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Patrick posted an interesting piece. Rehearsals for a Civil War
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2010 Feb 23, 3:05pm 1,609 views 11 comments
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Â¥
2010 Feb 23, 4:39pm
Let California raise taxes and create a state health care system. Let Nebraska farmers do without their subsidies from other states. etc…
As a Californian, I'm all for this. The Blue States are subsidizing the Red State conservatism.
See how far the red states sink to third world sh--holes once the $700B/yr defense budget goes bye-bye.
California only receives 80c on every dollar sent to DC. Being a G20 economy on our lonesomes, we could cut taxes and have a balanced budget much like Canada's, with gay marriage, socialist medicine, and carbon taxes for farting.
We'd take Oregon and Washington, Nevada too for Heavenly and Vegas.
But you're all wet here. Politics isn't the problem, conservatism is the problem. Conservatism is anti-science, pro-religious creationist foo-fah, anti-choice, anti-liberty, anti-equal rights for gays, anti-labor, pro-business, pro-war, etc etc.
There's nothing more I'd like to see than Palin 2012 to prove this by a real-life demonstration. I'll be up in Canada enjoying the drama.
But as an American, I know this is is poppycock and fantasyland stuff. Politics isn't the problem, YOU are the problem. YOU (or people like you) put people into power that made very bad public policy decisions over the past decade-plus. Decisions that might in fact have killed the economic future of this country.
Why do we do business with banks that do not have the responsibility to keep our money in trust?
Libertarian extremists are also economic illiterates. You want interest on your money the bank has to lend it out and not "keep it in trust", whatever that means.
The “investment†goes to a company who is mandated by law to strive to increase profits at virtually all cost. Is that the kind of system you want your labor supporting?
Libertarian extremists also seem to be a very confused individuals. Note, this isn't an ad hominem attack, just an opinion.
There is no perfect system. There is only balance between too much order and too much chaos.
Ponder the yin in the yang.
Buy gold and silver.
Â¥
2010 Feb 24, 6:36am
i've got an 8lb jug of Orville Reddenbacker from costco, a popper from Target, I'm good to go.
I have no great expectations that any Left coalition is going to make any headway in this country. Obama and the Technocrats could very well be a one-off.
No skin off my nose. A people get the gummint they deserve.
RayAmerica
2010 Feb 24, 6:49am
Buy gold and silver.
The Sec. of the Treasury still has the authority to confiscate under the Federal Reserve Act, 12 U.S.C. 248(n) which states: “Whenever, in the judgment of the Secretary of the Treasury, such action is necessary to protect the currency system of the United States, the Secretary – at his discretion, may require any or all individuals – to pay and deliver to the Treasurer of the United States any or all gold coins, bullion, and gold certificates owned by such individuals.†Isn’t government wonderful ?? Interesting silver isn't mentioned .... does that make it exempt?
We are living in a more dangerous economic and political world climate than ever before and there is less real civilized dialog than ever before about how to deal with the problems.
Than ever before? Really? Do you now believe that human civilization has only lasted for, I dunno, 70 years or so?
PeopleUnited
2010 Feb 27, 11:44am
We are living in a more dangerous economic and political world climate than ever before and there is less real civilized dialog than ever before about how to deal with the problems.
Than ever before? Really? Do you now believe that human civilization has only lasted for, I dunno, 70 years or so?
America is at a crossroads. Either we find a way to live within our means and quit playing the policeman of the world or our little American experiment is over. Freedom isn't free and neither is prosperity. You can't print a worthless piece of paper in exchange for valuable resources forever.
We're not exchanging our worthless pieces of paper for valuable resources. We're mostly exchanging it for cheap human labor.
Â¥
2010 Feb 27, 2:31pm
labor is a resource in most economic text books
Labor is actually an ephemeral service. What the employer pays a laborer is not for the labor per se, but for the property rights to the laborer's output.
China has 1 billion people more than the US in about the same land area but one eighth the arable land.
This pushes unskilled labor wages down to subsistence level, which is pretty low given the standard of living in factory-town China.
Thanks to this labor and imported inflation, China's government might now be sitting on $2T+ of dollar-denominated assets, but Greenspan jacked M2 from $2T to $7T under his watch, and Bernanke's hoping he's got another $7T in the money bazooka.
