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1) So the Federal Reserve doesn't distort the economy, give massive advantages to the people it favors, while inflating asset prices? Thereby dramatically worsening inequality and creating a whole class of "rent-seekers" who get rich through speculation instead of work?
Every government regulation gives massive advantages to the people it favors and craps on everybody else.
There's no exception to this statement.
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Originally Posted by Redshadowz
2) None of these people could have done anything without capital. They got capital through investors who agreed to fund them in exchange for a permanent share of the profits.
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Originally Posted by Redshadowz
3) These people are the true exceptions. And they were mostly "in the right place at the right time". Bill Gates was able to buy an operating system which he then sold to IBM, and then ripped off Steve Jobs and Xerox, while breaking into what was a brand new market. Had he been born 20 years later, there would be no Microsoft.
They are not the exceptions. Millions of entrepreneurs do that every year. Without capital, nothing will be built unless you reinstate slavery.
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Originally Posted by Redshadowz
For every Bill Gates, there will be tens of millions earning minimum-wage. For every winner, there are a million losers. And it isn't because they didn't work hard enough, it is just the nature of the competition.
Where are you from? You apparently don't live on this planet. This is so far away from reality.
For every Bill Gates, billions of people benefit from Bill Gates' work. The fact Bill didn't receive sainthood is showing us we have screwed-up moral standards.
In capitalism, every trade is win-win. There are not winners and losers; there are winners and winners. That's economics 101 stuff.
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Originally Posted by Redshadowz
So let me ask you, where did capitalism come from? How did capitalism spread across the world? Was it something "the people" demanded? Or was it something imposed upon them by others? And if it be the latter, why do they go along with it?
Capitalism is the combination of private ownership of property and free trade, or simply freedom.
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Originally Posted by Redshadowz
The political parties are just for-profit private corporations who get their money from other for-profit private corporations. There is no such thing as a democrat. Democrat is not an ideology, it is nothing. It was whatever is useful for gaining power to push policies that benefit the donors.
Yeah, except Democrats aka Communist Party of America, want to slaughter millions to gain power. Please name one policy from the Democrats that doesn't require violence or threat of violence to implement.
Have things not improved vastly in the past 100 years? Has life expectancy not steadily been increasing? Has life not been improving for the vast majority? Would you rather be dead?
You must be willfully blind if you say no to the above questions.
Some things have improved, other things have gotten worse. Is a life-expectancy of 100 better than a life-expectancy of 80? Or 70? Or 60? You're still going to die. Would you rather die at 100 from cancer, or at 50 from a car accident?
What makes a life worth living?
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Originally Posted by lifeexplorer
Your opinion does not change the fact that marriage has always been a business.
In order to understand what marriage is, you have to imagine a world without marriage. When feminists complain that marriage is a "patriarchal institution", they're not wrong. The woman becomes the man's property. And that is a good thing. Because by becoming his property, she also becomes his responsibility. No one can damage her, or steal her.
This is why marriage has historically been a social event that involved the entire community. And why they would ask if anyone objected beforehand. Once the contract has been made, it cannot be undone. From then on, no man can touch another man's wife. Any more than he can steal his livestock or land.
And by making marriage between one man and one woman, it also means that every man gets exactly one wife. And since she is your property, and the community recognizes as your property, you don't have to worry about her. You can go to work, you can go fight in a war, and you know she will be there when you get back. The alternative would be a free-for-all where you can't trust anyone. Not the woman, and not the other men, who will move in on her the moment you turn your back. Thus marriage allows men to live together and cooperate with each other without fearing each other. It builds social trust and social responsibility.
I mentioned endogamous and exogamous marriages. An endogamous marriage is one involving people within the same community. Whereas an exogamous marriage is one involving people of separate communities. Throughout most of human history, people lived in very small groups and pretty much never interacted with anyone outside of their group. Even though we give Muslims a hard time about marrying their cousins, up until a few hundred years ago, pretty much all marriages were between cousins. Even Charles Darwin married his first cousin.
If you're marrying within a fairly small group of people who are all interrelated, the goal of a marriage is not "business", but rather social stability. But if a marriage is between tribes, or at least a separate clan, then you're not going give your property away(your daughter) without getting something out of it.
The shift from endogamous to exogamous marriages is what transformed marriage into a business, not only because of this, but because exogamous marriages are necessary to bring together the various tribes under a single hierarchical structure(IE government). As society grew, it became more diverse, and property became more centralized, which created greater inequality. And with greater inequality, there was more to gain, or to lose, from marriage.
