An interesting commentary on our economy


http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_wright_show/2012/08/01/why_rich_people_better_start_worrying_about_income_inequality.html?fb_ref=sm_fb_like_blogpost&fb_source=home_multiline

Adam Smith Nothing else is needed.

One step.
As an engineer I see the economy as an under-damped system, the increasing use of automated transaction systems has a tendency to produce rapid perturbations in that system. So ban all automated transactions - those that do not have a human in the driving seat making the buy/sell/price decision.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Adam Smith Nothing else is needed.

As our economy is just as bad as the rest, and those in charge must know about Adam Smith, as his portrait is on the back of our current £20 note, I'm not convinced his economic model is working in the present day economy.

Adam Smith was right. He never visualized a social world order where indolence was rewarded. The problem is capital; and who is vacuuming up all of the capital that should be used to drive the economy.

Your capital has gone to the Oil Patch, funding social programs for the unproductive, the medical community, China, fighting useless wars of religious idiocy, the Corn producers and the phony Wall Street, Banking and financial market manipulations.

It's all about special interests on a global scale. We cannot grow out of this without cheap and abundant energy and a return of a manufacturing base. In other words we can't grow out of this by taking in each others washing and those that can't pay for theirs as well.

I think that people around the world need to be told, just as Peter Stuyvesant told his early group of settlers in New York. "No work--No eat". Well, I am a New Yorker by birth.

Do you agree? What are your prescriptions for fixing these conditions??

Adam Smith was right. He never visualized a social world order where indolence was rewarded. The problem is capital; and who is vacuuming up all of the capital that should be used to drive the economy.

Your capital has gone to the Oil Patch, funding social programs for the unproductive, the medical community, China, fighting useless wars of religious idiocy, the Corn producers and the phony Wall Street, Banking and financial market manipulations.

It's all about special interests on a global scale. We cannot grow out of this without cheap and abundant energy and a return of a manufacturing base. In other words we can't grow out of this by taking in each others washing and those that can't pay for theirs as well........

You're right. Adam Smith envisaged that capital would be used to Produce things not disappear up its own patootie in a high speed whirlwind of speculation.

This has been the problem. No new capital has been generated, all these impressive figures are due to debt and the same old money going round in ever decreasing circles. As no new capital has been created the circus has been funded by debt and that debt is now falling due.

T.A.

Well, the UK banks were planning on raising interest rates on saver account to
draw in more money to work with....just like banking used to be. But, and I say
again, but!! the UK government has immediately stepped in to insert capital into
the banks to finance public borrowing, mortgages etc. Why did the Government do
this so rapidly....because if it didn't then interest rates would start to rise
and as you know the Government is keeping interest rates falsely low so that
the saver is paying for the debts of the country. So who is the real enemy of
this financial debakle we're in...our Governments and right from the start but
unfortunately the banks tried to capitalise on this folly and got it wrong too
themselves.

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The Kite Fliers

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Kite fliers: An imaginary club of solo members, those who don't yet
belong to a formal team so "fly their own kites" - as the saying goes.

Ah yes. How am I going to pay for this. That is the mystery. A 10% reduction in the size of government and closing half of our overseas bases would be a start. Eliminating susidies for corn and ethanol and oil might also add a trickle to the pot as well.

Taxing churches on their income would add another slug.

I suspect that there would be an enormous one time requirement to switch off of social security. Both to refund the amounts paid in to those under 45 and to fund the loss of income from these former participants.

Perhaps someone can add some real numbers to these musings and see if I amshort a little or are otherwise whistling DIXIE.

I suspect that there would be an enormous one time requirement to switch off of social security. Both to refund the amounts paid in to those under 45 and to fund the loss of income from these former participants.

Well, Will'; social security spending, due to it's cost and drag on the economy,
can be seen for what it really is, "A luxury". A luxury that is affordable when
your economy is continually growing. But when the economy turns ex-growth, as
all economies eventually do..(sic' "Great Britain" you end up with a
millstone around your neck, one that is ever so hard to shed. No one's shed it yet,
but their going to have to shed it one day....mark my words.

