I understand the points being made here, but the liberal bias is obvious.
The anti capitalist bullshit is hilarious. Hypocrites like Dalio who made billions because of capitalism decry it as “broken.” Okay Ray, give the money back. Otherwise STFU.
Bill Gates thinks “rich people” should pay more taxes. Okay Billy Boy, write a check to the US Government for as much as you want to pay. Otherwise STFU.
First the problem: destruction of the working class. “Big Business” is always the bogeyman. Liberal drips always whine about globalization and destruction of labor unions, offering both as responsible for drug abuse, poverty, dogs and cats sleeping together, and cancer.
Capitalism, communism, socialism and all other -isms tend toward exploitation of resources, simply because they all count on people to do the “right” thing. As a company your first responsibility is to make money for your shareholders.
If a labor union decides that putting bolts on the bumper of a car is worth $35 an hour then that creates an incentive to find cheaper labor or install robots to do the work.
So that eventually lands the bolt installers on the unemployment line. Since they were part of an artificial economy they can’t find a job that pays that kind of scratch for that kind of work. ‘
That’s the way the market works.
McDonalds charges $1.00 for a cheeseburger. That’s what they believe is a fair price. If the person on the grill demands $15.00 per hour to take your order, McDonald’s can:
1. Raise their prices.
2. Have fewer people taking orders.
3. Replace the order takers with kiosks.
4. Use fewer ingredients.
Ask New York City or Seattle which one McDonald’s chooses.
Once they squeeze the maximum efficiencies out of the business they have to figure out other ways to make more money.
Fortunately (for them) the people we vote for are for sale, and are good investments.
It isn’t difficult to figure out how members of Congress get voted into office with meager net worth and retire as millionaires.
Paraphrasing Harry S Truman, you can’t get rich in politics unless you’re a crook.
It’s simple — they’re whores. They will create any artificial economy a big company asks for as long as the price is right.
The whores are just whoring.
As Ronald Reagan said “Government is not the solution to our problem. It IS the problem.”
In fact, the federal government is a complete scam. They take your property (money), pay a good portion of it to 2 million employees who mostly can’t be fired, and distribute it back to wherever they want, while ensuring that portions of it stick to the fingers of friends, relatives and preferred vendors. If I tried that I’d go to jail. They get rich. While we get the shaft.
Take the so-called “War on Poverty.” The Heritage Foundations says they’ve spent $22 Trillion on anti-poverty programs, not counting Social Security and Medicare. There are still approximately 41 million people in poverty, which is statistically insignificant from 50 years ago when the spending started.
They should have just written them all a check.
And BTW…the average taxpayer pays 23.8% of their income to the Feds. The median income in 2019 was $46,000 and change. So to help people out of poverty, if taxes were eliminated people would get a raise of about ten grand a year.
It’s easy to blame business for crony capitalism. It’s like the joke about the frog and the scorpion. Of course he’s going to sting the frog. He’s a SCORPION. Business does anything and everything they can to create more value for their shareholders. They’re BUSINESS.
When you run out of ideas you control rather than innovating. Hello Apple, Facebook, google. Our greedy elected representatives are tools for that control.
So...destruction of the working class is a metaphor for the destruction of the Republic and erosion of civil society in general, to wit:
1. The removal of God from people’s lives. God represents absolute good. Remove that and anything goes.
The USA, the greatest country ever conceived, was modeled on Judeo-Christian beliefs. Not Hinduism, Atheism, Druidism or any other belief system. You can pretend all you want and piss and moan until the cows come home, but facts are facts.
If the government (or people) become their own moral authority, we end up with babies murdered, rampant corruption, people murdering themselves, and the devaluation of altruism.
2. Feminization of men and gender roles. The idea is to separate people into identity groups and create a hierarchy. Nowhere is this more obvious then with the “snowflakes” and “soy boys.”
Clint Eastwood put it best when he said that “we’re living in sort of a more pussy generation now.”
I’m tired of hearing about toxic masculinity, of being told I can’t offend anyone, of being expected to take responsibility for any act perpetrated by white males anywhere and at any time.
Assholes know no gender or race.
And for Cripe’s sake, cut the crap with the “identification” as a different gender. Calling it sex and separating it from gender. Seriously? Listen. If you have or have ever had a penis, you’re a guy. You can call yourself a Golden Retriever or a donut, but don’t expect me to find you a kennel or a cup of coffee. And you still use the MEN’s room and play MEN’s sports. Why? Because you’re a guy. Period.
