Which country best embodies the "small government" of the GOP?

[ColbertWatcher]

Every time I hear a GOPer whine about tax cuts and spending freeze and small government I always think of Haiti or one of those impoverished African countries, whose children seem to be dependent on Sally Struthers for nourishment.

Which country do you think would be the best argument against the GOP's Reagan-disaster-opportunity economic philosophy?

Please post links/reasons for your choice.

Thank you.

[norepubsin08]

1. Norfth Korea

[Deja Q]

2. The one ran by cannibals.

[ZombieHorde]

12. Quit insulting my motherland. nt

[Deja Q]

16. I said 'cannibals', not 'zombies'.

Hollywood isn't a country. :spray:

[MattBaggins]

46. How about one run by cannabis

[treestar]

3. One friend of mine was telling me about India

Said you have to pay for school, pay cash for medical care - if you don't have the cash, no care. It sounded like a place the libertarians would love, though the libertarians I told this to would not believe it.

Another mentioned Hong Kong.

[endarkenment]

4. Nazi Germany

[Canuckistanian]

18. You can't be serious

The Nazi regime inserted itself into almost all facets of German life, from employment to children's organizations.

Try again.

[ColbertWatcher]

34. You just described what the GOP is doing to America. n/t

[endarkenment]

45. IM SERIES THIS IS HUGH

the whole thread is a joke.

However, the fundaloon wing of the republic party is a well organized proto-fascist movement that could quite easily morph into something more malevolent.

[K8-EEE]

33. Mexico -- Trickle Down Economics at its finest and if you've noticed

On the brink of being a failed state.

[Raine]

39. yeah especially with what is happening there now

drug lords taking control, violence and people being so scared.

[Posteritatis]

5. I've started hearing libertarian types *seriously* calling Somalia a great place.. (nt)

[ColbertWatcher]

11. I'm at a loss for words with this. n/t

[Posteritatis]

20. It's not *too* surprising given how blinkered they get

It was kind of funny, ran into it on another largely apolitical forum a couple years ago. A couple of the really ridiculous libertarian types decided that Somalia actually was becoming a paradise of freedom and equality, mainly because they found some even more ridiculous rightwing newspaper article making a similar claim. They were ignoring all the explanations as to why it's not as Liberal Socialist Freedom-Hating Propaganda until one of the other conservative/libertarian types joined in on it. When they got on his case about his clear apostacy, he pointed out that his uncle has been doing aid work in there since the mid-1990s and has officially Seen Things that demonstrate just how lousy the place is.

Even then at least one of them insisted on continuing to make the same claims.

[ColbertWatcher]

30. Amazing.

You wouldn't happen to have any links to these forums would you?

I'm adding all this crap to the Truthiness Encyclopedia page for Somalia.

[rwheeler31]

6. Lots of choices Dubai playground for the rich.

Whoops no more rich.

[Bonhomme Richard]

7. Zimbabwe n/t

[bridgit]

8. Ebenezer Scroogestan

[mrcheerful]

10. GMTA

[omega minimo]

22. Indeed

[Bluebear]

25. .

[mrcheerful]

9. England back in the time of Oliver Twist and Scrooge, are there no poor houses

for the poor to work. That was the happiest times for conservatives.

[treestar]

40. The Gilded Age

No restrictions on the capitalist - child labor and no worries about pollution (no need to do anything about it)

[Rage for Order]

13. America in the movie "Red Dawn"

WOLVERINES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[deoxyribonuclease]

14. Somalia

is a de-facto anarchy. Even after the Islamic Courts took over, there's still a lot of lawlessness.

[baldguy]

15. Somalia - libertarian paradise.

[ColbertWatcher]

32. Not Sudan? n/t

[FarLeftRage]

17. Belarus...

It's fascist and it's white....

[NRaleighLiberal]

19. Elbonia (re Dilbert strips)...or perhaps Freedonia (courtesy of Groucho and the boys!)

[Kansas Wyatt]

21. I believe we just lived through the BushCo & Republican, Inc. years.

For Christ's sake, if that didn't finally prove what a fraud their system is, then all is lost.

