Capitalism is the only system that has ever worked or ever will.
No it hasn’t worked. What has happened is the 1% gets almost all the pie, save one piece and all the other groups much divide it between them. The middle class gets about 1/2 of the one slice. The upper poor get crumbs and the poor get nothing. I’m sure you’ve seen that. If capitalism continues to rule, only the 1% will be able to afford to buy anything, while the rest of us die from poverty, which is what the rich WASPs want and yes, the 1% is majority White (Maybe 99.9% white, if not 100%). They look down on all of us of any colour and just love it when we fight amongst ourselves blaming each other for not having enough, when it’s really their fault. Capitalism does not work and just another form of what has gone on throughout history and that is what many people are trying to change. We do not want to be ruled by an Oligarchy.
Bob said; Wake up to the real world. Capitalism is the only system that has ever worked or ever will. Every person who has planted a seed with the hope or expectation of getting something from it other than another seed has practiced capitalism. They used assets, soil, seed and labor to produce gain, what we call a profit.
No it is not. Profit is "reaping more than what you sow". In fact it is against natural law to take more than what you return in the cycle of life.
Profit is drilling for oil and releasing billions of years of sequestered CO2 back into the atmosphere, and cutting down CO2 scrubbing forests at the same time, while we pollute the rivers and oceans with our chemical run-off. That my friend is the result of “unrestricted profit”
Profit is “unearned gain” and is the mark of an invasive species which kills its environment because there are no natural defenses to balance the damage that “unrestricted capitalism” brings with it.
There is nothing wrong with a little controlled profit, nature can compensate for that. Nature cannot cope with “unrestricted and unnecessary profit”
Bob, I spent almost a week in Communist Budapest a long time ago (77), guests of locals, family so I got the VIP treatment. Fear of Russian still alive in the air. Fascinating, enlightening few days.
A whispered joke:
You know the difference between the capitalistic system and the communistic system?
In communism man exploits* his fellow man. In capitalism it’s exactly the other way around.
We haven’t had genuine capitalism in this country in a long long long time, so enough with the snow job.
Write4U: “In fact it is against natural law to take more than what you return in the cycle of life.”
In fact, unless you plan to be buried in space, it is impossible to take more than what you return in the cycle of life. Or have you figured out a way to take it with you?
How do you distinguish between what I posted: “getting something from it other than another seed” and what you said: “reaping more than what you sow.”
Besides all that, just how many here have not made their livelihood from capitalism? As Mriana said: “Capitalism … has gone on throughout history.” I suspect all are complicit.
Maybe the U.S. hasn’t had genuine Capitalism, but Walmart has large plantations, in which the CEO, who makes over a million dollars a year, exploits millions of working class workers by overworking them and paying them poverty wages, as well as use machines to threaten their jobs and make more money by not having as many humans to pay after he fires many of them in favour of robots. After that mission is complete, Walmart will have less workers to pay. Capitalistic greed at its finest. The GWP isn’t Great Work Place, it really is Great Walmart Profits as it exploits the poor, the working poor, middle-class, and the upper-middle class.
What makes any job "their job"? Do they own it? Have they put their money into starting the company? Have they taken the risk of hiring and training people who can and do walk off without notice? Do they have a right to a job in someone's company?The answer is NO.
If they want a job to be “their job” then they should create one.
If the wealthiest corporations are paying an effective tax rate of 11% (and that IS the case) and places like Walmart don’t pay enough to keep their workers off of food stamps or other govt subsidies, then such a corporation is essentially getting govt support to maintain their cheap labor and fantastic profits. Corporate socialism has been happening in the USA for a long time now.
When tax rates for the wealthiest were 90% and above, we developed a middle class that made our economy the envy of the world. Since then we have continually moved to greater and greater wealth disparity. The middle class is wilting away. It is not necessary for the wealthiest to keep getting wealthier, while the rest stagnate. The repugs, now Trumpublicans, will be happy for Bob’s view that this is just the way things are and always have been, and always must be. They love lies like that.
I agree with you, TimB. It’s pure corporate greed and we need to tax large corporation/the wealthy for the economy to grow and prosper. As is, the Waltons and their CEOs have almost all of the pie.
When tax rates for the wealthiest were 90% and above, we developed a middle class that made our economy the envy of the world.
See the chart: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_the_United_States#History
We imposed income taxes to pay for wars. The post-war booms had nothing to do with high taxes. Military consumption brought the booms. Will you advocate for war as a way to boost the middle class?
Yeah, I advocate for a war on ignorance. Or how about a Green New Deal - save the Earth, while establishing new green jobs and infrastructure thus hyping and modernizing the economy, simultaneously.
And don’t twist the point around backwards. The point was that the high taxes corresponded with the remarkable expansion of the middle class. If the war taxes had been immediately cut drastically, once the war was over, the vast growth of the middle class would probably not have occurred.
The remarkable expansion of the middle class, especially post WW-II was caused by expanded consumer spending which was due to pent up demand due to a lack of supply during the war which was caused by the military sucking up all the manufacturing capacity and much of the resources needed for manufacturing. Ever hear of a 1943 Ford? Ever see a ration book? The other major factor was technological advances developed to better fight the war. The race for manufacturers to build the latest and greatest consumer products created the jobs that funded the spending which funded the factory and infrastructure construction.
