Comments on: Uncle Jay Explains: Sept. 7, 2009

By: bobcat

bobcat — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:38:38 +0000

Uncle Jay, do you know Mr Obvious? Maybe you two could tour together?
Great work, attempting to bust through the defiantly uninformed fact blockade held up as GOP plans for America.

By: Karl

Karl — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 18:23:35 +0000

Communism is just a branch of the fabian socialist ideology. You people argue meaningless “details”.

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:43:36 +0000

You’re great, Uncle Jay! Now, I know you told us to research these topics on the internet, and, like you said in the beginning of the video, you were right. You WERE describing communism. For example, Karl Marx was NOT the founder of socialism, he was the founder of communism. If he would have founded socialism, then he and Friedrich Engels would have wrote the “Socialist Manifesto” instead of what they really wrote: the “Communist Manifesto”. Then, along came Vladimir Lenin, who overthrew Tzar Nicholai II and his family. He then started communism in Russia, but he died. Josef Stalin and Leon Trotsky came into power, Josef went crazy, expelled Leon from Russia, killed many people, and eventually turned Russia back into the corrupt country they had rebelled against, except making it a totalitarian government instead of a monarchy. Sad, since communism wasn’t really a bad thing. Its purposes were noble, but, when countries such as Russia and Germany tried to enforce it, they failed, giving communism a bad name. Tsk Tsk Tsk. Plus, socialism really isn’t a bad thing either, but people confuse it quite frequently with communism, when, in fact, they are different. But, all of this said, you still are great, Uncle Jay!

By: Toby

Toby — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:49:09 +0000

Mike said:
>>Uncle Jay, you forgot in the capaitalism part where the lemonade stand worker gets a penny and the owner gets $9.99.<<

But, Mike, you didn't factor in that the owner came up with the idea, took the risk of investing in the raw materials to make the lemonade, built the stand, made the sign, and selected the location. All the worker had to do was show up at the pre-made stand and pour pre-made lemonade into the provided cups.

By: Rick

Rick — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 14:10:09 +0000

Uncle Jay, just found your site and love it. But this particular video on Socialism, while funny, is flawed.
You do well when you simplify things, but in this case, the simplification leads to significant distortion. It’s funny stuff, mind you, but not really enlightening like the rest of your videos.
We don’t live in a capitalist nation. We live in what’s best called a “mixed economy”, with some portions (Medicare, Medicaid, Amtrak, Post Office, etc.) run by the government. Why this occurred varies due to history and voting patterns, but it has occurred.
Another portion of our economy IS capitalist (sort of). Disney, GE, Microsoft, etc. all run along capitalist lines. Why did I say sort of, though? Because many “capitalist” companies take government money. That isn’t socialistic, but depending on the percent of revenue they take, it could be socialism’s near, dear cousin “fascism”. In addition, all capitalist companies operate under government watchdog agencies such as the SEC, DoE, FCC, etc. Government can and SHOULD provide a watchdog role, but when their regulations start dictating how business is run, we again run into socialism’s near, dear cousin “fascism”.
So we have elements of capitalism, elements of socialism, and elements of fascism in our economy. The question is – which is good and which is bad? That all depends on your POV. I’m Libertarian, so you can probably guess my POV.

But that’s meaningless…what’s meaningful is that people have confused fascism with “THE FAR RIGHT”. This is very odd. Fascism has always sprouted from disoriented and disgruntled socialists….meaning it’s a function of “THE FAR LEFT”. Nationalism, or the belief that anything done “in my country, by my government, by my leaders” is “good”, including government takeover of business, is a leading “cause” of fascism….but nationalism is a far left ideology, as well (all government intervention is good = “LEFT”).

It’s unfortunate that in our country we’ve drawn lines that are designed to be “clear and distinct” about items like this, in the hopes that we can use these lines to define talking points.

It’s also unfortunate that we have to rely on talking points as opposed to larger picture discussions.

Which brings me back to me – Libertarian. While it’s the name I use to define myself, the nice thing about Libertarianism is that it’s a damn big tent. I have fellow Libertarians who I disagree with on items like immigration, gun control, vice, and foreign policy. But interestingly, the one thing we agree on is economics. So that’s where we grow from. We realize that financial well being leads to social well being. We can disagree on the other items because if we are economically sound, then the other stuff is “important”, but not important enough to be at each other’s throat about.

By: Danny Graham

Danny Graham — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:21:37 +0000

Hi Uncle Jay:

Are you on recess…..?Great, you get to fly around in government airplanes studying things like the postal service in Italy, or beer making in Germany or one of my favorites, how orchids are grown in Hawaii. Gosh Uncle Jay, that’s what our representatives and senators do when they are on recess, they take their families and girlfriends/boyfriends…oops, not on the same Air Force planes to the exotic places to increase our knowledge of the world…such a sacrifice on their part. Wow, you know another good thing about our politicians being on recess, they’re not creating new regulations or creating new spending programs. Hey Uncle Jay, should we keep the politicians on recess for the next ten years so we can pay off all the debt they’ve created?

Warm regards,
Danny

By: Temblor

Temblor — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:17:51 +0000

Why don’t the people like Elaine and all the other nay sayers know even the basic facts about our government, for instance the difference between Congress and the Senate, or for instance, what Obama’s “Czars” really do as compared to what the Russian Czars really did?

Anyway, thanks for the humorous insights. It’s much appreciated in this acrimonius atmosphere.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 05:55:21 +0000

Uncle Jay, you forgot in the capaitalism part where the lemonade stand worker gets a penny and the owner gets $9.99. And then the lemonade stand workers try to start a union but the government comes in a kills a few of them to settle things down. Check it out here – http://www.dol.gov/OPA/ABOUTDOL/LABORDAY.HTM – NO WAIT, that’s the government version. Try the people’s version here – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Day

By: Steve Johnson

Steve Johnson — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:30:13 +0000

I have a Bachelors degree in Economics, and while there are a few details that are not correct, Uncle Jay is correct. Socialism means that the Government owns all or the majority of the means of production. This means that the government would in fact own the lemon trees to get the lemons, the sugar cane field for the sugar and the plastic and cup makers. That mistake aside, I can find little else.

By: Pitbull Sara

Pitbull Sara — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:01:11 +0000

Uncle Jay, you look like a “holiday” ornament with your polo shirts changing color between red and green. But I thought the rerun nicely summed up the political redundancy of last week’s news.