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So you would let the wino at the bus station do brain surgery on your child because we are all equally valuable? Or would you pay up to hire a neurosurgeon who has made himself more valuable in terms of education, skills and experience?
I think of each human as potentially a unique and precious gift to the rest of us, and I treasure the vast majority of people I know. I could never be the one to deliever the death penalty. I grieve needless loss of life. But in ECONOMIC terms, speaking purely of participants in the economic system, we each have different economic values.
Life is precious and valuable. Economics is about how we organize our affairs. You are absolutely right about our humanity--but if you extend that to economics and say we should all enjoy the same amount of benefits from the combined efforts of all, we'll be eating tree bark and grass within a few years. Leveling has been tried before, and it does not work.
I just would not speak of value at all. I would choose the neurosurgeon because of his skills, but he would not be more valuable than your wino, whatever a wino is, obviously something negative... I would choose the neurosurgeon over a nice unemployed person to do the job even if he were a racist *******, but don't ask me whom I would help first a year later if I were to get into a situation where I could save the life of either one or the other.
Life is not about sucking up to employers. Those who want to do so are free to do so.
I personally think the government should give free farm land to whoever wants it so that people can do subsistence agriculture and become independent from employers, companies etc. Also, employees should be allowed to quit within a period of notice of one week or even instantly, so they can switch the employer at any time. Currently the employer can fire employees easily, but not vice versa, which often prevents people from taking urgent job offers from better employers. And those agreements saying one may not work in the same job for 6 months after quitting etc. should be declared illegal. When a soccer player switches his team, is he prohibited from playing soccer for half a year?
Making what is good for the goose (employers) good for the ganders (workers) is a terribly radical idea the threatens the very power structure at the heart of society. Economics has nothing to do with this. This struggle is strictly about the power of controlling your own fate as well as everybody else’s. Capitalism provides this power to the successful Capitalists.
So you define freedom as the need to transform myself into something an employer needs instead of just being me. That does not sound like any kind of freedom I want. I want the kind of freedom the son of a zillionaire has when he inherits the fortune he did not earn. That is my definition of freedom. How does Capitalism provide the freedom to not work for another to everyone?
Well, try it this way: companies profit by meeting the needs of others. Profitable companies need people to do the work. So ultimately, capitalism does require you to be useful to the rest of society.
The bird does have to dig up the worm, the deer need to get up and graze, the monkeys have to climb trees and get the bananas. And you and I have to get up and go to work.
There is no freedom to not work--unless you are happy with handouts and poverty. It is a waste of energy to resent the person whose ancestor was hugely valuable to society and thus earned a zillion dollars--I wish my grandpa had invented the computer chip, but he didn't. Usually I am thinking about more elevating topics than that.
Making what is good for the goose (employers) good for the ganders (workers) is a terribly radical idea the threatens the very power structure at the heart of society. Economics has nothing to do with this. This struggle is strictly about the power of controlling your own fate as well as everybody else’s. Capitalism provides this power to the successful Capitalists.
It is a free country---go ahead and be a successful capitalist.
Apparently, it seems that the Right believes that capitalism is freedom. And freedom is capitalism.
Are corporate profits the indicators of how muich freedom we have? Does the Dow Jones give a daily assessment of freedom?
Do the Righties believe that laws for minimum wage, paid vacation time, sick leave, child labor laws, working conditions (OSHA), etc are all made to reduce freedom?
capitalism does equal more freedom, as long as goverment stays out of it. minimum wage should not exist as it prices some businesses out of hiring some people at all.
child labor laws? lol, that is a good one, check out a farm sometime and see how young some of the kids are on that farm.
Hey, Guy, help me out with this. The 1920's and the 1950's were the good old days, but the poorest one-fifth of us live far better now in 2010 than the average of the 1920's or the 1950's. Michelle Obama goes to a soup kitchen to ladle out soup to those less fortunate--and HALF the people in line whip out cell phones to take pictures of her. Relative to 50 or 80 years ago, ALL of us eat better, live in better dwellings, have better clothes, own more labor-saving devices, and enjoy longer lives. There is virtually no measure by which one can say objectively that we were better off in the 1920's or the 1950's, or that the average person was better off.
