would get bailed out by taxpayers and not lose any of those big bucks they made during the grade inflation for having Closed All Gaps.<br /><br />In reality, grade inflation can only go so far, and teachers don't get rich off of it or use it to deter would-be teachers from entering the profession. If somehow it reached a grand scale, the teachers would be chased down and hanged by a mob, not bailed out.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-88479471460354754042010-06-14T16:25:55.974-04:002010-06-14T16:25:55.974-04:00Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but aren't...Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but aren't teacher's unions (in "blue" jurisdictions, anyway) a classic example an industry group capturing the regulatory apparatus?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-43307298409995167562010-06-14T16:17:52.323-04:002010-06-14T16:17:52.323-04:00"Hence all of the left-wing support for the c..."Hence all of the left-wing support for the communist revolution in Germany at the end of WWI, since that's where the transformation was destined to take place, and the relative lack of interest in the communist revolution in Russia around the same time, since they didn't even have a capitalist system for the workers to take over and run by themselves."<br /><br />Really? I have the impression there was quite a lot of interest in the Bolshevik Revolution at the time. It's true, there would have been even more interest in a successful German revolution: that's because a German revolution would have been objectively more important. It would have led to a much earlier communisation of Eastern Europe (maybe Western Europe too).<br /><br />"And about the state withering away once the communist revolution had succeeded -- wrong again."<br /><br />You need to remember that the Communists never claimed to have created a communist society. According to ideology, they were constructing socialist societies that would develop into (stateless) communist societies sometime after the world revolution. This was made very clear to anyone travelling to an Eastern Bloc country (as I did in 1982).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com