Well, there I was in class again. A very socialist class too, apparently. The teacher (Latin American Politics) was telling us about Brazilian land reform, and the desire for the people to have the Government redistribute the land from the rich to everyone else since 10% of the farmers own (and don't use according to him) 80% of the arable land.
He was asking what our thoughts and opinions were on the Brazilian peasant farmers quest for a land reform since they claim that 80% of the farmland is owned by a few wealthy land owners and not being used. He then brought up how Brazil barely has enough food to feed themselves since they export most of their produce to America for sale, and they need the extra land to feed themselves. He then brought up some BS statistic like "Two out of every three Brazilians goes hungry each day". Now, if such strawmen claims were true than one would expect the entire population to be wiped out by famine within a few years.
Anyway, when he turned it over to the class, I couldn’t believe for the life of me how socialist so many of the kids were. Some rough quotes from them were,
â€I know that some economist would argue that capitalism works in the long run, but so many people are hurting from the effects, and the land is not being used. That is the problem with a capitalist society, you do what you can do make the most money that you can. These people need the extra land, blah, blah blahâ€
Ok, so I don’t remember the exact quotes, but it was something to the effect that capitalism was responsible for this great disparity of wealth and that Government was needed to come in and coercibly redistribute the land to the other farmers so that they would not be stupid enough to sell their produce overseas so that they could eat (does that even make sense?)
About six kids commented on how socialism was the answer and capitalism was the problem, it was just making me sick.
And to top it off, this is the type of question that the teacher asks us to respond to.
â€Civil Society, with its social movements and human rights organizations, is said to contribute to making a country a democracy. Why would that be true?â€
Of course, the students are confused between the differences and distinctions between freedom and democracy. There is not one country on this planet that is a democracy, and the only state that has come close to my knowledge was ancient Athens.
Ok, rant mode off for now. I may edit this post later to add more rants when I remember more of what disgusted me.
He was asking what our thoughts and opinions were on the Brazilian peasant farmers quest for a land reform since they claim that 80% of the farmland is owned by a few wealthy land owners and not being used. He then brought up how Brazil barely has enough food to feed themselves since they export most of their produce to America for sale, and they need the extra land to feed themselves. He then brought up some BS statistic like "Two out of every three Brazilians goes hungry each day". Now, if such strawmen claims were true than one would expect the entire population to be wiped out by famine within a few years.
Anyway, when he turned it over to the class, I couldn’t believe for the life of me how socialist so many of the kids were. Some rough quotes from them were,
â€I know that some economist would argue that capitalism works in the long run, but so many people are hurting from the effects, and the land is not being used. That is the problem with a capitalist society, you do what you can do make the most money that you can. These people need the extra land, blah, blah blahâ€
Ok, so I don’t remember the exact quotes, but it was something to the effect that capitalism was responsible for this great disparity of wealth and that Government was needed to come in and coercibly redistribute the land to the other farmers so that they would not be stupid enough to sell their produce overseas so that they could eat (does that even make sense?)
About six kids commented on how socialism was the answer and capitalism was the problem, it was just making me sick.
And to top it off, this is the type of question that the teacher asks us to respond to.
â€Civil Society, with its social movements and human rights organizations, is said to contribute to making a country a democracy. Why would that be true?â€
Of course, the students are confused between the differences and distinctions between freedom and democracy. There is not one country on this planet that is a democracy, and the only state that has come close to my knowledge was ancient Athens.
Ok, rant mode off for now. I may edit this post later to add more rants when I remember more of what disgusted me.