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In capitalism the workers still hold all the power. Without the workers there would be no rich people, and their money would be worthless.
Its not the money, money is just a medium of exchange. Its the capital ownership. Those who own capital will still eat at if they have no workers. They can employ their own land, labor and tools to produce food, or produce something to trade for food.
Those who dont have a pot to **** in, ONLY have their labor to exchange for food and shelter. If the capital owner doesnt need their labor, then they starve. Period.
A "labor" contract is completely one sided and entered in to under duress in almost every case. Very few workers who do not have a job of CEO or professional entertainer have the priveledge of negotiating a contract paying them more then they generate in revenue. The rest of us compete for limited numbers of positions, driving our own "market wage" in to the ground, because we cant live without a paycheck, because most of us are still in the position where all we have to trade is our labor.
I have known millionaires, one dresses like a homeless person and drives an old truck with 200K miles on it. You would never know he owns millions in commercial real estate. And I have know others who drive the rolls royces. And yes, they are both cheap. One is just cheaper than the other one.
Yes, Rich people are stingy - I know, I have worked for several. You just cannot judge what someone's net worth is by how they act or how they dress or what they drive.
There must be something about commercial real estate. I have a close relative who's commercial real estate holdings are in the hundreds of millions. He's the nicest guy I know, and the most frugal guy I know. Last time I was at dinner, I was listening to him argue with his wife because he wanted to buy a Kia to replace his old car. Meanwhile, my Wall St. friends tend to go for all the flash. I used to go in for the expensive cars and clothes, etc. One day I just realized a car is just a car, and clothes are just clothes. If you dont care what others think, you can save a lot of money...Let me rephrase that. If you realize that people that judge you based on your car or your clothes are not the kind of people you care about, you can save a lot of money. I drive an '03 Tahoe, and have no plans on getting rid of it until it dies. If I ever buy a "fancy" car again, it will be an antique, that appreciates every year instead of one that depreciates. If someone sees me in my old Tahoe, and wants to assume I am poor, let them. It's no skin off my nose.
Politicians do not need to do anything. The Gini index will do that all by itself. If anything, politicians further brain wash the slave class in to believing if they pay for enough training out of their own pocket, sit down and shut up, that they, one day, will also be bell curve outliers.
No, the oligarchic plutocracy, government for the rich, by the rich, is a threat to our freedom and liberty.
Yes. Bill Gates and his ilk have successfully petitioned school rezonings so that poor or minority children are grouped together, and removed from more affluent districts. I have experienced this first hand...it even made the news.
Well, yeah. Since Bill Gates and his ilk likely own your home, either through directly owning the bank, owning the property you rent, or owning huge interests in the bank, they can surely influence whether you even have a place to braid hair. Thats before coming to a realize that 99% of home based businesses dont make enough money to be considered more then a hobby for tax purposes.
You are denied the right to earn a living by the capital class. The government does not restrict any person in this country from seeking employment (outside of illegal immigrants). What prevents people from getting employment are ridiculous requirements and hoop jumping by the capital class, not to mention the wholesale exportation of jobs by the capital class.
Wrong. The basic principles of capitalism allow them to gain control over us. This permission you speak of is because of laws made BY the government restraining capitalism.
All together now.....who is the government controlled by? If you guessed oligarchic plutocracy, you are correct. Unfortunatley, in capitalism, the rich are the only ones powerful enough to successfully campaign in a farce of an election. The rich are the only ones able to buy their own way.
first, bill gates has no part in ownership of my homes at all, not directly or indirectly.
i am certainly not denying that there is collusion between the government and big business, because there is, but big business can only rob the people THROUGH the government. big business can only be bailed out BY the government.
the government has done absolutely NOTHING to restrain wall street, even though americans pay for an enforcement division which is supposed to prevent things like ENRON, but does not. we are seeing the failure of government through the entire lehman brothers scandal and the collusion of government officials to make it all happen.
the government is still doing nothing, other than appointing a pay czar who approves all the bonus requests put in front of him, with obama's blessing. this is not just an obama issue, but bush was a crook before obama was a crook robbing the american people, and clinton before them.
i am certainly not denying that there is collusion between the government and big business, because there is, but big business can only rob the people THROUGH the government. big business can only be bailed out BY the government. ( emphasis added )
I agree with you except fo the part that I put in bold. The insurance companies, the drug companies, hospitals, medical practitioners, etc ARE robbing the people blind as the government stands by idly and allows them to have their way. Now don't get me wrong, I am NOT a supporter of the health care bill currently on the table becasue I see no way that it will stop those companies from robbing us blind.
i am certainly not denying that there is collusion between the government and big business, because there is, but big business can only rob the people THROUGH the government. big business can only be bailed out BY the government. ( emphasis added )
I agree with you except fo the part that I put in bold. The insurance companies, the drug companies, hospitals, medical practitioners, etc ARE robbing the people blind as the government stands by idly and allows them to have their way. Now don't get me wrong, I am NOT a supporter of the health care bill currently on the table becasue I see no way that it will stop those companies from robbing us blind.
