Hello

[Banjo]

Hi all. I'm Sacha and I'm a 20 year old student and I play the banjo (hence my username-it's also my nickname and what people call me). I hope to study journalism and join/work for a union helping working class people, such as myself, my family and everyone I know. Where I'm from, everybody votes left, we're the strongest Labour supporters in the UK. I only know one Conservative supporter. Unfortunately, my same area was voted as "poorer than the poorest parts of Poland" (or something similar) and many people are jobless, so there's a lot of ... Shall we say, Breaking Bad activities going on here.

Favorite bands include Dropkick Murphys, Sex Pistols, The Clash and Bruce Springsteen. Favorite movies include Dr Strangelove, The Departed, Anchorman and Finding Nemo. Favorite food includes pineapple, pineapple pizza, Doritos and sweets. Favorite animal is penguin. Favorite sports teams include Boston Red Sox, Boston Bruins, New England Patriots, Oklahoma City Thunder, Ole Miss Rebels, Holyhead Hotspur (my hometown team) and Everton FC. Favorite musical instrument is the mandolin. It sounds like a rainbow. Favorite books are 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 1984 and Animal Farm. Favorite TV Shows are The Daily Show, Real Time, The Simpsons and 24.

I can speak just three languages fluently, but I know words, sentences, commands, questions, songs etc. in over 50.

I support capitalism, like independent shops, but not super capitalism i.e. Kraft, Quaker, Nike, TESCO etc. I also believe in supporting the weak, needy and vulnerable in society, whether that be helping starving families (even though I can only afford to buy store brand products, I still donate to food banks) or giving the jobless a leg up. So you could say I'm a Capitalist-Socialist.

[Q]

Welcome :)

If you have political questions, you can ask them in the Learning forum. That's why it's there after all!

If you have questions about your account, don't hesitate to send me a PM or ask here.

I suppose you'll be 'restricted' soon enough. This board has an explicit anti-capitalist policy, even in its mythic 'small shopkeepers' form, which never actually existed.

But what really do you mean with 'capitalist-socialism'? Is it some type of welfare state?

[Alan OldStudent]

Welcome Banjo,

You sound like an interesting person, with lots of questions in your mind. Back in the 1960s, I knew a communist, an old fellow, who went by the name "Frank the Banjo Man." He was a great guy.

Regards,

Alan OldStudent
The unexamined life is not worth living—Socrates
Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto—Violeta Parra

[Banjo]

I'm not pro PRO capitalist, just kinda like supporting your local greengrocer. If somebody has to make money, I'd rather it go in the pocket of someone deserving, who needs it, than big corporation like TESCO. I'm explicitly against that. A little bit of capitalism is okay, but the way we have it right now, it's disgusting and something's gotta change. I mean, there's even TV shows like The Apprentice-that's just wrong.
Just to clarify.

[Banjo]

This actually explains it better, it's from my personal essay from college:

"Right now capitalism is used as a tool to make people richer. If I could grow my own garden, I would, rather than buy other people's vegetables. So I come to a compromise because I need to eat-I shop locally, higher prices, but I don't need to make the rich (e.g. Tesco) richer.*
In an ideal world, everyone would have their own garden and trade with others for example if they had too many potatoes and not enough leeks. There would be no mass slaughter of animals just to make Big Macs. There would be no Chinese sweatshops just to make clothes that people are only going to wear once. There would be no wars started, no killing, no blowing up because of a dependency on foreign oils. Working people in first world countries wouldn't be subject to unsafe working conditions to maximise profits or be forced to choose between eating and paying the bills because they earn minimum wage. Zero hour contracts are the worst because it's practically slave labour. No outsourcing jobs to another country to maximise profits, leaving people in our countries jobless and having people like Bill O'Reilly watcher scream at them 'get a job'. Or people who earn high wages (like doctors) say their job is more important than the plumber's (alright Dr Smith, let's see YOU install a toilet) or the menial worker's-if there were no garbage men, street cleaners or similar, society would grind to a halt.

In an ideal world, everybody's job would be valued the same, there would only be killing for what we need to survive, people would have the same wages and safer working conditions because the human life will be valued more than money you can't take into the next life. I'd rather we have the means of production than having to depend on 'big corporation'. I mean, the first article on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights explicitly says "human beings are all born free and equal in dignity and rights". How is that possible when people in India are risking their lives slaving on pennies a day to make cheap tops for Primark that people will buy and wear once.*I mean, in my area a Ford dealership has packed up shop... Only to move around the corner! There's starving people here and THAT'S what people are doing?! The mind boggles.

Buying at the local greengrocer, music shop or butcher (though I'm a vegetarian for reasons stated above) for me is the lesser of two evils. I'm not a fan of capitalism, but that's the way of the world (the Western world, anyway). And since I live in a capitalist society, I'd rather not give my money to TESCO, rather a small independent and local store.*
However,*I'd much rather live in a socialist society, where everyone helps each other out, have pretty much equal rights and the worker owns the means of production. That's a better deal than earning what is it £6.31 minimum wage. That's a loaf of bread, a stick of butter, a small bottle of milk and a box of generic cereal. In other words, you work an hour for just breakfast. So what about bills?*

The posh, upper class people that run the House of Commons (Tories, Lib-Dem, Labour-all of them, there is no left wing party any more) and the House of Lords should all be run out-whatever happened to protesting? Oh yeah, 6 week notices. The issue we want to protest against will probably be irrelevant by then, but that's the point.
And while we're at it, money should have nothing to do with politics-it'a horrifying that it does. We should do something about this-I still believe in the power of the proletariat, even if the proletariat does not."

That said, I DO enjoy the odd Disney movie...