To me, it appears as if you were misreading my earlier post and my use of the word capitalist. I used the word capitalist to refer to persons holding capital.
Yes. But a person holding capital might also be a machinist putting money into a pension for his later years. So I was NOT specifically criticizing capitalism with my employment of the term capitalist and my description of what seems to have been a major problem in the united states's allowances regarding the capitalists. Also, NOT all capitalists have been able to suck all the surplus value - such as the smaller businesses are stuck attempting to compete and putting up their capital and their risk and then getting screwed by the overall poor business and poor humanity infrastructure in the USA.
IN the USA, you tend to make more money by being a dickhead, rather than by being responsible - even though there are some examples of responsible companies, such as Costco, who treat their workers relatively well, and Costco still is rewarded in the market place. Wallmart is rewarded in the market place, but treat their workers like shit, and deserve to be regulated into a better state of business, humanity and state of responsibility.
So again, it's not really capitalism per se. Just clarifying because I feel it's important. |
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America has an odd work ethic. There's some sort of bravado attached to it, along with this unquenchable thirst for money. If you don't work 40 hours a week (instead of, say, spending that valuable time with your family) then you are a leech, a drain, a loser, etc. Business owners have come to expect you answer your cell phone at night and weekends. One is deemed more of a "real man" if he slaves away at overtime, filling up the weekend with more work. All the rats in the race end up similarly however. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have begun working from home @2007 and so far managed to pay the rent with low hours and no boss.
What is your secret, o wise one? Seriously, that is totally where I want to be. I could even afford to take a substantial pay cut to do so. |
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The Just World fallacy is not an attempt to "come to terms" with anything, really.
Discordianism is about as far from "Just world" as you can get. With that said, if you subsidise something, you tend to get more of it. |
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This is Canada, eh. With a brief search, I couldn't find data on more than 1-2 children. I'm not saying they live like kings, but first hand accounts tell me that (2 cases) 3 and 4 kids total subsidies added up to much more than $10/hr. Both of these women deliberately spawned more societal leeches in order to receive the benefits, as holding a job was too difficult. I cannot condone this.
I didn't see any mention of housing benefit either which can be a goodly portion of a working person's wage. Then of course, there is also the cost of working itself, the car, the insurance, the clothing, food, childcare. And of course, if you're not at work, there's always the chance to pick up a bit of money on the sly. Tax free, of course. |
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The Bank of England have released a quarterly bulletin which is mainly about the definition of money, and its role in a modern economy. It (of course) includes some stuff on Bitcoin and digital currencies, as well as local currencies - Coin Desk have an overview here, or you can read the PDF directly here. It's getting like when the web started to enter the mainstream and you'd get people on TV saying "Visit our website on the internet at aitch-tee-tee-pee colon backslash backslash doubleyew doubleyew doubleyew..." Exciting times. |
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Damn, all this philosophy in last 10-15 pages makes this thread boring  I could make ChartBuddy repost "Favourite charts from the booms and busts of 2013" if you'd like  |
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I have NO problem with people making profits... there is a difference between a form of regulated capitalism and forms of vulture capitalism whereby the rrich exploit and pretty much steal from the people in various ways and make their money using trickery and such leverage. small honest businesses are out gunned when these kinds of vulture capitalists are allowed to run free and unfettered.
Yeah, that's more or less my point. Often when people criticize "capitalism", they are actually criticizing something else like corporatism. This leads to incorrect conclusions as to how to deal with these problems. Capitalism really isn't an "ism", it just describes the way that civilization has found efficient to trade. To be anti-capitalist is to be anti-civilization at base. |
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People that say stuff like this sound like they subscribe to the Just World fallacy, for this case specifically that every problem someone has stems from themselves, and that you can't possibly be struggling if you're working hard. It's a lie some people tell themselves to make them feel better, usually out of either a fear of it happening to them, believing that it cannot happen to them, or believing that since it has never happened to them, the poor must be doing something wrong. Every ex-CEO probably subscribed to that theory until they had to start delivering pizzas.
Either that, or you have a heavy and unwarranted disdain for poor people, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
No. That's what you want to believe because it allows you demonify others and reject their viewpoints. This happens on both the left and the right and is unfortunate as it allows those in power to divide us rather neatly rather than allow meaningful and fruitful discussion. |
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What planet are you living on? GM almost went out of business because the United auto-workers drove up input costs to the point that they could make no profits. Not small profits. NO PROFITS.
