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Greed/Fear has been a human trait documented in the economic boom/bust cycle for as long as man has walked the earth. You find it in the Bible, you find it in the Roman Empire, you find it Dutch Tulip Bubble of 1624, the Roaring 20s and, more recently, the dot come bubble, the housing bubble. Government response has nothing to do with the problem. It is human nature to be self-destructive.
Unchecked Capitalism can certainly be punctuated by greed. The He Who Dies With The Most Toys Wins mentality has lead to the demise of our once great nation.
Unchecked Capitalism can certainly be punctuated by greed. The He Who Dies With The Most Toys Wins mentality has lead to the demise of our once great nation.
The investors who force layoffs/outsource even after profit are the same ones who cries when the national unemployment goes up or the consumer spending goes down. How do you reconcile it?
And talking about greed...greed is ok. but too much of it is not. We see way too much of it these days.
And if the investors believe in greed, they should accept it's consequence as well. Why do common people, retirees, and little kids who have no steak in it need to pay for it.
Are they more driven by greed than innovation these days?
When things are good, they behave like they own the country. But at bad times, we the common people need to save them?
Is not it like "privatize the gain, socialize the pain/loss".
What do you think about it?
you need laws with capitalism.
When someone doesn't pay back a loan or make good on a deal, there are laws about who loses the money. These laws need to be upheld instead of taking from this creditor, giving to that one, and throwing taxpayer $ in the mix.
The investors who force layoffs/outsource even after profit are the same ones who cries when the national unemployment goes up or the consumer spending goes down. How do you reconcile it?
Because they are different things to the investor. One is cost cutting to increase their profit/reduce their losses - they benefit directly which far outweighs the reduction in consumer spending/employment. When other companies do it they see no direct benefit and hence only the reduction in consumer spending/employment.
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And talking about greed...greed is ok. but too much of it is not. We see way too much of it these days.
And if the investors believe in greed, they should accept it's consequence as well. Why do common people, retirees, and little kids who have no steak in it need to pay for it.
Obviously if you lose a bunch of money you'd be happy for the government to come along and make it up. You really can't blame them for asking and taking what is offered.
The government should not be doing it. It is there fault. If the local ice cream shop goes broke because their "free icecream" day cost them too much money am I to blame because I took them up on the "free icecream cone" offer? Or are they at fault for giving it away? I'd argue it is their fault, and in the same way the bailouts are the government's fault, not wall street's fault.
Greed is an essential part of capitalism, it is what motivates people to produce things and hence the economy to grow. However, it is supposed to be tempered by Fear. Thos who make bad investments lose their money and either learn from or have no money left...
Greenspan screwed all that up in the 1980s and it has continued until today. Fear was removed because everyone knew that if things went bad Greenspan would just pour in the money and the losses would vanish. Bernanke continued this policy. now we have a situation where all those previous losses that really were only delayed by liquidity flooding are showing themselves and it's all too big for a simple Greenspan Put to fix.
Yes, Wallstreet got us into this mess with their ever riskier behaviour. But that behaviour is what you would expect when you have a government applying the 1-2 of:
* Stupidly low interest rates which means investors need to invest in riskier things to make reasonable returns.
* A government/Fed combination that has shown it will bail out any big losses.
Yes Wall Street (and every person in America who bought a house with the expectation that it would increase in value at more than the rate of inflation) took the risks and screwed us all. But only because the Government made doing so their only choice.
What we have is not free market capitalism. In fact, no one who accepted any bailout can call themselves capitalists. A true free market would allow failure just as much as it would allow success.
I am a big fan of free market capitalism, it would be nice if we returned to a more Calvin Coolidge-like era, where the government does not get in the way of the market.
Regulations tend to cause problems and stifle growth.
Bush was not a true capitalist, nor is Obama. Irony of this all, is that it was government intervention that helped to cause these huge problems that these massive corporations enveloped themselves in.
History has shown that less government intervention equals more freedom and more prosperity.
Also, our currency system is weak. A return to the gold standard would be a great first step in actually adding value to our dollar. Fiat currency is based on whichever way the wind is blowing, or so it seems.
My hope is that Americans will grow weary of this corporate fascism and start demanding true free trade, and true free market capitalism.
In fact, no one who accepted any bailout can call themselves capitalists.
you cant really be a true capitalist in an environment that isnt truly capitalist. i dont think its fair to suggest they should turn down the money.
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