> Daniel T. wrote:

>> Ed earthlink.net> wrote:

>

>>> Some years ago William F. Buckley remarked that capitalism in America
>>> privatized profits and socialized losses. At the time he was
>>> referring to the government bail out of Chrysler Corp. but the remark
>>> remains relevant.

>

>>> The new bail-out of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is exactly that,
>>> profits were generous and welcome by investors in those firms during
>>> the housing bubble and now that the profits are turning to losses, why
>>> the government must make up the difference with money taken from
>>> taxpayers.

>

>>> Whatever happened to our belief in the market? The idea was some
>>> investors made money, some lost, that was the nature of Capitalism.
>>> It seems we need a new philosophy to describe the basic nature of the
>>> economic system in America. Phrases like Market Economy and private
>>> enterprise don't seem to describe what is actually taking place.

>

>> Reading your post started a train of thought that ended with Marx.

>

>> First came, "those evil corporations getting bailed out again."

>

>> Then came, "ah, but who owns the corporations?"

>

>> Then, "share holders! Thousands of people have at least part of their
>> wealth tied to the corporations that are being bailed out."

>

>> Then, "wait, as little as 100 years ago in the USA, *individuals* were
>> the owners of these huge companies (I'm talking about the tycoons of the
>> late 19th century.)

>

>> Then, "didn't Marx foretell something like this?" A quick glance in
>> Wikipedia...

>

>> ...Marx and Engels argued that communism would not emerge from
>> capitalism in a fully developed state, but would pass through a
>> "first phase" in which most productive property was owned in common,
>> but with some class differences remaining.

>

>> And here we are, these huge corporations are owned by huge groups of
>> people, not by everybody yet, but there does seem to be a definite
>> evolution toward a victory for .the proletariat

>
> $376 Billion of Freddie Mac is owned in China, primarily by the
> Chinese government. So if your thesis is correct it's not Americs's
> proletariat that are evolving toward victory but the Chinese
> proletariat; financed now by the American taxpayer.