Counterpoint: Volkswagen in Germany has an organized labor rate of about 98%, workers have 32hour work weeks and 6 weeks (IIRC) of holiday per year. And half of the seats in the board of advisories are represantatives of the workers*. Yet, they are quite profitable. * = Thats German law for public companies. edit: typo. Heck, there's nothing to say that Unions can't see the writing on the wall and clean their act up. Of course, it helps if your competitors self-destruct (c.f. the British car industry). |
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Frankly I would not want those people working for me. I think everyone is better off if they are bribed into staying out of the workforce. The reason is the same as the reason why the argument that market-based minimum wage is better than mandated is so bogus: Lots of people have negative productivity. No matter how hard they try, they will do more damage than good. GHWBush, and BObama for example. Would you want either of them making you a coffee? Blech.
Problem is, if you pay them not to work, all there is to do is stay home and breed. And now you have five people to take care of instead of two. |
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so save me hours upon hours of time and sum up the parts that are relevant to my issues, if indeed those books contain any.
If you are trying to say that you have provided me real answers specifically to the issues I brought up, please quote yourself, because I am actually interested and must have missed it the first time around.
Do your own homework. The principles have been summarized many times already in this thread which probably already has many people reaching for a length of rope. Either you want summaries, which you have been given several times over, or you want more detail which can be obtained from the works of many eloquent and considered writers. Pick one. |
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Amazon EC2 is mostly used to host scams, spambots and that sort of thing.
Haha, no. I'm sure there's a lot of that going on but there's a whole lot of legit stuff going on there also. If you drop traffic from there, be prepared for some stuff you take for granted to break. |
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Very Funny.... and witty, Billyjoeallen... even though you are missing the point about how the capitalist is able to take all the surplus value from the increased benefits and to put them into his pocket.
You're not a capitalist? You work for free or just to cover living expenses? |
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High unemployment rates are solely the result of minimum wage laws and other government intervention. Every job hunter could get a job if he was willing to accept a wage that would allow his employer to profitably employ him, given his productivity level. Walmart wage suppression allows Walmart to pass the cost saving onto customers. There is no net harm to society. Some win. Some lose. Thems the breaks.
Let's not forget that stuff like food stamps also reduces the wages that Walmart would have to offer to attract employees. It's like the perfect storm of political stupidity. |
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Agreed.... In the end, these kind of endeavors are likely to bring more attention and credibility to bitcoin... even though they may seem to mimic or compete.
Bitcoin will likely prevail - yet, we may want to see how these various competitive cryptos play out... and these additional cryptos will likely create hype and even pump and dump opportunities... for day traders.
Agreed. Likely there is even a role for these private currencies, much as there is for Amazon gift cards. They soon hit issues of scale, however. |
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Central planners are incapable of seeing the limits of central planning. They don't understand that the absence of answers to their questions is a feature of decentralization, not a bug.
Too true. When one man makes a mistake, he maybe brings misery to himself and a few others usually. When government makes a mistake, it's misery for millions. |
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I have a lot of questions for libertarians that I want answered. I've been asking them for years. Most of them still haven't been answered. I thought that might change here, but I'm starting to lose hope and am almost to the point of writing it off as another lost cause.
Thing is, I run into people like you all too often. You have been provided answers (and you reject them for good or bad reasons depending on your point of view) then you run around crowing that you have not been provided answers and expect someone to spoon feed you and then you still reject those answers and the cycle continues. Worse, typically you don't actually have arguments against the answers you have been provided, you just reject them out-of-hand. It becomes tiresome. There is much good literature out there if you care to educate yourself. Check out some Popper, Hayek etc. There is undoubtedly also much good counter-argument should you wish to properly be able to refute positions you disagree with. You might even find yourself altering your perspective. I used to be quite the socialist myself. |
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Okay, so you're willing to take things piece-meal. Great, but you didn't provide any solution to the problem. Pretend you're taking things piece-meal, and this information has just come up. I'm personally not the type who is comfortable with "crossing that bridge when you come to it."
And I am not the "grand solution" type not least since it has proven to be so disastrous in the past (and present). Answers are often not evident until situations arise. Do you really think crossing a bridge before you come to it has a desirable outcome? |
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I'm getting the feeling that it's like this right now...  |
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http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/a-turnaround-for-bitcoin-at-sxsw/The rapper Nas brought it up during a panel discussion that featured the venture capitalist Ben Horowitz, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, a firm that has invested about $50 million in Bitcoin-related start-ups. Mr. Horowitz said he believed Bitcoin was like “the Internet of money.”
At one of the most exclusive parties at the conference, hosted by Nas and Mr. Horowitz, the two kibitzed with Fred Ehrsam, the chief executive of Coinbase, a Bitcoin company they have both recently invested in. i wouldn't be surprised if i see bitcoin in rap videos soon I think it may be time to write an app that display fake bitcoin balances. |
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