Many people don’t realize that Post WW-I an Army “major was assigned in 1919 to a transcontinental Army convoy to test vehicles and dramatize the need for improved roads in the nation. Indeed, the convoy averaged only 5 mph from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco.” (per Wikipedia) That major, later as President Eisenhower, sold the nation on the construction of interstate highways as necessary for national defense creating lots of jobs, even 60 plus years later.
War is good for jobs. Taxes have nothing to with job creation, if anything they stifle economic expansion.
It’s pure corporate greed and we need to tax large corporation/the wealthy for the economy to grow and prosper.
Anyone who understands anything about economics and taxes knows who pays the taxes. It is always the the consumer who pays. The prices we pay include the taxes we lay on the corporations. Taxes are a business expense which is always passed on to the consumer.
We tax corporations on profits. Investors demand a return on their corporate investments (stocks in our retirement plans, our IRAs, our 401Ks, etc) at rates higher than the interest on safer investments like bank and bond interest. The higher taxes are, the more prices rise and the higher the demanded rate is on stocks, thus demanding that corporations make higher profits to pay us for our investments.
Higher taxes cause higher inflation and reduce spending power. Taxes do nothing to increase prosperity and do restrict growth. This is basic Econ-102, right behind Econ-101, supply and demand.
A little aside: I asked the prof in a Money and Banking course: “all things being equal (they love to explain how things work when all things are equal) where does interest on loans come from?” The money supply is one of the “all things” which would be equal. The answer is the reason for the prohibition of charging interest under the Judeo-Christian-Islamic ethic, inflation. The base rate of inflation is the part of the money supply loaned times the rate of interest at which it is loaned. So, there’s your Econ-501 for today.
By the way, Econ-050 (makeup) is that there is no such thing as a free lunch.
I’ve repeatedly heard the challenging question from Trump supporters that no one can point out a single instance where Russian interference changed the mind of any voter. When this question is asked those hearing it are usually unprepared to give a convincing response. The answer is fairly plain. Propaganda, in this case Russian propaganda never sought to change anyone’s mind. That would be too overt, instead they did something more insidious; they reinforced the uninformed prejudices of groups of Americans by catering to their bigotry and paranoia. Russia being at the center of the largest land mass on earth has consequently been invaded numerous times and has an almost pathological interest in the internal affairs of other nations. It has a long history of covertly spreading misinformation and in the twentieth century its incarnation as the Soviet Union brought this practice to its apex. In an age of facebook chat rooms and free speech, American populations were a perfect target for a well coordinated and highly effective effort to sow discord into the body politic. With the full backing of the Russian government their skills in this activity are highly sophisticated, so much so that their target audience still firmly believe they were unaffected by the misinformation onslaught. The perfect dupe is one that steadfastly asserts he was never duped. How many people believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 911, or that Hillary Clinton ran a child sex ring from a pizza restaurant in Washington, or that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States, or that he was a Muslim? Millions still believe these falsehoods who swear they can never be duped. Confirmation bias is always a reliable default position for those who lack a practiced habit of critical judgement.
Genus, I’m a big believer in allowing a good piece of writing some breathing room. Allow me the following liberties, I’ve not changed any words
@GenusHomo - I’ve repeatedly heard the challenging question from Trump supporters that no one can point out a single instance where Russian interference changed the mind of any voter. When this question is asked those hearing it are usually unprepared to give a convincing response.
The answer is fairly plain.
Propaganda, in this case Russian propaganda never sought to change anyone’s mind.
That would be too overt, instead they did something more insidious; they reinforced the uninformed prejudices of groups of Americans by catering to their bigotry and paranoia.
Russia being at the center of the largest land mass on earth has consequently been invaded numerous times and has an almost pathological interest in the internal affairs of other nations. It has a long history of covertly spreading misinformation and in the twentieth century its incarnation as the Soviet Union brought this practice to its apex.
In an age of facebook chat rooms and free speech, American populations were a perfect target for a well coordinated and highly effective effort to sow discord into the body politic.
With the full backing of the Russian government their skills in this activity are highly sophisticated, so much so that their target audience still firmly believe they were unaffected by the misinformation onslaught.
The perfect dupe is one that steadfastly asserts he was never duped. How many people believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 911, or that Hillary Clinton ran a child sex ring from a pizza restaurant in Washington, or that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States, or that he was a Muslim? Millions still believe these falsehoods who swear they can never be duped.
Confirmation bias is always a reliable default position for those who lack a practiced habit of critical judgement.
Thank you citizenchallenge. I just visited that website and believe it has serious points of consideration to offer. Yes paragraph delineation is as necessary as taking breaths in the appropriate place for a singer carrying a melody.
Thank you Mr. Lausten. You say more with fewer words than most with a dictionary.
In an age of facebook chat rooms and free speech, American populations were a perfect target for a well coordinated and highly effective effort to sow discord into the body politic.