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Originally Posted by lifeexplorer
Capitalist value? Freedom and wealth creation / human advancement. You can't even name one advancement that is not provided to you by the capitalists.
Do you like your cell phone? Do you think your cell phone has "advanced" humanity? Is life better because there are cell phones? Do you think cell phones make people happy? If there weren't cell phones would we be less happy?
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Originally Posted by lifeexplorer
It has never been how hard you work. When doesn't hard work equal more money??? Never in human history. It has always been how much value you can produce for other people!
How much value is bitcoin producing? While I agree that there is a correlation between income and value, it is a very weak correlation.
There's a saying, "When you have no money, you do the work. When you have money, your money does the work."
Everyone and their dog hopes to win the lottery and "live off the interest". The stock market has gone up far faster than inflation. But where does all this money come from to perpetually bid up asset prices?
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Originally Posted by lifeexplorer
Capitalism doesn't destroy or create any virtue or morality - it only promotes freedom. You as individuals decide what virtue or morality to follow.
The only value in capitalism is money. I realize you're not here to be honest and have an actual discussion. You're here to defend capitalism, presumably because you have done well under it, and are terrified of losing if it were abolished.
I'm not an advocate of communism. I'm only here to remind conservatives that the undermining of traditional morality is not the fault of socialists, it is the fault of capitalists. Capitalism is liberal, and always has been.
This notion that capitalism promotes freedom is absolutely absurd. It only gives the veneer of freedom because it can control people indirectly through deprivation.
"In democratic countries, the most important private organizations are economic. Unlike secret societies, they are able to exercise their terrorism without illegality, since they do not threaten to kill their enemies, but only to starve them." - Bertrand Russell
"Off goes the head of the king, and tyranny gives way to freedom. The change seems abysmal. Then, bit by bit, the face of freedom hardens, and by and by it is the old face of tyranny. Then another cycle, and another. But under the play of all these opposites there is something fundamental and permanent — the basic delusion that men may be governed and yet be free." - H.L. Mencken
"Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains." - Thomas Jefferson
Last edited by Redshadowz; 05-26-2021 at 03:47 PM..
For every Bill Gates, billions of people benefit from Bill Gates' work. The fact Bill didn't receive sainthood is showing us we have screwed-up moral standards.
Let's pretend Bill Gates had never been born. Would the world be worse off? Do you think there wouldn't be computers or operating systems or the internet if not for Bill Gates? Maybe in some parallel world Linux became the standard operating system. Would that be terrible?
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Originally Posted by lifeexplorer
In capitalism, every trade is win-win. There are not winners and losers; there are winners and winners. That's economics 101 stuff.
It is true that people wouldn't trade unless they believed they were getting something out of it. But that doesn't mean that every trade is a "win-win".
For instance, imagine if I could print dollars in my driveway, and I was paying people to mow my lawn, paint my house, cook my dinner, wash my car, etc. By your logic, both parties benefited from the "trade".
In the Bundy Ranch standoff, one of his complaints was that the government had raised taxes on the farmers to the point they were no longer profitable, then used the tax revenue to buy the property from the farmers as they were going bankrupt.
I realize that you're probably not a fan of taxes. But what is the difference between taxes and rent? And what do capitalists do with their rent money? That's simple, they buy up even more property, and extract more rent. And why do people pay rent? Because they have no choice.
Not only do you need money to buy property, you need money to hold property. If you're not extracting value from your property, the government will take it from you and give it to someone who will.
How is that freedom?
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Originally Posted by lifeexplorer
Yeah, except Democrats aka Communist Party of America, want to slaughter millions to gain power. Please name one policy from the Democrats that doesn't require violence or threat of violence to implement.
1) The Democrats have nothing to gain from killing anyone. The communists did kill reactionaries during what was effectively a Civil War, but after they had consolidated power there were no more killings. That is pretty standard in "revolutions". The people in power aren't simply going to give it up.
2) All government is violence. So does that mean you're an anarchist? Of course not, but not on principle, but because you have nothing to gain. You're just as selfish and greedy as everyone else, if not more so.
Last edited by Redshadowz; 05-26-2021 at 04:01 PM..
I was hanging out with Czech and Pilish immigrants over the weekend. They are appalled at what is happening in the US. Said the reason they immigrated was to get away from communism. Most intend to move back at this point as the home countries are more liberal than what we have become in the US.
Every democrat, “Yeah, just give me your money in peace so we won’t burn down your house.”
Strange, the far right and the far left both want a civil war.
IMO, that's the threat to the country. Nobody wants to compromise. Nobody is willing to even try to understand what the other team needs. That informs me that each side is more concerned about their ownselves and not the country.
Greed abounds.
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