ed miliband
30th October 2010, 11:09
http://www.caglecartoons.com/column.asp?columnID={3C798B88-CC34-4D12-865C-B7E91A29F0CE
Q: I think there’s a libertarian in you trying to get out.
A: No, no, no. I’m a European socialist, believe me – I’m far to the left. But I understand. I’m a kind of practical socialist. I know we failed. A lot of our ideas have failed, so I’m not with them anymore. I’m willing to take from a grab-bag of stuff that works. I said, “I very specifically said ‘Nike,’ because I want you to think about it as a sweatshop. I don’t happen to think it is, but I want you to think of it that way. I want you to think they’re an evil employer and that that country would be lucky to have an evil employer – that would be a huge step up for them.”
So she’s trying to process this. And I try to make it simple for her. I say, “Here’s my position: My position is slavery is better than death. Employment is better than slavery. That exploitative wages are better than nothing. And that a fair wage and justice is the ideal.”
She can’t accept any sentence that isn’t about the fair wage and the ideal. Literally and truly. She’s a very, very smart woman. She couldn’t process what I was talking about. She couldn’t process that one penny is better than zero. There are children in the world who would be lucky – lucky – to be employed 12 hours a day in exploitive child labor situations where they are making 10 cents a day.
Unfortunately, I think respect for the market seems to be something that I have not seen anyone derive outside education. I haven’t seen people gravitate toward a natural respect for the market. And it doesn’t have rhetoric to go with it. I think the rhetoric Vinick used about it was about the best I’ve heard – especially the Prius argument, by the way, which was designed specifically for Hollywood liberals, but no one told them to.What the actual fuck?
I know there's quite a trend for North American celebrities to praise 'socialism' in Europe and even to describe themselves as sympathetic to socialism (by which they mean social democracy at the very most), but this dude describes himself as "far to the left" before going into a tirade that would shock your average Tory.
Q: I think there’s a libertarian in you trying to get out.
A: No, no, no. I’m a European socialist, believe me – I’m far to the left. But I understand. I’m a kind of practical socialist. I know we failed. A lot of our ideas have failed, so I’m not with them anymore. I’m willing to take from a grab-bag of stuff that works. I said, “I very specifically said ‘Nike,’ because I want you to think about it as a sweatshop. I don’t happen to think it is, but I want you to think of it that way. I want you to think they’re an evil employer and that that country would be lucky to have an evil employer – that would be a huge step up for them.”
So she’s trying to process this. And I try to make it simple for her. I say, “Here’s my position: My position is slavery is better than death. Employment is better than slavery. That exploitative wages are better than nothing. And that a fair wage and justice is the ideal.”
She can’t accept any sentence that isn’t about the fair wage and the ideal. Literally and truly. She’s a very, very smart woman. She couldn’t process what I was talking about. She couldn’t process that one penny is better than zero. There are children in the world who would be lucky – lucky – to be employed 12 hours a day in exploitive child labor situations where they are making 10 cents a day.
Unfortunately, I think respect for the market seems to be something that I have not seen anyone derive outside education. I haven’t seen people gravitate toward a natural respect for the market. And it doesn’t have rhetoric to go with it. I think the rhetoric Vinick used about it was about the best I’ve heard – especially the Prius argument, by the way, which was designed specifically for Hollywood liberals, but no one told them to.What the actual fuck?
I know there's quite a trend for North American celebrities to praise 'socialism' in Europe and even to describe themselves as sympathetic to socialism (by which they mean social democracy at the very most), but this dude describes himself as "far to the left" before going into a tirade that would shock your average Tory.