What Makes a City Thrive

[The Lawspeaker]

Ironically, one of the key things which binds together both the Marxist left and the free-market libertarian right is their utter disdain towards the countryside and their belief that urbanisation and 'progress' are ends in themselves.

Absolutely. While others have a more organic view of society where progress is to serve the needs of the people - rather than the other way around.

[Tooting Carmen]

Absolutely. While others have a more organic view of society where progress is to serve the needs of the people - rather than the other way around.

An interesting example of the coming together of Marxist and free-market ideologies has got to be the Chinese city of Shenzhen, which didn't even exist until 1979 but is now one of the biggest cities in the nation. I recently saw a BBC documentary about it - basically, the CCP wanted to create a model and futuristic city from scratch with special economic incentives. Nowadays, there are skyscrapers galore and they are on the vanguard of every innovation from drones that deliver food to AI and facial recognition technology, but given the atomised lives most people there lead and their hideously long working hours, are their lives ultimately more fulfilling and enjoyable than those of the farmers and fishermen of old?

[The Lawspeaker]

An interesting example of the coming together of Marxist and free-market ideologies has got to be the Chinese city of Shenzhen, which didn't even exist until 1979 but is now one of the biggest cities in the nation. I recently saw a BBC documentary about it - basically, the CCP wanted to create a model and futuristic city from scratch with special economic incentives. Nowadays, there are skyscrapers galore and they are on the vanguard of every innovation from drones that deliver food to AI and facial recognition technology, but given the atomised lives most people there lead and their hideously long working hours, are their lives ultimately more fulfilling and enjoyable than those of the farmers and fishermen of old?

Shenzhen would be a very good example, yes. But we can also ook at Europe where Socialists often helped to block early social legislation because of their Marxist doctrine of Verelendung. Those middle and upper class "socialists" wanted things to become even worse for the working class - so they could have their revolution and total power. Thankfully, both liberals and conservatives (Catholics and Protestants here in the Netherlands) saw through that game and worked together to pass social legislation. If you were to look at the early beginnings of the welfare state, you would see that the Left has had nothing to do with its creation.

[Tooting Carmen]

Shenzhen would be a very good example, yes. But we can also ook at Europe where Socialists often helped to block early social legislation because of their Marxist doctrine of Verelendung. Those middle and upper class "socialists" wanted things to become even worse for the working class - so they could have their revolution and total power. Thankfully, both liberals and conservatives (Catholics and Protestants here in the Netherlands) saw through that game and worked together to pass social legislation. If you were to look at the early beginnings of the welfare state, you would see that the Left has had nothing to do with its creation.

The now-defunct Revolutionary Communist Party led by Mick Hume is the only (self-described) leftist party in Britain that was like that afaik, campaigning against the NHS and the welfare state because they saw them as impediments to the coming revolution. And in Britain's case, it was Clem Attlee's Labour Party just after World War II that did create the NHS and several welfare benefits, but the earlier stages of the welfare state, e.g. universal pensions, were created by David Lloyd George's Liberal Party some two decades prior.

[The Lawspeaker]

The now-defunct Revolutionary Communist Party led by Mick Hume is the only (self-described) leftist party in Britain that was like that afaik, campaigning against the NHS and the welfare state because they saw them as impediments to the coming revolution. And in Britain's case, it was Clem Attlee's Labour Party just after World War II that did create the NHS and several welfare benefits, but the earlier stages of the welfare state, e.g. universal pensions, were created by David Lloyd George's Liberal Party some two decades prior.

In the Netherlands, the PvdA quickly entered into a coalition with the Catholics after WWII and nicked their social advances and they called them their own. Basically - Dutch children are taught that the welfare state began in 1945. Which is nonsense - the welfare states' earlier roots were around 1900-1910 in stages. It was far from complete (particularly in regards to social housing as both WWI, the Great Depression and WWII were impediments) but the first steps had been taken. By the 1930s, there was already a system of functioning unemployment benefits, compulsory education, invalidity payments, a Housing Act etc. What the PvdA just did was rewrite some laws and put their own names underneath them and expand some to make it seem as if they had wanted it all along.

(Of course - to claim a legacy of their own and to keep the commies at bay which, at that moment, had some 10 seats in a 100 strong (until 1956) parliament).

[Wolfdog]

Intelligence of the citizens

This one