"In 2005 I sold 500 copies, then 800 in 2006 and 1,300 in 2007. In the first nine months of 2008 I am already at 1,500. The absolute numbers are not impressive but the progression is," noted the militant editor who offers small Russian cakes to visitors.
_________________________

1,500 copies? It's time to bring back the House Committee on Unamerican Activities!

///Either that or we have to get the guy's cake recipe.

Which is funny, because capitolism didn't cause this.

Well, that's not entirely true. One tennent of capitolism was destroyed while the other was left intact. Those tennets are Fear and Greed, in that order. And we're doing it again.

If the government backs mortgages (ie frannie and freddie and private mortgages backed by them) there's no fear of making a bad investment, so, since you're making money off all of them, let's have a field day.

But it's so much deeper than that.

I'm sick of Marx. All you ever hear in University is 'Marxism this' and 'Marxism that'.

I don't care.

Pure unregulated capitalism works about as well as Marxism in real life. In both systems you'll end up with an assload of poor, with a very few extremely wealthy. Not sustainable for long periods of time.

Which is why nost governments, including the US, are socialist. Some more, some less.

benlonghair: Which is funny, because capitolism didn't cause this.

Well, that's not entirely true. One tennent of capitolism was destroyed while the other was left intact. Those tennets are Fear and Greed, in that order. And we're doing it again.

If the government backs mortgages (ie frannie and freddie and private mortgages backed by them) there's no fear of making a bad investment, so, since you're making money off all of them, let's have a field day.

But it's so much deeper than that.

Capitolism ruins everything. I say we abolish all capitols! Schoolchildren should never feel ashamed that they can't remember that Albany, not New York City, is the capital of New York.

*shakes fist furiously at map randomly dotted with little circled star cities*

Marxism is a philosophy not a "How-To Guide."

Iplaybass: I'm sick of Marx. All you ever hear in University is 'Marxism this' and 'Marxism that'.

I don't care.

You didn't actually go to college, I see. I never heard a damn thing about Marx. Of course, I was taking science classes.

FunkOut: *shakes fist furiously at map randomly dotted with little circled star cities*

In my previous life I was a spelling-bee champion fifteen times over. I got bypassed in this life, I guess.

"From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it."

/Groucho-Marxist

Sales have increased because people want to find out the specifics about Obama's economic plan before he is coronated.

/ditto Iplaybass

FunkOut: From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it.

More wisdom:

"I must say that I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a book."

This is just stupid enough to become on of those "amazing facts" that everyone knows.

Except that the 60% annual increase started in 2006-- not in the last six months.

I remember when buying this book would earn you a free investigation by some unknown three letter organization. Gods I miss those days. I wish the socialists would just get out of the USA and stop trying to convert *our* country to a socialist nation. (Oh, and for those of you who think the Democrat and Republican parties have NOT been infiltrated by socialists, there are socialist agenda sources themselves who describe attempting such a thing since 1960. Oh, and Nancy Pelosi and Reid are provably card carrying socialists...)

TheSwissNavy: Sales have increased because people want to find out the specifics about Obama's economic plan before he is coronated.

/ditto Iplaybass

THIS.

jaedreth: I remember when buying this book would earn you a free investigation by some unknown three letter organization. Gods I miss those days. I wish the socialists would just get out of the USA and stop trying to convert *our* country to a socialist nation. (Oh, and for those of you who think the Democrat and Republican parties have NOT been infiltrated by socialists, there are socialist agenda sources themselves who describe attempting such a thing since 1960. Oh, and Nancy Pelosi and Reid are provably card carrying socialists...)

And THIS.

Maybe everyone buying it is just reselling it in their web store with a substantial mark up.

benlonghair: Which is funny, because capitolism didn't cause this.

Well, that's not entirely true. One tennent of capitolism was destroyed while the other was left intact. Those tennets are Fear and Greed, in that order. And we're doing it again.

If the government backs mortgages (ie frannie and freddie and private mortgages backed by them) there's no fear of making a bad investment, so, since you're making money off all of them, let's have a field day.

But it's so much deeper than that.

Don't know much about history, do ya'? Booms and busts are inherent to capitalism, since the only "value" is "market value"--meaning, therefore, that the "greater fool" method is the dominant method of determining value.

So, if you like a "free market," you like booms and busts.

Marx and Engels got most of their evidence about how capitalism works from Adam Smith.

Yeah Marx had a lot to say about information technology, innovation organizing workers in small businesses, freelancers, employer sponsored healthcare, 401Ks and basically all the hot button issues of our day.

