Quote:
Originally Posted by cap1717
Long long before the current financial crisis, I was convinced that much more "regulation" of market forces (or what I consider to be "pure" capatilism) was needed in order to avoid essential "unfairness" in our economy.
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No amount of regulation can ever counter-act the stupidity of people.
Prove to me that buying a house with 0% down is better than putting 20% down, or that buying a $3,000 plasma TV on credit and paying $2,000 in interest is more intelligent than saving money for 6 months and paying cash for the TV and not paying any interest. Prove that buying a car with no money down for 72 months is better than putting 20% down on a 2-3 year loan.
The attitude by Americans that "I want it, I want it now and I don't care how much it costs" is why the US is in the mess its in, and you can't regulate attitudes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cap1717
Deregulation allows large companies to move their operations offshore to avoid paying taxes.
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Companies will move offshore with or without regulations if they will profit from it.
You want to operate a plant in the US that makes widgets and pay your employees $20/hour with another $10/hour in benefits, taxes and regulations, fine.
I can go to another country and start a widget making business and buy the same widget making machine from the same German manufacturer you bought yours from.
For what you pay one employee in a week, I can pay 4 employees for a month. Or I can go to another country and for what you pay one employee for a week, I can hire 20 and pay them for a month.
I will make widgets and sell them cheaper than you ever could and I will import them to the US and run you out of business.
What are you going to do now, levy import taxes, duties and tariffs on my widgets so that you can compete?
Fine. You are 300 Million people. I can sell mine to 6 Billion people. From the massive profits I make, I will buy your company and shut it down, then Americans will have to buy my imported widgets at ridiculously high prices because of the import taxes, duties and tariffs.
What are you going to do now? Pass a law that prohibits foreign ownership? Fine, I'll get front-men to create a front-company from inside America to buy your factory and shut it down.
You can't win.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cap1717
Deregulation allows companies to operate with little, if any concern for their employees, and to move factories to areas with incredibly inexpensive labor, Labor Unions have been destroyed by "toxic" capatilism, and the total "effect" has been first a stagnation, and then a sinking of the "standard of living" for a large proportion of the population.
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That always was an inevitability. The wages and standard of living of Americans will continue to fall until the wages and standard of living of those in developing nations rises to meet it at an equilibrium point.
You have two options: Do nothing or start WW III.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cap1717
Wages are declining in comparison to "cost of living", and have been doing so for many years now.
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Another inevitability and one caused entirely by Americans.
Americans consume 29% of the world's non-oil resources although they're a measly 4% of the world's population.
If the 1 Billion Indians had the same standard of living as Americans, they would consume 87% percent of the world's non-oil resources.
If Indians are consuming 87% of the world's non-oil resources, then Americans cannot consume 29%.
It's 4th grade math.
Americans
will reduce their resource use to a more manageable 12%-13% or the rest of the world will reduce it for them involuntarily.
The problem is that in reducing American resource consumption by half, American will also reduce its GDP significantly, and 50% of Americans will be unemployed and never work the rest of their lives.
Either accept it and learn to live with it, or start WW III to control the distribution of world resources and ensure that Americans will always have a larger share to consume to excess.
If you haven't figured it out yet, that's why you're in Iraq, so that you can set yourselves up to make that power move and control the world's resources.
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If ya ask me the drug trade is the epitome of capitalism.
So you're actually saying that there is no fairness and that the government is irrelevant.
Which is cool with me cauz I'm fine with taking from the rich and giving to the needy.
even selling their body and perform sexual favours) to get their fix.
Once we start on cannibalizing our children (read: have changed our children into addicts of luxury) it will spell the beginning of the end for humanity.
Equality is an illusion because nobody is identical, not even identical twins.
Nope, more like Arbeit macht frei*.
