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Never heard that one. The fundamentals of capitalism are private property and free trade.
Free trade assumes there is disposable income.
Remove disposable income and all you have is subsistence trade. I exchange my eggs for your corn. If you make a corn doll trinket then I must have surplus eggs in order to trade for it.
Capitalism exploits the surplus above subsistence but unless the surplus is in the hands of the buyers they are stuck on subsistence and cannot participate.
Right now 40% of the population are effectively non participants because they are subsisting without disposable income.
None of this makes sense to me.
Free trade doesn't assume anything other than the freedom to trade. It's the old liberal conflation of freedom and empowerment. Free trade doesn't require disposable income any more than freedom of speech requires that everyone has a megaphone.
Capitalism doesn't 'exploit surplus'. It facilitates communal investment.
Why do you see 'subsistence trade' as not participating in capitalism?
Free trade assumes there is disposable income.
Remove disposable income and all you have is subsistence trade. I exchange my eggs for your corn. If you make a corn doll trinket then I must have surplus eggs in order to trade for it.
Capitalism exploits the surplus above subsistence but unless the surplus is in the hands of the buyers they are stuck on subsistence and cannot participate.
Right now 40% of the population are effectively non participants because they are subsisting without disposable income.
None of this makes sense to me.
Free trade doesn't assume anything other than the freedom to trade. It's the old liberal conflation of freedom and empowerment. Free trade doesn't require disposable income any more than freedom of speech requires that everyone has a megaphone.
Capitalism doesn't 'exploit surplus'. It facilitates communal investment.
Why do you see 'subsistence trade' as not participating in capitalism?
So you are just going to give your trinkets away for free now? Is that your definition of "free trade"? I don't have any disposable income to give you in exchange so you will just give it away out of the kindness of your belief in capitalism?
The government is ACTIVELY manipulating the data.What is even more important over the inflation numbers is the perception of prices.
As just about ANYONE, and they will tell you the cost of everything is going up, and going up at a steep rate.
The people of this country feel the inflation, regardless of the manipulated numbers that they hide behind.
The perception of the cost rising is because wages are stagnating, not because inflation is not being reported accurately.
If you didn't get an increase last year then your effective income decreased by the rate of inflation and therefore you have less disposable income.
Blaming the government for "not reporting inflation" is just another smoke screen to hide the fact that hard working Americans are being screwed out of being paid living wages.
I have had a raise every year for the past 10 years. Inflation still went up. Some years, I kept up, some I didn't, some I managed to do better than inflation.
HOWEVER...inflation still went up.
To say that government is just reporting the data is like saying that rdean is just a loveable guy who is misunderstood.
No, the truth card.The trouble with you analogy is the definition of disposable income.
40% of the people right now chose to waste their income and then claim they have no disposable income.
When you buy McDonald's at the inflated prices due to overpaid labor instead of healthy vegetable and other non-processed foods, you are wasting income. When you chose to spend $800 because you have to have the iPhone 19 with cranial implant instead of a 19.95 per YEAR phone that connects through an existing computer....you are wasting income.
The price of poverty in America is embarrassingly rich by the worlds standards.
BTW...capitalism cannot distilled down to just 'disposable income'.
Playing the "blame the victim" card?
When your kid comes to you and says he can't pay his car insurance this month because he had to have those brand new games for his Xbox, do you just pay it because he's just a victim?
Or do you say, "maybe you should manage your money better?"
I'll go with the latter.
Because its the truth.
None of this makes sense to me.
Free trade doesn't assume anything other than the freedom to trade. It's the old liberal conflation of freedom and empowerment. Free trade doesn't require disposable income any more than freedom of speech requires that everyone has a megaphone.
Capitalism doesn't 'exploit surplus'. It facilitates communal investment.
Why do you see 'subsistence trade' as not participating in capitalism?
So you are just going to give your trinkets away for free now? Is that your definition of "free trade"? I don't have any disposable income to give you in exchange so you will just give it away out of the kindness of your belief in capitalism?