At least the people who pick up this tome and discover how worthless and boring most of it is can use it as a doorstop.

/be sure to buy the cliff notes
/would love a society where everybody only had to work for a few hours a day and had everything they wanted.
/Doh! Time to wake up now!

FuneralGoingChick: TheSwissNavy: Sales have increased because people want to find out the specifics about Obama's economic plan before he is coronated.

/ditto Iplaybass

THIS.

jaedreth: I remember when buying this book would earn you a free investigation by some unknown three letter organization. Gods I miss those days. I wish the socialists would just get out of the USA and stop trying to convert *our* country to a socialist nation. (Oh, and for those of you who think the Democrat and Republican parties have NOT been infiltrated by socialists, there are socialist agenda sources themselves who describe attempting such a thing since 1960. Oh, and Nancy Pelosi and Reid are provably card carrying socialists...)

And THIS.

You realize that Marx would have hated Obama, right?. In general, Marx thought liberal reformers were pussies. People who wanted to make capitalism more equitable were, Marx thought, were making the problem worse by making capitalism look like it has a heart. Marx wanted didn't want the workers to have better benefits and tax credits, he wanted the workers to own the factories.

Meh. People always resort to reading escapist fiction during hard times...

I'm never checking the "don't preview before post" box again. Wow, that was sucky prose.

jaedreth: I remember when buying this book would earn you a free investigation by some unknown three letter organization. Gods I miss those days. I wish the socialists would just get out of the USA and stop trying to convert *our* country to a socialist nation. (Oh, and for those of you who think the Democrat and Republican parties have NOT been infiltrated by socialists, there are socialist agenda sources themselves who describe attempting such a thing since 1960. Oh, and Nancy Pelosi and Reid are provably card carrying socialists...)

Sorry to tell you, but we've had socialist tendencies since the founding of the nation. That's just the way it is.

And now that the GOP killed Reaganomics and raped its corpse in front of the nation and the world, we'll be moving more towards a socialist democracy model. Some people will biatch and moan, but their numbers won't matter eventually.

submitter: Karl Marx's "Das Capital", which railed against capitalism, is selling very well during current economic crisis

Sorry, this isn't even close to ironic. Of course, when people see the worst of something they're more inclined to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

"One book is a tragedy; one million books is a statistic."



/What a nice man.
//Did a lot for the USSR.

farkingnotworking:

You realize that Marx would have hated Obama, right?. In general, Marx thought liberal reformers were pussies. People who wanted to make capitalism more equitable were, Marx thought, were making the problem worse by making capitalism look like it has a heart. Marx wanted didn't want the workers to have better benefits and tax credits, he wanted the workers to own the factories.

Which is interesting because under the Soviet style Marxism, the people owned nothing, the party did and it did rather poorly by the people. All of them except the party members. Under capitalism, factory workers have a greater chance of owning the fatories through stock ownership: ESOPs, Scanlon Plans, 401k. And right now a bunch are finding out that sometimes owning a company is darned nice and other times it sucks big time. But I think you're right in that Marx would have hated Obama. He would have hated McCain as well. He was one of those absolutist radicals who tolerated no dissent. Nuanced was not a word that would have ever applied to him.

jaedreth: I remember when buying this book would earn you a free investigation by some unknown three letter organization. Gods I miss those days. I wish the socialists would just get out of the USA and stop trying to convert *our* country to a socialist nation. (Oh, and for those of you who think the Democrat and Republican parties have NOT been infiltrated by socialists, there are socialist agenda sources themselves who describe attempting such a thing since 1960. Oh, and Nancy Pelosi and Reid are provably card carrying socialists...)

1/10. Try harder. I know it's SUnday morning, but that was lame.

Mr. Right: farkingnotworking:

You realize that Marx would have hated Obama, right?. In general, Marx thought liberal reformers were pussies. People who wanted to make capitalism more equitable were, Marx thought, were making the problem worse by making capitalism look like it has a heart. Marx wanted didn't want the workers to have better benefits and tax credits, he wanted the workers to own the factories.

Which is interesting because under the Soviet style Marxism, the people owned nothing, the party did and it did rather poorly by the people. All of them except the party members. Under capitalism, factory workers have a greater chance of owning the fatories through stock ownership: ESOPs, Scanlon Plans, 401k. And right now a bunch are finding out that sometimes owning a company is darned nice and other times it sucks big time. But I think you're right in that Marx would have hated Obama. He would have hated McCain as well. He was one of those absolutist radicals who tolerated no dissent. Nuanced was not a word that would have ever applied to him.

You're confusing Marx with Stalin (who was not Marxist at all).