We've got problems--but the basic system is sound and it is working. Jump in the game any time, start a business, make yourself more valuable to employers, do something. Government's role is often troubling, they are nibbling at us to benefit favored groups (UAW) or corporations, things are not perfect--but we have the best system in the history of the world.
That's pretty funny. And it's also the brainwashing that has led us to this particular time when up equals down, and left equals right.
Your declarations are in some cases short sighted, and in others totally false. I know you and many others believe the BS about all of us living longer and better lives than those poor *******s of the 1950's. The popular myth is that before modern medicine saved the day, we were lucky to live to see the age of 45. TOTAL PROPAGANDA. This lie rests in myth and ignorance, just as surely as the gun grabbers would have you believe that the right to own firearms places us in jeopardy of returning to the wild west ... of course, the west wasn't nearly as wild as the movies depict .. in reality, the murder rate in today's modern city (with a total ban on firearms) exceeds "daily" the annual murder rate of one of those wild western towns filled with outlaws and gunslingers.
No, over the years, infant mortality rates of the past have improved which have been used to show an illusion of better health and longer life ... but most people have photos of their grand parents living to ripe old ages ... still very active and hearty, and tending to laborious chores well into their latter years, while today you see people who are becoming almost decrepit and immobile by the age of 65, too fat, too out of shape and not healthy enough to walk through a grocery store (let alone grow, harvest and can their own foods) ... so they ride the scooter.
And if your idea of freedom and prosperity is having a cell phone to talk on while waiting for Princess Obama to hand you a ladle of soup, you probably aren't aware of the brain cancer causing radiation emanating from that symbol of modern advancement.
No sir ... we are without question far more "unhealthy" today than in the 1950's, with our children today ... the first time in modern history, unlikely to live as long as their parents. Cancer rates and heart disease is skyrocketing, with the only greater threat to our health being modern medicine. That's right, bubba ... death as a result of medical treatment has now reached 750,000 deaths annually, making it the leading cause of death, outpacing cancer and heart disease in the United States. But don't let the facts get in the way of your illusions of health.
Those relegated to government assistance for their survival is greater now than at any time in our history, and you cannot eat or drink flat screen TVs and cell phones.
For the first time in our history, even a college degree guarantees nothing other than oppressive debt placed upon the student who may not even get a job after graduation. Manufacturing is gone ... economic future looks hopeless, and as we approach this next "great depression", people have no viable means to produce for themselves as 90+ % are urban not rural as was the case in the 1930's.
And, contrary to your bright assessment of how much better off we ALL are today, this must ignore the fact that by every measure one can utilize .. the rich have grown richer, and the poor, poorer. There has never been a greater division between the haves and have nots. And that's here in America ... the richest country in the world ... where 30 Million children live in abject poverty ... and a middle class that is vanishing at an astonishing pace.
Now tell me ... how is it that with such prosperity, we have record numbers of people relying on food stamps to eat?
Sorry to be the one to break the bad news to you ... but you've been lied to, fleeced and cheated. And it's gonna get much worse before it starts getting better. The first step to getting better is to stop consuming the BS you're being hand fed, while washing it down with fluoridated water.
I think that the OP has failed to recognize that Capitalism cannot exist where there is no freedom. The more the government regulates and taxes the less economic freedom exists.
We like the outdoors too. But we use the train more often to get somewhere. Not to mention biking and hiking.
It is no different here, people have refrigeration everywhere. In some places such as shopping centers it makes sense (although I dislike them as such), at home it is used way too much.
Of course it is just a minority who leads minimalist lives, unfortunately. But that does not mean the majority is right,
Actually I have no qualms with you at all. You are living in a way that is correct for you and you aren't forcing it on others. That is all I ask from anyone. The one thing I'd suggest is remembering that a minimalist life may be best for you, but there is no ..."one size fits all" way of life for everyone.