The failure to deal with China via diplomacy and OPEC via industrial policy (government investment in alternatives to OPEC's output) over the past 20 years is the major mistake I think.
PeopleUnited
2010 Feb 28, 2:40am
Labor is actually an ephemeral service. What the employer pays a laborer is not for the labor per se, but for the property rights to the laborer’s output.
Ever heard of human resources? Not every employee produces an output that can be owned packaged and delivered and stored on a shelf. But every employee is paid somehow. Besides, you can't tell me we are not sending worthless dollars in exchange for valuable goods and services from abroad. I know you just like to argue for the sake of it but all of this is digression from the premise of the article above, and that is that America is at a crossroads.
And the remainder of your post above does a much better job of addressing that fact.
From that graph it becomes pretty clear that beginning in 1980 we went off course. Some want to blame deregulation. But the fact of the matter is that the FED enabled excessive borrowing and government spending. The FED allows BOTH corporations and government to spend irresponsibly, with the guarantee that if either gets in trouble we can just devalue our currency and bail them out at the expense of savers and laborors.
Â¥
2010 Feb 28, 3:24am
Ever heard of human resources?
Labor is a flow, not a stock. (but I agree that I was arguing for argument's sake)
http://kunstler.com/blog/2010/02/rehearsals-for-a-civil-war.html?source=patrick.net
One thing that stuck out in my mind as I read this is the fact that in pursuing the differing philosophies we all hold about what form of government we should have, we are in all likelihood doing nothing to address the actual problems that we are facing. We are living in a more dangerous economic and political world climate than ever before and there is less real civilized dialog than ever before about how to deal with the problems. Even on this website we cannot argue our points without calling names, discounting the credibility of someone else's ideas (Ad Hominem attacks: by the way I chose my name because so many comments on my posts constituted personal attacks that I thought I might as well acknowledge it and give people pause to think before they use those "arguments") and never admitting the fault and problems with your own way of thinking.
I for one know that statements by some of my Libertarian hero's like Mises when he says "government is the negation of liberty" while accurate in spirit are not always accurate in application. (the Declaration of Independence clearly states that our government was established to help secure our divinely appointed rights). The same could be said for the prophets of other schools of thought from socialist to anarchist whose dogma is perhaps pure in spirit by flawed in application.
America, if it is to survive must do so by each and every one of us admitting that we are blinded by our own pride into believing that our way of thinking is superior to others. We can learn something from just about everyone, as long as we in good faith listen to what they have to say and are willing to use what we hear to challenge our own warped way of thinking. The fact of the matter is each and every one of us has a warped way of thinking in one area or another because we do not all have the benefit of the same life experiences. How many here grew up poor? How many here have missed a meal? How many here have fought a war? How many here have lived in a country occupied by outside invaders? How many here are prepared to live without running water or electricity for extended periods? How many here who are tolerant of alternative lifestyles are tolerant of religion and vice versa?
My point is we need to find some common ground or the battlefield of ideology will eat us all up (if our creditors don't). In an effort to allow local areas to bend toward the ideology of residents in those areas perhaps we would be better off if we gave states more responsibility in tackling social problems and leave the federal government to handle the broader interests of national defense and international relations. Let California raise taxes and create a state health care system. Let Nebraska farmers do without their subsidies from other states. etc...
Another step we as individuals need to take, is more control over our finances. Why do we do business with banks that do not have the responsibility to keep our money in trust? In fact, I find it hard to justify investing any money on Wall Street including stock based retirement accounts. The "investment" goes to a company who is mandated by law to strive to increase profits at virtually all cost. Is that the kind of system you want your labor supporting? It is not sustainable let alone ethical to expect that a company have a good year every year without some sort of malfeasance. Even the best athletes don't win every contest, how can we expect businesses to always create a return on investment? Furthermore with the way they have behaved do they deserve any of your investment? We may be forced to buy their products by why should we fund their bonuses with our retirement accounts let alone our tax dollars?
Anyways we need to be more understanding and willing to listen to one another. We need to be willing to work hard as individuals, rewarding those who do and not those who don't. We need to show honesty ourselves and invest our resources with others who are honest (and finding those is not going to be easy: just ask the clients of Bernie Madoff and the thousands -small and large- like him who who have not yet been identified as the shysters they are).