Same goes for the vagina crowd.
Yeah it’s amusing, but it’s sinister as well. If we’re all the same we share the least common denominator of gender. We are who and what we say we are, because there are no absolutes and no moral right and wrong.
Marriage becomes devalued. The family becomes devalued. There are no male or female roles or role models. “Gender fluidity” is the new norm for parenting. That will make the mental health industry a growth business.
3. Destruction of American Exceptionalism and identity
Sigh. I’m not apologizing for being American. Yes, we’re boorish and uncultured and all the other crap jealous people say about the people of whom they are jealous.
American Exceptionalism is attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville in his 1835/1840 work, Democracy in America.
Political Scientist Seymour Martin Lipset developed a concept he calls “Americanism,” which is based on liberty, equality before the law, individual responsibility, republicanism, representative democracy and laissez-faire economics.
If you examine each tenet above it becomes immediately obvious how much we’ve strayed from those principles.
I helped one of my friends (a Millenial) study for her teaching certification in Massachusetts. This is a woman with above average intelligence and a master’s degree. She leans to the liberal fantasy realm, but even she was appalled at the characterization of people like Ronald Reagan, and the obvious liberal slant to the curriculum and even the test.
Her civics education was largely completed on her own, and while she has an above average knowledge of American History, there are some pretty serious gaps in what she was taught. And what she will be teaching. Which brings us to…
4. Indoctrinating over educating
It is positively pathetic that only 39% of American adults could pass a quiz based on questions taken from the US Citizen test. Here are some examples:
Only 13 percent of people surveyed knew the Constitution was ratified in June 1788, with most respondents thinking it was 1776, the year the Declaration of Independence was signed. Sixty percent of people did not know which countries America fought during WWII. And, despite the recent spotlight on the Supreme Court, more than half, 57 percent, did not know how many justices are on the court. There are nine.
Additionally, according to the survey, 72 percent of respondents were unsure of or incorrectly identified the original 13 states and only 24 percent were able to identify correctly one thing Benjamin Franklin was famous for (37 percent said it was for inventing the lightbulb). About one-quarter, 24 percent, knew why the colonists fought the British, and while most knew the cause of the Cold War, 2 percent said it was climate change.
How can America continue to be America if no one knows what that means?
So there’s the problem. The NYT says that the solution is (of course), the Government.
After all, they’ve always done so well with every other problem (see War on Poverty above).
I don’t disagree that job (re) training is better than just pushing money at the problem. Even Joe “Learn to Code” Biden acknowledges that.
But why does that always have to be the answer? C’mon….your best example is Canada? Really?
And the healthcare debacle. Yeah, Canada’s is great. That’s why so many people flock to Canada for medical care and innovation. Seriously?
So in conclusion, every problem we have circles back to the government, including healthcare. Starting with Ted Kennedy’s HMOs, the Government can’t do anything better than the market. Game over.
And please. Stop saying that extreme Government (Communism and/or Socialism) will solve everything. Uh huh.
There’s no doubt in my mind leftists believe that Government is the answer. That’s what scares me the most.
As Reagan also said: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the Government and I’m here to help.’”
End of rant.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
I have zero sympathy for these losers. They chose their lifestyles and died enjoying their freedom.
No. It is not.
Or rather you need to decide who you are going to make money for, the people who buy and hold or the people who are looking to make a quick buck by buying your stock and sell it in five minutes.
This is where many publicly held companies flounder and fail.
Your first responsibility is to keep the company in business.
Sometimes that means taking a short term hit for a long term benefit.
It means not selling off assets that are cash cows for a one time bump in profits.
It means keeping R&D going and remembering who your customers are and not ticking them off to get back pats from people who would not be caught dead using your product.
It means remembering that institutional knowledge is a priceless asset. Not just looking at what that person makes and deciding you can hire some wet behind the ears kid to do that job for half the cost. And then having to hire some very pricey specialist to fix the process your cheap labor broke.
And it means grooming your successor to thrive rather then setting him up to fail just so you look good by comparison.
You learn these things when you work for large but privately held companies that are growing while the large publicly held companies are nose diving.
Your shareholders who "buy and hold" will be glad of your actions while the short term buyers will be whining and kicking.
Many good points and I agree with you. One of your most salient is the fact in the last 50 years we have spent over $22 Trillion on the Great Society programs and for the most part they have been a failure.
Yet idiots out there want Reparations and for what? We have paid reparations out the wazoo and have nothing to show for it. There is just nothing left to do. Let these people sink or swim.