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Perhaps a valid evaluation would be: false! The progressive/lefty/collectivist/Marxist/socialist/communist/murderers have been at it since the 1870’s and the Marx and Engels’ magnificent tome of political thought. Wilson was one of the worst, too, with his scams.
Government IS THE SCAM
What if we think of government as a type of scam, instead of a specific scam, though?
Then we could think of things like the Euro Green Energy scam and American National Defense scams as being separate.
I hear you. But are those not subsets of government? They all magnify the concentration and direction of wealth.
I agree with you. Just playing Devil's advocate.
Oh…. I see, the government is a type of umbrella scam with a lot of other smaller scams underneath it. Sort of like a hen with a lot of little chicks under its wings.
Can’t disagree with that! It’s a special type of gang scam.
Pure hyperbole for effect.
Think about how many people emptied their savings into MAGA on completely false promises.
I don't think it's the worst political movement, even just in American history, but as a scam specifically, the scale is crazy.
Beg to differ!! Perhaps the progressive/marxist/socialist/communist scam had a scale that was even larger. It certainly killed a lot more people!
As a scam, though, it has to be evaluated by how greatly it intentionally duped the marks.
I don’t know for sure but duping all the people in all the nations that it duped people in is quite a lot of marks. Of course, they killed an awful lot of those marks, too. Just think of all the countries that have gone Marxist/socialist/communist!
How cynically implemented was communism, though? I think statist central planners do often believe in their ability to design society.
Is there anything that is not cynical about any communist implementation? Sharing amongst everyone equally? No, that has never happened and never will happen in a communist situation.
Fair enough. They never intended those "idyllic" parts.
I do think many of them actually believed they could improve society, in some sense, through central planning, though.
I think statist central planners do often believe in their ability to design society.
Oh, I don’t think they would take any action unless they had huge plans for what they were going to do to society vis-a-vis radical changes, however, they run up against Hayek’s limits to knowledge problems and Mises economic calculation problems as soon as they take to power. From there, everything goes downhill every time and everywhere
My point is that a scam has to have intentionality behind it, rather than being an unintended disaster resulting from misunderstanding economics.
The perpetrator knows the supporters are getting taken for a ride and won't get what they're expecting.
The ability to scale continues to grow geometrically.
If you consider the progressive scam, then the scale of the scam seems to be lessening.
Perhaps there is no way to scale things on size of scam. What, scale in dollars or lives lost or lives ruined? In any case, they are all just plain old bad.
No, I was just wondering how we’d actually evaluate the claim that MAGA is the biggest one.