I suppose you could mow my lawn, or wash my car. Are you good with a hedge-trimmer?
So you are just going to give your trinkets away for free now? Is that your definition of "free trade"? I don't have any disposable income to give you in exchange so you will just give it away out of the kindness of your belief in capitalism?
I suppose you could mow my lawn, or wash my car. Are you good with a hedge-trimmer?
Now you are asking if I have any disposable time and we both know that time is money. Thanks for proving my point.
I have no desire to confiscate wealth but I question why we should continue policies that ensure that more wealth is concentrated and maintained at the top. In the last 30 years we have instituted supply side policies with the promise of a rising economic tide and more jobs. That never materialized
Why continue policies that did not work?
By the same token, simply because you disagree does not make you right, or give you truth over My belief.No, the truth card.Playing the "blame the victim" card?
When your kid comes to you and says he can't pay his car insurance this month because he had to have those brand new games for his Xbox, do you just pay it because he's just a victim?
Or do you say, "maybe you should manage your money better?"
I'll go with the latter.
Because its the truth.
Just because that is what you believe doesn't make it the "truth". The OP began with a long list of bizarre things that people believe. How many of those categories did you fall into?
I have no desire to confiscate wealth but I question why we should continue policies that ensure that more wealth is concentrated and maintained at the top. In the last 30 years we have instituted supply side policies with the promise of a rising economic tide and more jobs. That never materialized
Why continue policies that did not work?
You are attempting to blame the engine for a flat tire. Supply side economics doesn't have a damn thing to do with our current economic woes, or wealth/earnings inequality.
Over the last fifty years, the United States, along with all of the countries of the world, have been moving from localized economies to a world economy. This shift has caused disruptions in national economies, as capital shifts with the constantly changing world markets.
Labor suffers because labor, for the most part is not mobile, and is forced to deal with the local conditions, while capital can move freely and rapidly, anywhere in the world to take advantage of favorable economic trends.
Attempting to fight this globalization is futile and counter productive to a local economy. We must accept the inevitable, and learn to prosper in the new environment. Government can do little to help, and most of the politicians efforts have caused more harm than good.
Nice try, but I said nothing about government CONTROLLING inflation, other than their quasi-worship of the fed.....I said they were 'Manipulating' inflation numbers. The reason is obvious. The conclusion is people of certain philosophical strip are willing to be lead by the nose as long as it is their side doing it. Give a simple alphabetical change in leadership, many will simply forget a conversation like this in favor of taking up the oppositions cause......as their own.The government is ACTIVELY manipulating the data.The perception of the cost rising is because wages are stagnating, not because inflation is not being reported accurately.
If you didn't get an increase last year then your effective income decreased by the rate of inflation and therefore you have less disposable income.
Blaming the government for "not reporting inflation" is just another smoke screen to hide the fact that hard working Americans are being screwed out of being paid living wages.
I have had a raise every year for the past 10 years. Inflation still went up. Some years, I kept up, some I didn't, some I managed to do better than inflation.
HOWEVER...inflation still went up.
To say that government is just reporting the data is like saying that rdean is just a loveable guy who is misunderstood.
The government doesn't control inflation. That is the job of the Federal Reserve which is NOT a government entity.
Plenty of hard working Americans have not managed to keep up with inflation as you have. Everyone working for minimum wage has had their income reduced.
I have no desire to confiscate wealth but I question why we should continue policies that ensure that more wealth is concentrated and maintained at the top. In the last 30 years we have instituted supply side policies with the promise of a rising economic tide and more jobs. That never materialized
Why continue policies that did not work?
Yet you do not pursue policy that helps those who suffer, without harming others, to promote liberty and equality. Instead, you pursue policy that is actively detrimental to some while doing nothing to alleviating the suffering of those you would protect.I have no desire to confiscate wealth but I question why we should continue policies that ensure that more wealth is concentrated and maintained at the top. In the last 30 years we have instituted supply side policies with the promise of a rising economic tide and more jobs. That never materialized
Why continue policies that did not work?
