Adding to a few files.

capitalism_doesnt_work.md

@@ -1,50 +1,44 @@
-This tweet is not only referring to the length of time something has been around, but the *indoctrination* around it being the only "system that works", and the **regressive argument that we can't switch to [anything better](https://i.imgur.com/X83EVjG.jpg).**
+Lets unpack the idea that "Capitalism works". In the US, the most developed Capitalist country, the richest country in the history of the world:
 
-I'm sure when vaccinations were developed, there were many who said, "we haven't needed them before, so why do we need them now?"
-
-Lets unpack the idea that "Capitalism works". The US, the most developed capitalist country, the richest country in the history of the world has:
-
-- Enough food to feed [10 billion people](https://www.oxfam.ca/there-enough-food-feed-world), yet [1 out of every 7 US citizens needs to visit food banks to survive.](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/17/hunger-study-food/14195585/) 
-- [6 houses for every homeless person](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-skip-bronson/post_733_b_692546.html). Of course they sit empty, "the market is the most efficient way of allocating resources". [2.5 million **homeless children**, or ~1 / 30](https://www.newsweek.com/child-homelessness-us-reaches-historic-high-report-says-285052). In the UK, [there are 10x more empty houses than homeless families](http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/ampp3d/housing-crisis-10-empty-homes-5008151).  
-- [UNICEF](http://www.unicef.org/sowc06/pdfs/sowc06_chap1.pdf), [RESULTS](https://web.archive.org/web/20080527011602/http://www.results.org/website/article.asp?id=241), and [Bread for the World](http://www.bread.org/hunger/global/facts.html) estimate that **15 million** people die **each year** from preventable poverty, of whom 11 million are **children under the age of five**. ([source](http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/08/crimes-against-humanity-01-poverty-murder-over-400-million-people-since-1995-more-than-all-wars-in-recorded-history.html)). 
-- In the US alone, [20-40k deaths every year](http://obamacarefacts.com/facts-on-deaths-due-to-lack-of-health-insurance-in-us/) because of lack of health insurance. On average, that's 300k over the last decade.
+- [1 out of every 7 US citizens needs to visit food banks to survive](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/17/hunger-study-food/14195585/), despite having enough food to feed [10 billion people.](https://www.oxfam.ca/there-enough-food-feed-world) Half of all food produced is [thrown away by retailers.](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/13/us-food-waste-ugly-fruit-vegetables-perfect)
+- [Empty homes outnumber the homeless by 6 to 1](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-skip-bronson/post_733_b_692546.html). Bank foreclosures and housing speculators have left 18.9 million empty homes. [2.5 million **homeless children**, or ~1 / 30](https://www.newsweek.com/child-homelessness-us-reaches-historic-high-report-says-285052). In the UK, [there are 10x more empty houses than homeless families](http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/ampp3d/housing-crisis-10-empty-homes-5008151).  
+- [UNICEF](http://www.unicef.org/sowc06/pdfs/sowc06_chap1.pdf), [RESULTS](https://web.archive.org/web/20080527011602/http://www.results.org/website/article.asp?id=241), and [Bread for the World](http://www.bread.org/hunger/global/facts.html) estimate that **15 million** people die **each year** from preventable poverty, of whom 11 million are **children under the age of five**. [2](http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/08/crimes-against-humanity-01-poverty-murder-over-400-million-people-since-1995-more-than-all-wars-in-recorded-history.html). 
+- In the US alone, [20-40k deaths every year](http://obamacarefacts.com/facts-on-deaths-due-to-lack-of-health-insurance-in-us/) because of lack of health insurance / care. On average, that's 300k over the last decade.
+- [Average US household carries ~$140k in debt. Median household income only \$60k](https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2017/11/18/a-foolish-take-heres-how-much-debt-the-average-us-household-owes/107651700/), [40% of millenials live with their parents.](http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/goodbye-american-dream-the-average-u-s-household-is-137063-in-debt-and-38-4-of-millennials-live-with-their-parents) 
 - [8 men control as much wealth as half the worlds population.](https://www.inc.com/melanie-curtin/meet-the-8-men-who-control-half-the-worlds-wealth.html) Anyone wanna take a guess at how this game of monopoly ends?
-- [80% of US workers live paycheck to paycheck](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/29/us-economy-workers-paycheck-robert-reich). 
+- [80% of US workers live paycheck to paycheck](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/29/us-economy-workers-paycheck-robert-reich), 40% cannot cover a [$400 emergency.](http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/federal-reserve-more-than-4-out-of-10-americans-do-not-even-have-enough-money-to-cover-an-unexpected-400-expense)
 - [US Life expectancy peaked in 2015, is on the decline, and is now lower than in China.](https://www.businessinsider.com/china-boasts-that-its-healthy-life-expectancy-beats-the-us-is-correct-2018-5)
+- Suicide rates have leaped more than [25% in the last 20 years.](https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/07/health/suicide-report-cdc/index.html) [2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/06/07/u-s-suicide-rates-rise-sharply-across-the-country-new-report-shows/?utm_term=.18c1060e6b2f)
 - [Committed countless atrocities](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/us_atrocities.md), killing millions directly and indirectly across the globe. Imperialist network of [800 military bases in 70 countries.](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/06/us-military-bases-around-the-world-119321) 
-- [Most prisoners per capita AND by numbers](https://www.statista.com/statistics/262962/countries-with-the-most-prisoners-per-100-000-inhabitants/). Makes sense, since prison is Capitalism's boarding house. [Runs least 54 agricultural slave labor camps.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_farm#In_the_United_States_.28partial_list.29) 
+- [Most prisoners per capita AND by total](https://www.statista.com/statistics/262962/countries-with-the-most-prisoners-per-100-000-inhabitants/). Makes sense, since prison is Capitalism's boarding house. [Runs least 54 agricultural slave labor camps.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_farm#In_the_United_States_.28partial_list.29) 
 - [More here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/5q2oak/someone_dies_under_socialism_no_matter_how_its/dcvu8lg/)
 
