Stephen W. sent in an amazing nine minute cartoon touting the superiority of capitalism:
Comments
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Steve Olson
For a not at all subtle message I am surprised the hands of the State weren’t red.
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Anonymous
Interesting how similar Dr. Ism looks to typical portrayals of Satan in cartoons of that period.
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chuk
What does free enterprise have to do with freedom?
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George
Others have defended the idea that free enterprise is essential to freedom far more eloquently than I could. The classic works on this subject are Hayek’s “Road to Serfdom” or Friedman’s “Capitalism and Freedom”. Thomas Sowell’s “Knowledge and Decisions” is supposed to be another fine book, but I have to admit I haven’t read it yet.
The argument that you cannot have either capitalism or democracy without the other is a serious argument that you should at least not dismiss out of hand.
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chuk
I’m familiar with those arguments. It’s easy to argue for the essential connection between freedom and free enterprise when you define each as the other. I know that there are people that believe in some sort of necessary connection between the two, I just wanted to highlight that the film takes this for granted. IMO I think that freedom has a lot more to do with not taking things for granted, than it does free enterprise.
Anyways, I was being facetious.
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A
How interesting that our number of vehicles was considered a point of pride. And we can no longer boast about our education level like that.
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Tom Clark
it strikes me as odd that the opening music is ‘God Save the Queen’…
Also is capitalism not an ism?
And didn’t Thatcher, an ultra-capitalist, ban unions?
Also, how do you produce an abundance of spiritual values?Nonetheless a wonderful cartoon.
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Han
The tune to ‘God Save the Queen’ is also used for a popular American patriotic song, ‘My Country tis of Thee’.
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LeAnna
There needs to be a follow-up cartoon showing the effects of 75% of the world’s automobiles, corporations controlling the entire US, and the media being controlled by those corporations.
The cartoon obviously shows what happens to communist countries when they adopt the system of government. Capitalism, under regulated and uncontrolled, isn’t much worse.
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chuk
Totally.
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Carla
LOVE IT!!!
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Yonah
“The State” seems a lot like today’s setup, really. Substitute “Corporations” for some bits of it, and it’s pretty much the same.
@Tom Clark – “My Country Tis Of Thee” goes to the tune of God Save The Queen, one of the more bizarre choices of US republicanism.
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ellen
I especially like the end where they guy mentions that we shouldn’t let people divide us through racism or class warfare. ha!
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think mps
@ellen, I thought that part was amazing too. somehow, in this UTOPIA that is capitalism, management and labor are on the same side…
also, did anyone else catch minute 1:28, where some pretty lady is enjoying her right to a speedy and public trial? again – simply amazing.
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eric
Where did they find a racially integrated classroom (1:05) in 1948? Oh right, this is a cartoon.
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Tim
I thought this contemporary version was interesting;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94dcPHL-38MNotice how the American Flag and 100 bill are one.
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Lyndsay
What are material values? Liking of material things? And how does this go with spiritual values? And yes, funny that having 70% of the world’s cars was seen as something to be proud of.
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JTambo
Ya’ll are being way too sarcastic. I’m not sure if you like the cartoon or not, but here’s my take:
Capitalism isn’t perfect, like they said in the cartoon, and our society is suffering because of the mass consolidation of companies (“The Big 6″). However, our country has started taking strides towards socialism, giving the government more control over the system. I personally think this is a a step in the wrong direction because it lets a higher power govern the decisions made by the people. Universal heath care looks good on paper, but it just doesn’t fit in a capitalistic society (and I know the argument here, “that’s insensitive”, and you will probably always win with that against a conservative). This means that if we want what the majority are proposing, then we turn to socialism. This is why I believe we should at least find a way to cut up these near-monopolies before we start to “change”.
Also, this cartoon was made super long ago, let the old people have their fun. I’m sure it’s not as fucked up as ya’ll are acting. For real dawg.
P.S. Global warming theory can kiss my ass. It’s just as much propaganda as this cartoon.
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Think MPS
@JTambo – consolidation is also a good thing because it enables economies of scale. healthcare in particular is an industry that faces high administrative costs, and consolidation reduces these. the problem is, who do you want controlling your health insurance – mega corporations, or the government? i ask because only ONE of these is accountable to the people through voting. and i would refer you to a comparison of administrative costs for private plans v. public options such as VA or medicare – the latter have much lower admin costs than private plans, due to their size and the fact that they don’t “waste” our healthcare dollars on profit.
re your reference to government control taking control away from the people… well, see my argument above.
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Weak Become Heroes « The United States of Jamerica
[...] 2009 November 4 tags: cold war, second world war, soviet union, United States by Jamelle Via Sociological Images is this pretty awesome “pro-capitalist” propaganda cartoon from [...]
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