re: #79 Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel

I’ve always thought that Communism’s main contribution was to keep the robber barons honest. Today’s capitalists, steeped in Randian dogma, have forgotten something that FDR knew well. Social justice and a safety net are not about fuzzy-minded altruism, much less buying votes. They are about heading off revolution.

Chancellor Bismarck gave Germany’s workers the world’s first state pension and health insurance in 1889 in order to stave off the Socialists and co-opt their program. And it was followed by a massive economic boom.