A large wealth gap (due to capitalism) will not end well for the country - my personal take (exam, interview)

[Storm Eagle]

Originally Posted by Mircea

No, they're separable.



Yes, that reason is your apathy.



Their poverty is self-inflicted, as is all poverty in the US.

The mentally ill need only to want to take their medication to function normally and hold a job, or at least to be able to maintain a household.

The substance abusers need only to want to seek treatment which is available for free everywhere.

For the 0.2% that are neither mentally ill nor substance abusers, they need only to want to be financially literate, and note there are free financial literacy programs funded by tax-payers at the local, county, State and federal level.



That is demonstrably false.

There is no "housing affordability problem."

There are only weak people who lack common sense and who falsely believe they have the god-given right to live wherever they want everyone else be damned.

Liberals have made so that nothing can be done for the mentally ill because it is illegal to force them to do anything they don't wanna do.

If reservations are good enough for the Indians, then they're good enough for the homeless.

The federal government just needs to carve out an area of federal lands, hale the homeless before a judge and declare them to be incompetent so they can be wards of the State and stick them on the reservation.

Problem solved.

All poverty is self inflicted so low intelligence, bad parenting, poor schools never happen? How is financial literacy gonna help if they are making a low wage they can not make their rent or food cost disappear. of course there is a housing affordability problem when most housing costs are raising much faster then incomes. Non is asking to live anywhere they want another baseless claim you are throwing out. Homelessness is much complicated then things like just take their medicine or stick them on a reservation but you obviously have little knowldege of the homeless or poor as your posts show.

[Mircea]

Originally Posted by Storm Eagle

All poverty is self inflicted so low intelligence, bad parenting, poor schools never happen?

Do you still live with your bad parents?

I sure hope not.

Low intelligence does not equate to unable to work. Retarded kids bag my groceries at Kroger's.

What do you mean by "poor schools?"

Do you mean schools who can't enforce discipline because that's "cultural genocide" and kids cannot learn?

You cannot be talking about "poor" in terms of money. Whether you spend $1 or $1 Million per student, the outcome will always be the same.

Parents in India do their damnedest to get their kids into the most prestigious private school in India which only costs $389/year.

Those kids go onto college and then take American jobs.

How sad is that?

I was a 2nd shift supervisor at a meat-packing plant that packaged lunch meats. 6 of my 8 line leaders were African, 2 from Ghana and 4 from Senegal.

They grew up in villages with no running water, no electricity and their schools were one-room shacks, no textbooks and with the "teacher" having some college but not a college degree.

Yet they could do math, and read/write/speak English, German, their tribal language and usually one or more other tribal languages.

The American Blacks hated them, ostracized them. Wouldn't talk to them, hated taking orders from them, and wouldn't sit with them at breaks/lunch.

If the American Blacks could read/write English and do math and program the computers, I'd have put them as line leaders. But, alas, they couldn't.

The packaging machines were made in Germany, so the default screen was German language. I walked up behind one of the line leaders while he was programming the machine in German. That was my first clue.

How much money do you think Ghana and Senegal spend per student? Less than a cup of coffee at Starsucks.

The point being the amount of money you spend makes no difference, but the quality of instruction does and the quality of instruction starts with discipline in the classroom.

Originally Posted by Storm Eagle

How is financial literacy gonna help if they are making a low wage they can not make their rent or food cost disappear.

Being financially literate would give them the common sense to find a roommate(s).

No one is entitled or has a god-given right to live alone in their own personal private home.

Originally Posted by Storm Eagle

of course there is a housing affordability problem when most housing costs are raising much faster then incomes.

The cost of housing and rents is based on Housing Supply and the Demand for that housing.

Increasing wages does not make housing more affordable. It only creates more Demand for a finite Housing Supply driving prices higher.

A financially literate person would know that.

Originally Posted by Storm Eagle

Non is asking to live anywhere they want another baseless claim you are throwing out.

No, you proved my point.

If they were not asking to live anywhere they want then Demand would be lower and housing prices and rents would decrease.

