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Except that the market for these iis so thin that a quick complete liquidation would probably bring no more than $2000 while sellng in smaller quantties onn a biig online venue like Amazon or eBay could bring at least $15,000 and possibly more than $20,000.
In your opinion. You have no proof or experience in any of this. Just your gut feeling as to how this will all go down.
Don't say it's not a problem in the United States, because it is.
Let's discuss some policy approaches to alleviating the gross income and wealth inequality. For starters, income inequality and wealth inequality are different. Also, inequality is natural. The goal is to create a system where it isn't a drag on the economy and poverty can be minimized. Excessive inequality is a drag on the economy, which is a fact.
Income Inequality - Self explanatory. Refers to new income generated. Most of it is going right to the top 1%. Here are some proposals to reduce income inequality:
1) Raising wages - This can be done through increasing the minimum wage or mandating union membership for certain low-wage industries. I personally favor just increasing the wage floor. If wages were to keep up with productivity, minimum wage would be somewhere over $20 /hour.
2) Tax Reform - Raise marginal tax rates on high income earners. The current income tax rates are fine, but an ultra high marginal tax rate of 50%+ should be used on ultra-high incomes.
Wealth Inequality - This one is trickier. Nothing will truly beat excessive wealth inequality. The main goal is just to keep it from affecting our political process and ensuring all citizens an opportunity at the American dream. Don't let it get too extreme. Wealth inequality will always be natural.
1) Campaign Finance Reform - When billionaires can buy elections, they control the political climate and all policies that come with it.
2) Bank Reform - When banks are profit driven entities, it incentivizes them to make predatory loans
3) Higher Education Reform - Privatized schools and tuition fees create a situation where access to a college degree is dependent on the wealth of the parents. Currently, the Federal government spends more money making college more "affordable" than the actual cost of tuition at state universities.
4) Health Care Reform - Too many Americans are still uninsured or simply can't afford basic health care. Medical costs are the leading causes of bankruptcies.
The options are plentiful. Discuss.
This post leaves me speechless and not for it's merit - for the opposite.
What you suggest is an authoritarian takeover of the country - fascism/socialism/communism - to suit your whimsical cure all.
Did you note usage of the words 'authoritarian' and 'fascism/socialism/communism'?
Is that what you truly propose? It is what you suggest.
Your apparent lack of understanding of economic principles backed by a progressive liberal agenda makes discussion of this useless. Education is your only option and it cannot be gleaned in this thread.
This post leaves me speechless and not for it's merit - for the opposite.
What you suggest is an authoritarian takeover of the country - fascism/socialism/communism - to suit your whimsical cure all.
Did you note usage of the words 'authoritarian' and 'fascism/socialism/communism'?
Is that what you truly propose? It is what you suggest.
Your apparent lack of understanding of economic principles backed by a progressive liberal agenda makes discussion of this useless. Education is your only option and it cannot be gleaned in this thread.
And look at what we have now.... The free market, or whatever you want to call it, is great at letting wealth be acquired and kept by the few. The Gilded Age serves as a reminder what the free market can do, monopolies and high wealth inequalities.
Location: SF Bay Area, aka, Liberal Mecca/wherever DoD sends me to
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Opin_Yunated
Let's discuss some policy approaches to alleviating the gross income and wealth inequality.
1. Bring back Labor Unions in the private sector again. Give workers a voice in trying to negotiate their wages and benefits with employers.
2.Bring back in full Glass Steagal and other laws that kept financial/banking institutions from getting too big and too big to fail. These were key in causing the chaos of 2008 and 2009 and we must make sure it doesn't happen again.
3. Contain and fight back against the anti-family environment that is in effect here in the U.S; When you have strong and healthy families, they produce children who are happy and motivated to preserver against all odds.
4. Healthcare reform: Bring more competition in the health industry to lower prices. The solution is not more government as that will pass the rising and unsustainable costs to the tax payer. Plus, government tends to create more inefficiency as government organizations tends to be process orientated rather than results orientated.
5. Education Reform: Bring in more hands on training and classes starting from the K-12 system to the higher educational system. Spending more money on education won't do a thing if pupils aren't learning effectively and if they don't have their parents pushing them to be successful (#5 connects to #3).
6. Tax Reform: Rather than taxing income, consumption should be taxed. More effective in acquiring wealth that is trying to be stashed away and discourages people from being in excessive debt, which is crushing our economy as well.
