Wow. A Netflix movie about capitalism. What a cast. The Laundromat.

[rusty quoin]

It’s about unbridled capitalism. It’s about laissez faire. The idea that corporations are the best regulators of their own greed is the dumbest idea I can think of. And this Netflix movie proves it.

One thing here in America, there has never been such a thing as unbridled socialism. That was in the Soviet Union, and never had anything to do with the New Deal.

It’s always been about capital vs. the people. I like the negotiating between the two. It’s a balance, and I hate extremes.

[TygrBright]

1. No, the Soviet Union did not have "unbridled socialism".

(A kind of weird notion anyway, since socialism by definition includes a certain level of "bridling" in the form of regulation.)

In its earliest days a case could be made for a proto-collectivist Marxism until the final Bolshevik takeover in the mid 1920s, at which point they swiftly reorganized into a totalitarian oligarchy with the "Communist" Party elites as the ruling class (quotes applied because there was actually very little resemblance between the operations of the Party in the USSR and any version of Communism as described by Marx and Engels).

To be fair, America's current version of capitalism would be as unrecognizable to Adam Smith as the USSR's version of communism would have been to Karl Marx.

Only a strong Constitution and a vigorous representative government with full adult franchise and regular elections, referenda, checks and balances, and institutionalized power-sharing protects a nation-state against the oligarchy of powerful interests.

When we set the money free with the Reagan deregulation, Citizens United, and the ongoing slow-motion GOP coup against democracy, we empowered our own little suite of oligarchs and their helots.

wearily,
Bright

[rusty quoin]

3. I didn't say, but that's okay.

My point was simple. Never had there been much socialism here. Only bits.

[rusty quoin]

2. Meryl Streep's ending said it all.

And if you dismiss this Steven Soderbergh movie as just a little bit of something, then god bless you all and we are all fucked.

[Silver Gaia]

5. Agree!

[Silver Gaia]

4. Watched this last night. It's a MUST see film!

It has Oscar buzz, too. It will at least get a nom.

[Beringia]

6. Excellent movie, loved it

Once again Streep is a master and Soderbergh is so good.