Originally Posted by Storm Eagle

Homelessness is much complicated then things like just take their medicine or stick them on a reservation but you obviously have little knowldege of the homeless or poor as your posts show.

I have more knowledge than you'll ever have.

Come to Cincinnati. I'll introduce you to Chris and Chris. He prostitute her out for beer and drug money. They've been living on the streets for 20+ years now.

They could have gone to Drop Inn Shelter and got cleaned up for free and they would have jobs and housing and not be living on the streets, but they don't wanna.

Being homeless is a choice.

In 2016 I posted info and a link to the National Coalition for the Homeless.

In 2016, we were spending $90,000 per homeless person and not a dent was made.

That's because homelessness is a choice. Just as soon as they stop wanting to be homeless and take advantage of all the free services available to them, they won't be homeless.

[moguldreamer]

Originally Posted by ocnjgirl

That’s really not the people we’re talking about. It’s the Elon Musks and Zuckerbergs, the Betsy Duvalls and Manuchins, and the others in there group that really run the country. I agree very strongly with the first part of Mystigaltyger’s post about how we now have cartels not just big businesses. And they have a lot of political power. It’s not going to end up well for the majority of us.

Interesting perspective. I disagree - but won't elaborate as I think we are not supposed to talk politics here lest we rankle the Powers That Be.

[bluesclues5]

Originally Posted by EDS_

The Palma Index is probably better. However, neither Gini, Palma or anything else describes inequality in The US very for a couple of reasons; people who throw these things together A. use gross incomes not net incomes (most of the the poor pay zero income tax, most of the rich extreme amounts). B. incomes of the poor do not include cash or in-kind transfers. Depending upon whom one believes cash and in-kind transfers move roughly 35-40% of the poor above their family size adjusted poverty line. Omitting tax consequences and transfers to the poor distorts reality. Many of our poor would be considered middle class across much of Europe.



This is good info. about some of the BS regarding inequality.........it's not the easiest read tho.
https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis...roduction-nbsp


__________


And you still haven't described your preferred economic system.

_________



Per Russia I'm talking about your claims that The Ukrainians bombed their own in Donetsk. And US citizens face the save level of propaganda that the Russians put out.


ETA - an oldie but a goodie

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/why-i...-doesnt-matter

My preferred system? I don't know if it exists, but it would be still be capitalism based but eliminate lobbying and special interests, political donations, monopolies, corporate bailouts, fines that actually deter nefarious behavior. Basically anything that allows the wealthy to influence politics and corrupt the system.




Yes, Ukraine did attack their own in Eastern Ukraine - https://www.sott.net/article/466340-...-on-in-Ukraine
This has been corroborated by people actually living in the region, covered extensively by Patrick Lancaster years before Russia invaded Ukraine.


7 years ago -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEFiHVbTOtA
6 years ago -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghQN42li8e8


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgjKqkviQQE
5 years ago -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myBz0WuVcrE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPUW4Bs4iNo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0IZVCxYuuM
4 years ago -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT7j4Cvralg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BwUnxf6vec
3 years ago -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abe0-CQD3NI




Sorry, did I say US and Russians are subjected to the same amount of propaganda? I meant to say that the US is far worse.


https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/26/a...e-network.html
https://www.cato.org/commentary/how-...tes-news-media

https://fcpp.org/2021/06/28/the-cias-media-assets/

https://swprs.org/the-propaganda-multiplier/
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.co...-the-media?s=r

[bluesclues5]

Originally Posted by BigCityDreamer

Nobody knows how much inequality is too extreme or too unfair. If a person has the brains and talent to single-handedly disrupt the entire automotive and space industries of America, then he can become as wealthy as Elon Musk. That’s the beauty of capitalism. Who’s to say what the limit of wealth should be?

Having said that, I do believe that wealthy people should be involved in philanthropy. Several of America’s billionaires do that too.

And then he gets to buy a large media company like WaPo, or Twitter, and then use that to influence the minds of millions.