That's pretty funny. And it's also the brainwashing that has led us to this particular time when up equals down, and left equals right.
Your declarations are in some cases short sighted, and in others totally false. I know you and many others believe the BS about all of us living longer and better lives than those poor *******s of the 1950's. The popular myth is that before modern medicine saved the day, we were lucky to live to see the age of 45. TOTAL PROPAGANDA. This lie rests in myth and ignorance, just as surely as the gun grabbers would have you believe that the right to own firearms places us in jeopardy of returning to the wild west ... of course, the west wasn't nearly as wild as the movies depict .. in reality, the murder rate in today's modern city (with a total ban on firearms) exceeds "daily" the annual murder rate of one of those wild western towns filled with outlaws and gunslingers.
No, over the years, infant mortality rates of the past have improved which have been used to show an illusion of better health and longer life ... but most people have photos of their grand parents living to ripe old ages ... still very active and hearty, and tending to laborious chores well into their latter years, while today you see people who are becoming almost decrepit and immobile by the age of 65, too fat, too out of shape and not healthy enough to walk through a grocery store (let alone grow, harvest and can their own foods) ... so they ride the scooter.
And if your idea of freedom and prosperity is having a cell phone to talk on while waiting for Princess Obama to hand you a ladle of soup, you probably aren't aware of the brain cancer causing radiation emanating from that symbol of modern advancement.
No sir ... we are without question far more "unhealthy" today than in the 1950's, with our children today ... the first time in modern history, unlikely to live as long as their parents. Cancer rates and heart disease is skyrocketing, with the only greater threat to our health being modern medicine. That's right, bubba ... death as a result of medical treatment has now reached 750,000 deaths annually, making it the leading cause of death, outpacing cancer and heart disease in the United States. But don't let the facts get in the way of your illusions of health.
Those relegated to government assistance for their survival is greater now than at any time in our history, and you cannot eat or drink flat screen TVs and cell phones.
For the first time in our history, even a college degree guarantees nothing other than oppressive debt placed upon the student who may not even get a job after graduation. Manufacturing is gone ... economic future looks hopeless, and as we approach this next "great depression", people have no viable means to produce for themselves as 90+ % are urban not rural as was the case in the 1930's.
And, contrary to your bright assessment of how much better off we ALL are today, this must ignore the fact that by every measure one can utilize .. the rich have grown richer, and the poor, poorer. There has never been a greater division between the haves and have nots. And that's here in America ... the richest country in the world ... where 30 Million children live in abject poverty ... and a middle class that is vanishing at an astonishing pace.
Now tell me ... how is it that with such prosperity, we have record numbers of people relying on food stamps to eat?
Sorry to be the one to break the bad news to you ... but you've been lied to, fleeced and cheated. And it's gonna get much worse before it starts getting better. The first step to getting better is to stop consuming the BS you're being hand fed, while washing it down with fluoridated water.
Not enough time to deal with all your issues...got to get back to fabulous life in the 21st century...takes a lot of effort to carve out the life one wants...but I'd love to learn what sort of craziness lies behind the "flouridated water" crack.
Apparently, it seems that the Right believes that capitalism is freedom. And freedom is capitalism.
Are corporate profits the indicators of how muich freedom we have? Does the Dow Jones give a daily assessment of freedom?
Do the Righties believe that laws for minimum wage, paid vacation time, sick leave, child labor laws, working conditions (OSHA), etc are all made to reduce freedom?
Capitalism is effective at producing wealth only because it is unfair. It rewards invention, hard work and leadership. It punishes slothfulness, disorganization and yesterday's way of doing things. When capitalism is no longer allowed to reward and punish because we want fairness, it is no longer capitalism and no longer effective.
The freedom to which you refer is available to anyone who chooses to grab hold of it. Anyone can educate themselves, save their money and start a business. Anyone who works hard and operates a business in an intelligent way has an excellent chance to succeed.
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