You are attempting to blame the engine for a flat tire. Supply side economics doesn't have a damn thing to do with our current economic woes, or wealth/earnings inequality.
Over the last fifty years, the United States, along with all of the countries of the world, have been moving from localized economies to a world economy. This shift has caused disruptions in national economies, as capital shifts with the constantly changing world markets.
Labor suffers because labor, for the most part is not mobile, and is forced to deal with the local conditions, while capital can move freely and rapidly, anywhere in the world to take advantage of favorable economic trends.
Attempting to fight this globalization is futile and counter productive to a local economy. We must accept the inevitable, and learn to prosper in the new environment. Government can do little to help, and most of the politicians efforts have caused more harm than good.
You would have a valid point if the wealthy were also suffering in this economy....they aren't
It is a case of a rising tide only lifting the yachts.
.
Two part question:
1. Is income/wealth inequality a problem in America?
2. If it is, instead of just screaming bumper sticker slogans, precisely what would you do about it? And when I say "precisely", for example, if you'd increase tax rates, to precisely what figures?
I'm hoping for less partisan sloganeering and more actual specifics.
.
Yes, income/wealth inequality is a serious a problem in America.
Time to level the playing field by scrapping the failed "free markets" dogma and imposing realistic import duties so that goods made outside this nation cost at least the same as those made here if not more. This will result in it being cheaper to manufacture here which means more real jobs with benefits.
Reintroduce pension schemes. No one who works full time should be expected to know how to beat the stock market in their spare time. A supermarket checker or a UPS driver or a bank teller should not have to be able to understand collaterized derivatives and all of the other underhanded schemes that operate in the Wall street Casino in order to secure their retirement funds.
Subsidize students to attend Community Colleges for Associate Degrees. By that I mean it should be possible to graduate with an AD without being overburdened with tens of thousands of dollars of loans.
Introduce a National Debt Supplemental Tax of 50% on all income over 25 times the poverty level that only applies if the National Debt exceeds 5% of Revenues. This will be a disincentive for Special Interest lobbyists to push Congress for additional spending.
The progressives have been in charge of government spending for 7 years now. Their ideas don't work and have actually increased income and wealth inequality.
I have to laugh when Conservatives do everything in their power to protect the wealthy and then boast that the wealthy are still getting richer "under the Democrats"
I have no desire to confiscate wealth but I question why we should continue policies that ensure that more wealth is concentrated and maintained at the top. In the last 30 years we have instituted supply side policies with the promise of a rising economic tide and more jobs. That never materialized
Why continue policies that did not work?
Please tell us your ideas then.
Because in the absence of what both sides have established "confiscatory taxes", then the only other method available is to institute some type of "taking" by government...
So, if you would, please offer your ideas.
None of which will alter that income gap.I have no desire to confiscate wealth but I question why we should continue policies that ensure that more wealth is concentrated and maintained at the top. In the last 30 years we have instituted supply side policies with the promise of a rising economic tide and more jobs. That never materialized
Why continue policies that did not work?
Please tell us your ideas then.
Because in the absence of what both sides have established "confiscatory taxes", then the only other method available is to institute some type of "taking" by government...
So, if you would, please offer your ideas.
Pay full tax rate on capital gains
Return to Pre-Reagan tax rates
Provide tax incentives to "Job Creators" only after they have actually created jobs
Reply to #1...How so. Please explain..
Two part question:
1. Is income/wealth inequality a problem in America?
2. If it is, instead of just screaming bumper sticker slogans, precisely what would you do about it? And when I say "precisely", for example, if you'd increase tax rates, to precisely what figures?
I'm hoping for less partisan sloganeering and more actual specifics.
.
1. It is a very serious problem. It is unhealthy for the economy as a whole. 1% of the top earners own 40% of the nation's wealth. This is a consumption based economy. The middle class is shrinking. Economists warn this problem will only lead to more economic crises.
2) Not much can be done about it if there is no regulation on wages. A start would be to raise the minimum wage so it will at least be kept up with inflation.