-
-
 Capitalist hegemony has short-circuited people into buying wildly illogical and ridiculous propaganda like: "*Lift yourselves up by the bootstraps*" (which shows the almost religious power of capitalist propaganda, that the impossible can become possible), or "*Communism doesn't work*", when in fact **Communism did work extremely well.**
 
 Examples from [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/86tqdd/but_socialism_doesnt_work_s/dw7qco0/) by /u/bayarea415 about the USSR specifically: 
 
-- [USSR had more nutritious food than the US (CIA)](https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP84B00274R000300150009-5.pdf). [Calories consumed actually surpassed the US](https://artir.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/compar1.png?w=640). Ended famines.
+- [USSR had more nutritious food than the US (CIA)](https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP84B00274R000300150009-5.pdf). [Calories consumed surpassed the US](https://artir.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/compar1.png?w=640). Ended famines.
 - Had the [2nd fastest growing economy of the 20th century after Japan.](https://artir.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/captura-de-pantalla-de-2016-05-26-10-15-23.png) The USSR started out at the same level of economic development and population as Brazil in 1920, which makes comparisons to the US, an already industrialized country by the 1920s, even more spectacular. 
 - [Free Universal Health care, and most doctors per capita in the world.]( https://www.marxists.org/archive/newsholme/1933/red-medicine/index.htm ) 42 doctors per 10,000 population, vs 24 in Denmark and Sweden, 19 in US.
-- Had zero unemployment, continuous economic growth for 70 straight years. see: Robert C. Allen's, From Farm To Factory. (review [here]( https://homepages.warwick.ac.uk/~syrbe/pubs/FarmtoFactory.pdf )). The "continuous" part should make sense – the USSR was a planned, non-market economy, so market crashes á la capitalism were pretty much impossible.
+- [Had zero unemployment, continuous economic growth for 70 straight years.](https://homepages.warwick.ac.uk/~syrbe/pubs/FarmtoFactory.pdf) The "continuous" part should make sense – the USSR was a planned, non-market economy, so market crashes á la capitalism were pretty much impossible.
 - [All education, including university level, free](http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/archive/PubEdUSSR.htm). [2]( http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/archive/anglosov.htm)
 - [99% literacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Likbez).
-- Saved the world from nazism, [killed 7/10 fascist soldier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_casualties_in_World_War_II), bearing the brunt of casualties in WW2. Nazis were in retreat after the battle of Stalingrad in 1942, a **full 2 years** before the US landed troops in normandy. 
-- [Double life expectancy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_Soviet_Union). After the October revolution, the life expectancy for all age groups went up. A newborn child in 1926-27 had a life expectancy of 44.4 years, up from 32.3 years thirty years before. In 1958-59 the life expectancy for newborns went up to 68.6 years. [Eliminated poverty.](https://gowans.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/we-lived-better-then/)
-- [End sex inequality](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_Soviet_Union_(1977,_Unamended) ). Equal wages for men and women were mandated by law, but sex inequality, although not as pronounced as under capitalism, was perpetuated in social roles. Very important lesson to learn.
+- Saved the world from Fascism, [killing 7 out of every 10 fascist soldier, bore the enormous cost of blood and pain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Front_(World_War_II)#Casualties). Nazis were in retreat after the battle of Stalingrad in 1942, a **full 2 years** before the US landed troops in normandy. 
+- [Doubled life expectancy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_Soviet_Union).[Eliminated poverty.](https://gowans.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/we-lived-better-then/)
+- [End sex inequality](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_Soviet_Union_(1977,_Unamended)). Equal wages for men and women mandated by law, but sex inequality, although not as pronounced as under capitalism, was perpetuated in social roles. Very important lesson to learn.
 - [End Racial inequality.]( https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2016/jan/24/racial-harmony-in-a-marxist-utopia-how-the-soviet-union-capitalised-on-us-discrimination-in-pictures)
 - Feudalism to [space travel](https://i.imgur.com/pe0tg2y.jpg) in 40 years. [First satellite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_space_program), rocket, space walk, man, woman, animal, space station, moon and mars probes.
 - Had zero homelessness. Houses were often shared by two families throughout the 20s and 30s – so unlike capitalism, there were no empty houses, but the houses were very full. In the 40s there was the war, and in the 50s there were a number of orphans from the war. The mass housing projects began in the 60s, they were completed in the 70s, and by the 70s, there were homeless people, but they often had genuine issues with mental health.
 