I suspect that is the point. The government allows the businesses to operate how they operate. Some businesses are highly regulated and some are not. In the poster's comment, I believe it means the government does what the businesses influence them to do (little to no regulation).
i am certainly not denying that there is collusion between the government and big business, because there is, but big business can only rob the people THROUGH the government. big business can only be bailed out BY the government. ( emphasis added )
I agree with you except fo the part that I put in bold. The insurance companies, the drug companies, hospitals, medical practitioners, etc ARE robbing the people blind as the government stands by idly and allows them to have their way. Now don't get me wrong, I am NOT a supporter of the health care bill currently on the table becasue I see no way that it will stop those companies from robbing us blind.
i see what you are saying and yes the health care bill if it passes would pay those "evil" insurance companies taxpayer money.
part of the deal is for the government to give people money to buy insurance - $336 billion over the next ten years. That money would have to go to guess who- the insurance companies!
i am certainly not denying that there is collusion between the government and big business, because there is, but big business can only rob the people THROUGH the government. big business can only be bailed out BY the government. ( emphasis added )
I agree with you except fo the part that I put in bold. The insurance companies, the drug companies, hospitals, medical practitioners, etc ARE robbing the people blind as the government stands by idly and allows them to have their way. Now don't get me wrong, I am NOT a supporter of the health care bill currently on the table becasue I see no way that it will stop those companies from robbing us blind.
And I agree with everything you said except the bolded part. How are hospitals and practitioners ripping off the people? The government is certainly not on our side. Whenever we have issues of payment, the government always sides with the insurance companies. Just look at the current bill that may pass. It takes all it's "savings" from the doctors and hospitals, leaving the insurance companies to continue making HUGE profits and pay its executives HUGE salaries and bonuses with money that was really meant for health care. If anything, the government forces us to accept fees BELOW the fees we normally charge. I know that I barely break even on my medicare patients and I actually take a LOSS on medicaid patients. While there are doctors that dont accept medicare and medicaid patients, those of us that do, do it out of the goodness of our hearts, yet we still have people like you saying that we are ripping people off, without so much as a further explanation. The bottom line is that we offer a service. You freely come to us for our service, yet when we expect compensation for our work, you say we are ripping you off? If you dont like our prices, you can always look for someone else.
And I agree with everything you said except the bolded part. How are hospitals and practitioners ripping off the people? The government is certainly not on our side. Whenever we have issues of payment, the government always sides with the insurance companies. Just look at the current bill that may pass. It takes all it's "savings" from the doctors and hospitals, leaving the insurance companies to continue making HUGE profits and pay its executives HUGE salaries and bonuses with money that was really meant for health care. If anything, the government forces us to accept fees BELOW the fees we normally charge. I know that I barely break even on my medicare patients and I actually take a LOSS on medicaid patients. While there are doctors that dont accept medicare and medicaid patients, those of us that do, do it out of the goodness of our hearts, yet we still have people like you saying that we are ripping people off, without so much as a further explanation. The bottom line is that we offer a service. You freely come to us for our service, yet when we expect compensation for our work, you say we are ripping you off? If you dont like our prices, you can always look for someone else.
With all due respect, that 'choice' should have never been considered in that light in the first place. That service [health care] should be a utility; if you don't like the compensation that economic qualification would yield for you personally, you'd be free to pursue another profession. How's that for 'choice'...
I figure it has to finally be said. There's nothing "freely" about the self-preservation instinct that quite literally creates the inelastic demand for heath care from which you profit from. I sympathize with the idea of de-coupling yourself from the dynamics created by the insurance industry. But the overarching point is still the same. This is all created out of the profiteering over "commodities" of inelastic demand. Approaching such demand with an utilitarian light would solve all the moral objections that have this country in a disgusting lock-down between the haves and have-nots. GPs in the UK as an aggregate still top out at 121K USD. That's top 10 percentile of the population in the US. Too little? Go into day trading, but don't hold the inelastic demand hostage because you want to make a buck.
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