[bluesclues5]

Originally Posted by albert648

And the Soviets propped up North Korea since before the Korean War. And China still does (to an extent).

You seriously think that those two are equivalent?
And who sanctioned SK to the extent that NK was/is?

[bluesclues5]

Originally Posted by mysticaltyger

I agree a collapse is coming. I just don't think it's due to capitalism. What people call capitalism on these boards isn't capitalism at all. It's a combination of crony capitalism and big government working in tandem. Real capitalism has more small business and real competition. What we have are large corporate cartels. At least the global oil cartel is honest about what it is. But we also have a banking cartel, a health care cartel, and increasingly, a retail cartel....just to name a few. Until recently I lived in California, one of the most leftist states in the U.S. Yet it has the biggest gap between rich and poor in the U.S. One of the biggest factors behind that is overly stringent zoning laws, supported by leftists and the leftist government there.. Such laws make it very difficult to build new housing. Hence, home prices and rents have been skyrocketing there for decades, which hurts the poor and middle class the most.....and economists from across the political spectrum have been saying for years that states like CA need to build more housing. But that's just one of many policies in the state that hurts median income folks.

I'll also point out that Covid policies of shutting down small "non-essential" businesses in the name of health and safety benefited big corporations like Amazon while making the small businesses go away. I don't think that was an accident or unintended consequence.

You forgot the tech cartel, that's in cahoots with the US Gov.

[albert648]

Originally Posted by bluesclues5

You seriously think that those two are equivalent?
And who sanctioned SK to the extent that NK was/is?

Doesn't matter.

South Korea's POOREST province (Jeju) now outproduces ALL of North Korea. And Jeju's economy consists of horse farms and beach resorts.

The verdict is in. Capitalism >>>>>> Communism.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by bluesclues5

You forgot the tech cartel, that's in cahoots with the US Gov.

Yes, I did. Couldn't think of all of them off the top of my head. The tech companies also have ties to the intelligence agencies. I think a lot of people are afraid to look too deeply into such things.

[ddeemo]

Originally Posted by bluesclues5

My preferred system? I don't know if it exists, but it would be still be capitalism based but eliminate lobbying and special interests, political donations, monopolies, corporate bailouts, fines that actually deter nefarious behavior. Basically anything that allows the wealthy to influence politics and corrupt the system.

Sorry, did I say US and Russians are subjected to the same amount of propaganda? I meant to say that the US is far worse.

So you cite essentially a single source and one that is obviously speaking for the Russians - Patrick Lancaster

Lancaster’s work has become a regular feature of Russian state media. His footage and commentary have appeared on Russia Today, a state-run English-language channel; Russia-1 and Russia-24, two of the flagship state-owned Russian language channels; and Zvezda, a channel owned by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

In Ukraine, he enjoys access to Russian-controlled territories, where he is often the only English-speaking reporter. In his videos, he sometimes appears to accompany Russian military. In one recent video posted to his Telegram channel, he dons a white strap around his arm and leg, a form of identification used by Russian soldiers to recognize one another. He tells the camera if he didn’t do this, he has been informed he could be mistaken for a Ukrainian soldier and shot. On Telegram, pro-Russian trolls encourage users to support Lancaster’s work.

and using faked scenes

Just prior to Russia’s invasion, Lancaster was one of the first to report on an alleged “terrorist attack” on three civilians, purportedly carried out by Ukraine. In his coverage, he uncritically repeats what he appears to have been told by Russian military: Ukrainian saboteurs had detonated an improvised explosive device from the side of the road.

In this case, the scene appears to have been so lazily constructed that Lancaster’s own footage captures apparent evidence of the lie: his images of the remains inside the vehicle revealed an impossibly clean cut along the front of one “victim’s” skull, consistent with an autopsy. Grid confirmed with experts at the time that this was the case, and subsequent reporting further established the truth: This was not evidence of an IED attack, and the bodies appeared to have been sourced from a morgue.

Try using less biased sources.