He was a very nuanced thinker, and he and Engels disagreed a lot. He was a theorist, who never had any practical political experience as a leader, so we don't know what he would have really done.

People toss around the word "socialist" without the vaguest sense of what it means. Reagan was, by the way people use the term, socialist; the GOP is *more* socialist than Obama (with the bailout package); it's just one of those devil terms that is defined by negation. (A lot of people use the term to mean "wants government intervention somewhere I don't"--useless.)

With an upcoming liberal president and congress, is it any wonder?

KeatingFive: Pure unregulated capitalism works about as well as Marxism in real life. In both systems you'll end up with an assload of poor, with a very few extremely wealthy. Not sustainable for long periods of time.

Which is why nost governments, including the US, are socialist. Some more, some less.

Well said.

Socialist International.
Link (new window)
Link (new window)

TheSwissNavy: Sales have increased because people want to find out the specifics about Obama's economic plan before he is coronated.

This.

how is this ironic at all? its totally obvious.

Too late. America would still need to produce something in order for the proles to control the means of production. The industrial revolution is long past and neither Marx nor Smith apply to todays environment. Capitalism, and the reaction to capitalism are both irrelevant.

It doesn't have any equations, so it's not worth reading.

Marx's ideas were nice in their day, in the 19th century, because people did not really understand the issues back then, just like how scientists thought electricity was a fluid, and how people once thought the earth was flat.

His ideas are quaint completely redundant.

Bukharin: Too late. America would still need to produce something in order for the proles to control the means of production. The industrial revolution is long past and neither Marx nor Smith apply to todays environment. Capitalism, and the reaction to capitalism are both irrelevant.

Many of Smith's ideas (I assume you mean Adam Smith) are still very valid to this day.

Ironic considering it is the socialist nature of current Government policies that caused this mess.

Wow, the anger is strong with these purple-headed ones.

What sort of government action caused the market to circulate 50 trillion dollars worth of suddenly deflated CDS derivatives? Do tell.

This is capitalism's fault, pure and simple. We need much, much more (internationalized) regulation on the financial markets.

/works at an investment bank
//is worried for his job
///will make much more even if he's fired than you lot :DDDDDDDD

Iplaybass: I'm sick of Marx. All you ever hear in University is 'Marxism this' and 'Marxism that'.

I don't care.



"I read in the newspapers they are going to have 30 minutes of intellectual stuff on television every Monday from 7:30 to 8. to educate America. They couldn't educate America if they started at 6:30. "

notmtwain: ///Either that or we have to get the guy's cake recipe.

Tea and cake or Das Kapital!!

/Or both?

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Ayn Rand sales seem to be doing quite well, too.

"Total sales of Ayn Rand books (net sales in English, all editions)-since their original publication date-now exceed 25 million copies. Ayn Rand fiction and nonfiction titles are translated into more than twenty foreign languages.

Sales of Ayn Rand's Paperback Novels over time:
"
http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_ari

benlonghair: Which is funny, because capitolism didn't cause this.

Well, that's not entirely true. One tennent of capitolism was destroyed while the other was left intact. Those tennets are Fear and Greed, in that order. And we're doing it again.

If the government backs mortgages (ie frannie and freddie and private mortgages backed by them) there's no fear of making a bad investment, so, since you're making money off all of them, let's have a field day.

But it's so much deeper than that.

Bah, we deregulated the markets to allow the twits that play with money to do, pretty much, whatever they wanted. They created packaged debt instruments so complex that most of them couldn't explain them to you. Any idiot that pretends this isn't a failure of Laissez-Faire Capitalism is just as much a fool as a dedicated Marxist that thinks Communism will work.

Long story short: Laissez-Faire Capitalism and Communism look great on paper. The problem is that we have human beings in them and running them and humans are greedy, self-righteous, annoying, steal-candy-from-a-baby-to-get-ahead, losers. The systems would work great, for perfect human beings. Since there are no perfect human beings, both are doomed to failure.

Could somebody please explain to me exactly what constitutes a "militant editor"? Does he use an AK instead of a highlighter? What?

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

-Winston Churchill

Of course it's selling now.
If you don't read it you will never understand Obama's tax plan !



.
Start with Socialism, then ramp it up.

I'll be singing this while I vote for Obama...

The state represses and the law cheats
The tax bleeds the unfortunate
No duty is imposed on the rich
'Rights of the poor' is a hollow phrase
Enough languishing in custody
Equality wants other laws:
No rights without obligations, it says,
And as well, no obligations without rights
This is the final struggle
Let us stand together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race