Also, I'm kind of a secret Chomsky fangirl.
Heh, I like some of Chomsky's stuff too.
Believe it or not, I'm actually a capitalist. I do believe that the market is a game to be played and played well. My problem is that currently, people are being cheated out of the game, and that the game itself is spiraling into a self-destructive frenzy not seen since a brick was thrown into a dryer.
If I seem like a socialist, it's because I recognize that the market needs to take a bitter pill known as "Human rights" and swallow it.
Well put.
Anyway, I don't consider my own beliefs to fit into the standard left-right paradigm, or even the conservative/liberal/libertarian paradigm. I guess if you had to apply a label to my beliefs, it would be "left-wing nationalist/pragmatist". Here is a bullet-pointed list of my basic positions (not complete, but this is what I think off the top of my head). I recognize that this list is somewhat biased toward U.S. politics, but a good deal of it could be applied to other countries as well.
*The state should provide (or at least subsidize) those goods and services which are beneficial to economic development, productivity, and domestic peace, such as healthcare, education, public infrastructure, law enforcement, and so forth.
*Going along with the first point, public investment in industries and research which would promote future growth is a good idea. This is especially true for those industries and technologies which could promote energy independence and make fossil fuels obsolete. Furthermore, investments should, where possible, be targeted toward regions which are economically deprived.
*Our foreign policy and defense policy should be one which promotes peace and the development of the poorer nations, not one of empire and nation-building by military means.
*Elections should be publicly funded. No more of this "donate to my campaign and I'll promote policies favorable to you" crap, which as far as I'm concerned is just legalized corruption. The idea that the 1st Amendment protects campaign contributions as speech is ludicrous.
*Stop using the criminal justice system to solve problems which could be more easily solved at the community level. Most drug offenders would be better off in treatment than in prison. Cannabis should be legalized and taxed. Imprisonment, in general, should be reserved for certain classes of serious crimes (e.g. violent crime, sex offenses, organized crime, espionage/treason, etc.). Even things like petty theft could be handled through fines and restitution.
*The immigration system needs to be overhauled to avoid backlogs which leave people in legal limbo. We need to make sure people aren't detained or deported for specious reasons (like minor drug possession, etc.), and that migrant's due process rights are protected, while still making sure that people who do meet the legal requirements to stay are processed quickly and fairly. We need to eliminate illegal immigration, which is an affront to the rule of law. If we need farm workers and such, a guest worker program would be a better choice.
*Shorter term lengths for copyrights, and provisions to discourage copyright and patent trolling. The system has been abused long enough. There is certainly no need for terms exceeding an author's life.
*A commission should be put in place to study the current system of farm subsidies, and determine which should be cut. The big agribusinesses have abused this system long enough as well.
*A financial transaction tax...something like 0.3% on securities trades. It would provide a great source of revenue, and it would also discourage algorithmic trading, which adds market volatility.
*Privatization of state assets and services should be curtailed. All too often, it is an excuse to fire unionized workers and award big contracts to politicians' friends and relatives. (This goes double for prison privatization, which leads to all sorts of abuses.)
There are probably other things I could list, but this is the most important stuff.