That's all I can think of right now. Will add later on once I think of something else.
In your opinion. You have no proof or experience in any of this. Just your gut feeling as to how this will all go down.
??? No experience? I was selling this stuff online in 1997 after seeing someone else making a lot of money on eBay.. I browse the listiings regularly to follow the prices reaized. I'm working on a price guide I intend to release this summer; it will be the first priice guide of its type in 20 years and at least 20 times larger, better, and more detailed than the previous. And I'm doing it all by hand; if I had the benefit of computer technology (think Worthpoint) it would be 100 times better.
Ok, then take out a Sallie Mae loan for your training, and liquidate it slowly, paying the loan down as you sell the inventory off.
Catcha-22! Alas, I am one of those evil studennt loan defaulters Reagan warned you (or your parents) about. Therefore I am ineligible for all student financial aid and all student loans. Never mind that I have paid more in tacked-on fees than the amount I borrowed; the taxpayers have gotten back their money and then some.
And yes there are many says to scam student loans...I know someone who used his student loan for a down payment on a rental property; the following year he bought anothher renntal property.
Catcha-22! Alas, I am one of those evil studennt loan defaulters Reagan warned you (or your parents) about. Therefore I am ineligible for all student financial aid and all student loans. Never mind that I have paid more in tacked-on fees than the amount I borrowed; the taxpayers have gotten back their money and then some.
And yes there are many says to scam student loans...I know someone who used his student loan for a down payment on a rental property; the following year he bought anothher renntal property.
Ok, then sell it slowly and save the money up for your training.
I haven't read the whole thread yet (sorry) but I saw you mentioned bank reform, and I wanted to point out that there is an alternative to the legacy banking system now.
it's called bitshares, it's a digital cryptocurrency that represents shares in a bank-like platform. the shares work like bitcoin, in that the price will be volatile until mainstream adoption. but the shares can also be used as collateral to short market pegged assets into existence, so now we have cryptocurrencys pegged to the price of things like USD, Gold, EURO, OIL, CNY just about anything you can think of, collateralized and without counterparty risk, but still with all the benefits of a cryptocurrency. publicly verifiable and validated with cryptography.
so you can profit speculatively by holding shares in the bank, or save your money in a stable cryptocurrency which gains interest (REAL interest).
and it's all decentralized, handled by algorithms on block-chain as part of a p2p network. the same rules apply to everybody.
if you dont know anything about bitcoin skip this part: bitshares (and all the bitAssets that also exist on the bitshares blockchain) are secured by DPOS instead of traditional PoW. DPOS (Delegated Proof of Stake) involves every shareholder being able to use their holdings to vote for who they'd like to sign the blocks that secure the network, instead of mining-hash-power arms race. this allows for all the transaction fees and inflation that pays miners in bitcoin to instead be either 1) put back into the system to create jobs on the blockchain and grow the network (yes, there are currently people working the world's first decentralized jobs) or 2) burn them increasing the value of everybody's bitshares and bitAssets
and there's more, they're implementing on the same blockchain a p2p dns system, a vote tracking platform that will allow people to more easily assess public opinion, and would also allow people to vote in elections on a blockchain if they want.
they've also made a toolkit that anyone can go and modify to use to create all kinds of new decentralized autonomous companies that have profitable business models, employ people, and grow themselves.
there's a decentralized platform for musicians to be able to sell their music on a front end and issue shares of themselves, they're working on a decentralized gaming/gambling DAC, in the future there is plans for an insurance DAC, this is going to be a whole new ecosystem of businesses.
but the bank is up and running now and working beautifully. the more people who adopt it, the more infrastructure will naturally spring up around it, and the closer we get to a world not run by greedy, centralized banks. this system is more fair for everybody involved except the ultrawealthy, and much more convenient. if you believe in freedom, and want to do something about the bank problem, don't wait for you politicians, become a bitshares supporter!
it just came out though, and the only reason people don't use it much is because a lot of people don't know about it, and that means theres a lot of money to potentially be made from speculation.
Don't say it's not a problem in the United States, because it is.
No it isn't. I like income and wealth inequality. It gave me incentive to perform extraordinarily, so I did. And I accumulated enough wealth to semi-retire in my mid 40s, and fully retire by my late 40s.
It is a very good thing.
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