[ColbertWatcher]

35. As long as the GOP controls the media, the courts and the schools ...

... they will be able to deny everything.

[Lorien]

23. Afghanistan. Plus, they repress women, kill gays, and every man is armed

it's a GOP paradise!

[On the Road]

24. That is a Really Good Question

Best thing is, it doesn't have to be answered. Just has to hang there.

India is probably one of the best answers because it's more developed than some of the others.

Going back in history is good as a thought experiment, but people who rant about less government generally don't know enough about social and economic history to realize the implications.

[Bluebear]

26. Afghanistan....and the Taliban = the Talibornagain here

[Monk06]

27. Somalia

[Monk06]

28. Oops too late

[ColbertWatcher]

31. I'm shocked that there are so many people who've given this answer.

Somalia?

This smells like a meme of some sort.

[morgan2]

29. mad max?

[riderinthestorm]

36. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A monarch who rules everything with the ultimate authority.

30-40 ministers - virtually all of them relatives of King Abdullah. While these ministers have limited authority in their respective areas, they are not the final arbiters of policy. Only the king is.

Also KSA has 150 advisory council members. No authority - these guys are there just to provide "advice".

Of course everyone's male.

No elections. Religious rule. Women subordinate and legally oppressed. I'm guessing this is a Right wing wet dream - their version of utopia.

[treestar]

41. Much of their hatred of Muslims is jealousy

When right wingers see the control that the men have in those countries, and the control that religion has. They hate our First Amendment with a passion.

You have to know the Bush family with their ties to SA, were likely frustrated by our cumbersome democracy. They saw first hand what out and out power was like in their fraternizations with the Saudis.

[ContinentalOp]

37. I've heard Argentina mentioned before.

It's pretty much the poster child for IMF/World Bank driven free market privatization is it not?

[No.23]

38. The United States of America in its infancy.

When the Constitution meant something.

[readmoreoften]

42. Afghanistan for sure. For FIVE reasons:

Godly
Broke free from the "nanny state bureaucracy"
Pull themselves up from their own bootstraps
Don't want no furriners invadin' their homeland
Entrepreneurial spirit alive and well in the heroin and arms trade

[killbotfactory]

43. GOPers don't want a small government

They want a government that controls the population through religion and makes it impossible for them to resist when rich people fuck them over in every way possible.

[radfringe]

44. the Vatican

1 leader for life
Faith-based
Pokes nose into bed rooms, ignores board rooms
No taxes
Revenue raised through fear (tithe or go to hell)
Dictates how YOU should run your life, while ignoring how they are running theirs...
Wears "hypocrisy" blinders
Forbids questioning

[The2ndWheel]

47. When an entity can impact a large number of people

whether by doing something, or by doing nothing, it's not small. I think simply by asking for a "country" that would be the best example is showing that there really isn't an example out there.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

48. I've heard that Saipan is considered by Tom DeLay to be a "petri-dish" of capitalism

Filthy labor barracks (often with contaminated water), de-facto indentured servitude, minimal worker wages, abuse and exploitation of workers, forced prostitution AND abortions. Pray such a state of affairs never winds up on our mainland.

Iraq-post Saddam- with the (irreversible?) "decress" put into place by Paul Bremer- sounds pretty much like a right-wing corporatopia.

[Blue_Tires]

49. Zimbabwe

runaway inflation

small, grandstanding, violent ineffectual government leadership

worthless currency

immense black market for even basic goods which props up the economy (all the vendor prefer foreign currency)

no service, public or private gets done without a tidal wave of bribes

competitor in your field? just pay someone (cheap) to kill him! not that the police will care any...

all in all, a society fueled by violence, corruption, profiteering and graft -- literally the might-makes-right Randian utopia the Paultards, Norquist and the rest claim to love...So why aren't they emigrating?