What is a moderate?

Originally posted by whodey
Give me an example historically, or are you living in an ivory tower once again along with the rest of the liberal academia?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_Cooperatives

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Exchange

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Era_Windows

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citybikes_Workers%27_Cooperative

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_Board_Collective

Those are five examples of worker owned cooperatives operating in the US. Of course Spain's Mondragon Cooperatives are the biggest in the world. Mondragon was founded in the 1940s and now have over 80,000 employees. The United Steel Workers have partnered with Mondragon to bring their example to the US.

Originally posted by rwingett
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_Cooperatives

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Exchange

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Era_Windows

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citybikes_Workers%27_Cooperative

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_Board_Collective

Those are five examples of worker owned cooperatives operating in the US. Of course Spai oyees. The United Steel Workers have partnered with Mondragon to bring their example to the US.

No, no, give an example of how a democracy was changed with these businesses.

You may as well throw the Amish on your list. 😛

Originally posted by whodey
No, no, give an example of how a democracy was changed with these businesses.

You may as well throw the Amish on your list. 😛

There hasn't been one. Unless you count Republican Spain during the Spanish Civil War. There were many "utopian" socialist experiments during the 1900s, but then Marx hijacked socialism with disastrous results. With Marx out of the way now, progressives are finally getting back in the swing of democratizing the economy via worker cooperatives. It's the wave of the future.

Originally posted by normbenign
The more local the power distribution of government, the more varieties emerge, not in the form of multiple parties, but in the form of regional differences in existing major parties.

There isn't a thing wrong with strong partisanship, or ideological purity, so long as winning a national election doesn't transform the nation.

Regional differences in existing major parties don't add to the diversity of choices for voters, since it will still end up boiling down to a realistic choice of two in any one election. A conservative in New York might be unhappy with the choice of liberal Democrat and moderate Republican; a liberal in Wyoming might be unhappy with a choice of moderate Democrat and conservative Republican.

There isn't anything necessarily wrong with strong partisanship or ideological purity, but a political system organised along partisan lines basically disenfranchises those whose opinions can't be neatly slotted into the ideological boxes those parties represent. Libertarians, for instance, often complain that if they vote for free markets in the US two-party system they have to vote at one and the same time for social conservatism.

Also, there are not just two choices in every issue. It's not a question of higher taxes or lower taxes; it's about whether the appropriate tax rate is 10% or 20% or 40% or 60%; it's about the choice between income tax, sales tax, inheritance tax, import duties and so on. Even if one's country has clear constitutional guidelines, that leaves a lot of decisions for voters and their representatives to make.

Originally posted by rwingett
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_Cooperatives

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Exchange

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Era_Windows

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citybikes_Workers%27_Cooperative

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_Board_Collective

Those are five examples of worker owned cooperatives operating in the US. Of course Spai ...[text shortened]... oyees. The United Steel Workers have partnered with Mondragon to bring their example to the US.

thanks for the links

i wasn't completely sure what you were suggesting in your response to me

Originally posted by rwingett
My hatred for Republicans outweighs my love for the Greens.

better to love than to hate 😛