Identifying ways of making global capitalism more stable

[Black Spot]

When did earning your own way through life become a frikken sin? That's what I want to know.

It isn't, but too many people people have bought into the idea you can have it all NOW. By having it all 'now', guess who they're paying? Every time someone stretches themselves that little bit further to make their dreams a reality, the bankers get that much richer.

I used to know my bank manager, don't any more. A bank manager used to know his clients and what they could really afford. Instead we have these computers where some spotty youth types in the numbers and waits for the answer. Finance needs to be humanised again. At the moment we're just statistics.

[Dadaist]

The government does not produce. It only takes.

Until the banks need a bail out. Then the governments produces miraculous amounts of money to save them, at the taxpayer's expense.

[Raoul Duke]

Yeah the government actually gave most of us a decent education, roads, running water, free vaccination, etc. Government gives us everything that business can't do. Some great things are not designed to make a profit. It's a mistake to think everything has to turn a profit.

It's pretty silly to pick on the wealthy for being wealthy. It's even more silly to feel sorry for a guy with a private jet. If you are cashing a six figure income you can afford to laugh off the haters. I wish I could. It's not silly to point out unfair and predatory business practices.

It's bad for business to be ethical sometimes. An attorney should be aware of that. At the moment the public is finally catching on and wants to figure out what to do about it. I don't have any answers, but it's about time the public started to become aware. Right now it's all a bit knee jerk and extreme, but it's going to level off and the fringe will be the fringe. But the whole "magic self regulating market" is a myth. Government isn't the magic soloution to this problem. If the consumer is aware of these issues then maybe we won't need government to step in. This means greed needs to be criticized as A BAD THING. Consumers need to know Wallstreet is making a hefty profit by manipulating and taking advantage of anything and anybody for the sake of profits, because the consumer does the same. It's just the nature of the arrangement.

The potato famine in Ireland is a good example of the "free market". It wasn't that Ireland ran out of potatoes. It was the money they owed for the crops they promised and couldn't produce.

[s.ketch]

The Market is a strictly economic environment. It's the result of production and commerce. It's like a hologram in that it only exists because other elements work together as one.

A problem arises when people see the Market and economics as a life philosophy. They see it as something that should apply to every facet of life. Corporations stealing and governments corrupt? The Market will weed them out because they're undesirable! As if it were some sort of economic natural selection.

[Velocity Kendall]

"As if it were some sort of economic natural selection."

Selection of the fittest is inevitable, but as businesses are mechanisms to make money fitness is defined by profit margin, potentially at the expense of other factors.

"You know the history of science in "proving" things are safe right?
Tobaco science, cocaine science... phoney science. "

Up to your usual tricks eh Samthemule?
When the fuck has science ever proven tobacco or cocaine in any way safe?

"Why not find out for yourself? Become an expert. It doesn't take as long as you might think."

You specialise in saying unintentionally ironic things but this is best one so far.

"Have you really investigated aspartame and fluoride to your own personal satisfaction, or are you trusting further in a system which, has been proven, to lie and steal from you"

Have YOU really investigated aspartame and fluoride, or are you trusting which ever conspiracy website you read about them on?


Iain M Banks' vision of abundant anarchocommunism looks a lot more fun than the alternatives...
http://www.vavatch.co.uk/books/banks/cultnote.htm

[Reign]

“In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.”
(Confucius)

I get the impression that after recent crisis, bailouts, after documentaries like Inside Job people got the idea that their countres are not very well governed, and consequently maybe not all poor should be ashamed and not all wealthy proud.

Trying to demonise capitalism and daydreaming poorly researched utopias is still ridiculous though.

[enrigo]

I read somewhere that divorce is really good for the economy because it makes the divorce couple buy/rent their separate houses. This idea really bugs me because it is the opposite of good management of resources which should be the central idea of economy in the first place (at least from my understanding).

[Velocity Kendall]

The tension between ideals of freedom and efficiency is an important one today. Cars are a symbol of freedom, but 1 person in each car pollutes the air and causes gridlock. etc etc etc etc.

Until machines and logistical networks of biological sophistication are ubiquitous and automated (ie the Culture), this problem will always exist.