Pomegranates are a medium–glycemic, delicious fresh fruit and it is also possible to get dried, concentrated
pomegranate powder and dried whole pomegranate seeds.

The ability to acquire wealth is a skill like any other. Some people have it and some people don’t. The left relies on envy and projects greed onto the successful as if (and as noted by Thomas Sowell) greed alone will simply make someone want to give the greedy their money.

When a leftist incorrectly notes that income inequality is greater than it ever has been. The response should be “so what?” Piketty is addressing a solution to an imaginary problem of the left’s own making.

The Left has a similar problem with their divine gods and their dogma. They think it is perfect, so can never admit the mistakes.

Red China has failed spectacularly? By what measure? Economically, politically, ideologically?”

Red China went bust. They had starved so many people and had such low capabilities of even feeding themselves, that they had to change. The same thing happened with the USSR.

The totalitarian features go on, just in a different form that allows more freedom to the population. The communist economics ends and the pressure on the “comrades” to conform to state policy is eased. Both China and Russia have resources and people who know how to utilize them. They have shifted from a system where the people pretend to work, while the government pretends to pay them to a system where the oligarchs pay the people and the government no longer tries to control their thoughts and movements.

I’ve been to both Russia and China. The people there are enjoying more freedom than under the old regimes. One Russian told me that in the old days a Russian citizen could have been shot for photographing the KGB building or even sitting and staring at it. (Both things which I did in St. Petersberg.) They’re certainly better fed, especially in China. Some in China and Russia have an opportunity to move up economically, but the number is limited. Many have some hope of improving their lives and some living standards are improving. But it isn’t communist economics and equality of outcome anymore. Russia is an oligarchy. China is a combination of oligarchy and fascism. They still call themselves communist, but they’re not.

Fascism is still government oriented, but when you start from a low level and don’t have much environmental regulation holding you back, you can create growth. Russia has not been as clever as the Chinese in manipulating their trade and currency, and the oligarchs have been too greedy. As a result, they lag the Chinese in economic growth. If the Chinese were brought up short by the U.S. and made to trade on an equal basis (no tariffs on our products) with their currency floating like most currencies do, their growth would not be nearly so robust.

Zimbabwe is a better example. Mugabe has refused to change. When he took over, Zimbabwe was one of the richer countries in Africa. They exported food. Today, they can’t feed themselves. The country is in a shambles. When Mugabe dies, it’s almost certain they will turn to a fascist system, but they have driven out all the people with know how. They cannot do what Russia and China have done.

That’s my take on it.

The new Democratic Party socialist elite want something more than their immediate predecessors. They values power over lives of people more than material gain. This elite is intent on making over American society in the image a Peoples Republic where the vanguard elite has absolute power. Their entire program is based on three elements, impoverish, immobilize and disarm the people. Like the Soviets there will only be two types of people: the rulers who will have everything and the ruled who will have nothing. The socialist order will be enforced as it always has — at the point of a gun. Just remember one thing, a socialist is unfulfilled unless he can commit mass murder. Killing the unborn, the unfit and the elderly can’t satisfy him forever.

We agree on much JJ but here we part company. Communism is a totalitarian system. Exactly how is a totalitarian system ‘self-limiting’?

Red China has failed spectacularly? By what measure? Economically, politically, ideologically?

I suspect that perhaps you posit that China is no longer Red China. One party government with no individual or minority rights would appear to qualify as politically communistic. Economically, does anyone imagine that the bulk of China’s ‘private’ profits do not end up in the hands of the political elite and their cronies?

The underlying memes, assumptions and premises that support communism are alive and well in the world, as the support for Piketty’s book demonstrates. And as long as communism’s premises are popular, communism’s demise is greatly exaggerated.

Yes, I agree that the information could actually be complementary rather than in opposition.

I haven’t read Neo’s PJM piece yet, but based on the bits referenced here, it strikes me that Artfldgr’s comments work as supplement, though they’re couched as correction.

Ann,

The problem isn’t the tangible market, but the intangible one.