-------
+----
 
 Now let's take a look at what happens after the USSR collapse: 
 
 - [Life expectancy decreases by 10 years](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Russia#Life_expectancy ). [2. ](https://i.stack.imgur.com/8Fj8E.png) [7.7 million excess deaths in the first year](http://www.academia.edu/1072631/Review_Red_Plenty_by_Francis_Spufford ). [2](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC259165/)
 - [40% of population drops into poverty]( https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2003/07/unpo-j28.html).
 - [GDP instantly halves]( https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Soviet_Union_GDP_per_capita.gif).
-- [One in ten children now live on the streets.](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/an-epidemic-of-street-kids-overwhelms-russian-cities/article4141933/) [Infant mortality increases](https://knoema.com/atlas/Russian-Federation/Nenets-Autonomous-District/topics/Demographics/Mortality/Infant-mortality-rate-deaths-before-age-1-per-1000-live-births).Was 29.3 in 2003 which is around (current) Syria and Micronesia, 7.9 in 2013. [Infant mortality in USSR was 1.92](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_Soviet_Union#Life_expectancy_and_infant_mortality), literally the lowest in the world. What the actual fuck. 
-- [1996 election rigged by the US, yeltsin sends in tanks to disperse the supreme soviet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_presidential_election,_1996). 
-
-
+- [One in ten children now live on the streets.](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/an-epidemic-of-street-kids-overwhelms-russian-cities/article4141933/) [Infant mortality increases](https://knoema.com/atlas/Russian-Federation/Nenets-Autonomous-District/topics/Demographics/Mortality/Infant-mortality-rate-deaths-before-age-1-per-1000-live-births).Was 29.3 in 2003 which is around (current) Syria and Micronesia, 7.9 in 2013. [Infant mortality in USSR was 1.92](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_Soviet_Union#Life_expectancy_and_infant_mortality), literally the lowest in the world.
+- [1996 election rigged by the US, Yeltsin sends in tanks to disperse the supreme soviet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_presidential_election,_1996). 
 
 For an overview of the soviet experiment, watch this [brilliant talk by Micheal Parenti](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYVes44hcJg&feature=youtu.be), or read his article, [Left anticommunism, the unkindest cut.](http://www.greanvillepost.com/2015/05/23/left-anticommunism-the-unkindest-cut/)
 
@@ -52,5 +46,4 @@ Also read this great article by Stephen Gowans, [Do publicly owned, planned econ
 
 Bonus vid about cyber-communism: [Paul Cockshott - Going beyond money](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI01-5zhwdA). 
 
-More sources: [Socialism Crash Course](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/crash_course_socialism.md), [Socialism FAQ](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/socialism_faq.md), [Glossary](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/glossary_of_socialist_terms.md). /r/communism101, /r/debatecommunism. https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/wiki/debunk
-
+More sources: [Socialism Crash Course](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/crash_course_socialism.md), [Socialism FAQ](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/socialism_faq.md), [Glossary](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/glossary_of_socialist_terms.md). /r/communism101, /r/debatecommunism.

crash_course_socialism.md

@@ -145,24 +145,38 @@ Under capitalism,  [the subjective theory of value](https://en.wikipedia.org/wik
 
 ## Democracy
 
-Socialists view democracy under capitalism to be an unrealistic utopia, better labeled as [Bourgeois Democracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_Marxism), or democracy for the rich, which socialists contrast with proletarian democracy. Under capitalism, political parties, representatives, infrastructure, and the media **are controlled by capitalists**, who place restrictions and limitations on the ability and choices of the working class. [Bourgeois democracies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_democracy#Dictatorship_of_the_bourgeoisie) tend to be highly plutocratic, resulting in legislation [favorable to the wealthy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig), regardless of the population's actual preferences. Examples of restrictions include stacking the candidates before an election, the [First Past the Post](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo) voting system (which enforces capitalist two party domination), [gerrymandering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering), long term limits with no way to recall unpopular representatives, restrictions crafted to disenfranchise poor and minority voters, bills directly crafted by lobbyists and bourgeois lawmakers, voter suppression, electoral fraud, unverifiable closed source electronic voting systems, capitalist campaign financing, low voter to representative ratios, inconvenient voting locations and times, and most pervasive, candidate stacking. **Most elections are performed before we ever get to the polling booth**. In short, political democracy can't exist without economic democracy.
+Socialists view democracy under capitalism to be an unrealistic utopia, better labeled as [Bourgeois Democracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_Marxism), or democracy for the rich, which socialists contrast with proletarian democracy. Under capitalism, political parties, representatives, infrastructure, and the media **are controlled by capitalists**, who place restrictions and limitations on the ability and choices of the working class. [Bourgeois democracies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_democracy#Dictatorship_of_the_bourgeoisie) are in reality [Capitalist Dictatorships](https://i.imgur.com/8vDYw17.jpg), resulting in legislation [favorable to the wealthy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig), regardless of the population's actual preferences. Examples of restrictions include stacking the candidates before an election, the [First Past the Post](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo) voting system (which enforces capitalist two party domination), [gerrymandering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering), long term limits with no way to recall unpopular representatives, restrictions crafted to disenfranchise poor and minority voters, bills directly crafted by lobbyists and bourgeois lawmakers, voter suppression, electoral fraud, unverifiable closed source electronic voting systems, capitalist campaign financing, low voter to representative ratios, inconvenient voting locations and times, and most pervasive, candidate stacking. **Most elections are performed before we ever get to the polling booth**. In short, political democracy can't exist without economic democracy. 
 
 Communists propose to replace bourgeois democracy with **proletarian democracy**, with such measures as:
 
 - Replacement of bourgeois parliamentary bodies with broadly inclusive workers organizations.
+
 - Seizing land, productive facilities, and housing and putting them under democratic control.
+
 - Elimination of all debts, suppression of all private banks.
-- Direct democracy in as many decisions as possible, often called [cyber communism](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI01-5zhwdA). 
+
+- Direct democracy in as many decisions as possible, often called [cyber communism](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI01-5zhwdA). A site called [Simplevote](https://simplevote.tk/), a direct democracy voting platform.
+
 - A democratically planned economy for human needs, with open participation.
+
 - Low-level workplace democracy.
+
 - Elimination of the standing army, and the substitution for it of armed workers.
+
 - An emphasis on universal education, health-care, child-care, care for the elderly, and human welfare, paid for socially.
+
 - Increase in productive technology.
+
 - Low levels of wealth and income inequality, often driven by a system of labor vouchers for compensation.
+
 - Experts (if any) elected by the working class through universal suffrage.
+
 - All representatives and officials (including police) are revocable at any time.
+
 - Public officials are paid workmen’s wages.
 
+  
+
 ## Unsustainable Growth
 
 During Capitalisms' growth period, when there are new markets and labor forces to expand to, capitalism can appear stable for the richer consumers whose products are actually being produced by exploited, poorer workforces. Likewise, in a labor shortage, as existed in the newly industrializing US, capitalists have no choice but to keep wages high (and the rate of exploitation low) in order to bring in workers from other countries, and keep them from running off into the interior. In the southern US, African slavery was used to solve the labor shortage, and keep exploitation high (since no wages were paid), and consumer products such as tobacco and cotton cheap. In order to take advantage of cheap labor, capitalists usually build production far away from where those products are actually bought and consumed, meaning that most consumer goods are shipped by ocean-freight, wasting energy and **polluting the environment**.

socialism_faq.md

@@ -371,6 +371,7 @@
 ## On Venezuela
 
 - [What's going on with venezuela? Rebuttal to John Oliver's venezuela show, and overview of the situation in Venezeula](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fV-C1Ag5sI).
+- [Who's crashing Venezuelas economy?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqHzDLSl8U4)
 - [Are the people in venezeula really starving?](https://monthlyreview.org/2018/06/01/the-politics-of-food-in-venezuela/)
 - [Whats going on in Venezuela?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/66f7u5/eli5_comrades_what_is_the_situation_in_venezuela/)
 - [Is venezuela moving towards communism?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/7ixh1h/the_venezuelan_situation_already_understand_most/dr35p31/)