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The Kite Fliers

--------------------
Kite fliers: An imaginary club of solo members, those who don't yet
belong to a formal team so "fly their own kites" - as the saying goes.

Im 60 and if the Government would give me back all the money I have paid in with interest, I would glady put it in a 401K or something similar. Im afraid in 6 more years I might not have anything I paid in to get back.

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Old James

Adam Smith was right. He never visualized a social world order where indolence was rewarded. The problem is capital; and who is vacuuming up all of the capital that should be used to drive the economy.

Everyone is into their own interests. That is not a bad thing. I trade my work for monies. Problem is that money is not backed by anything of worth. The gold standard needs to be brought back. If you think there isn't enough gold, draw in some of that paper floating around. If that isn't enough add silver, even Plutonium and Uranium [refined] would work, might even work better?

Your capital has gone to the Oil Patch, funding social programs for the unproductive, the medical community, China, fighting useless wars of religious idiocy, the Corn producers and the phony Wall Street, Banking and financial market manipulations.

Indeed, agreed 100%.

It's all about special interests on a global scale. We cannot grow out of this without cheap and abundant energy and a return of a manufacturing base. In other words we can't grow out of this by taking in each others washing and those that can't pay for theirs as well.

Once again, agreed.

I think that people around the world need to be told, just as Peter Stuyvesant told his early group of settlers in New York. "No work--No eat". Well, I am a New Yorker by birth.

I wouldn't call it the rotten apple if more believed as you do.

Do you agree? What are your prescriptions for fixing these conditions??

Yes, with it all but taxing Churches. Really, how much of a dent would be made by taxing them?

Adam Smith Nothing else is needed.

As our economy is just as bad as the rest, and those in charge must know about Adam Smith, as his portrait is on the back of our current £20 note, I'm not convinced his economic model is working in the present day economy.

Winter, of course the model Adam Smith described is not working, now or then. For it to be valid he made a couple of assumptions. Among them was that all economic elements had to be so small that their individual effect was trivial. Cartels and oligopolies existed then and now. Knowledge was uniformly available. Insider deals happened then and now.
Those who long for laissez-faire capitalism are living in a fantasy world.

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Says the man whos best buddy is WIKI.

Says the man whos best buddy is WIKI.

ID, to whom are you speaking?

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Adam Smith was right. He never visualized a social world order where indolence was rewarded. The problem is capital; and who is vacuuming up all of the capital that should be used to drive the economy.

Everyone is into their own interests. That is not a bad thing. I trade my work for monies. Problem is that money is not backed by anything of worth. The gold standard needs to be brought back. If you think there isn't enough gold, draw in some of that paper floating around. If that isn't enough add silver, even Plutonium and Uranium [refined] would work, might even work better?

Your capital has gone to the Oil Patch, funding social programs for the unproductive, the medical community, China, fighting useless wars of religious idiocy, the Corn producers and the phony Wall Street, Banking and financial market manipulations.

Indeed, agreed 100%.

It's all about special interests on a global scale. We cannot grow out of this without cheap and abundant energy and a return of a manufacturing base. In other words we can't grow out of this by taking in each others washing and those that can't pay for theirs as well.

Once again, agreed.

I think that people around the world need to be told, just as Peter Stuyvesant told his early group of settlers in New York. "No work--No eat". Well, I am a New Yorker by birth.

I wouldn't call it the rotten apple if more believed as you do.

Do you agree? What are your prescriptions for fixing these conditions??

Yes, with it all but taxing Churches. Really, how much of a dent would be made by taxing them?

And Dena laughed at me when I said the Tea Party & Occupy Wall Street are pissed about some of the same things.

Here's a few other thought provoking questions on the subject at hand.

The US spends around three quarters of a trillion dollars ($750,000,000,000) on the military and the current wars each year, Inspite of this, 18 people from a stone-age society with one dollar box cutters brought down the world Trade Centers, smashed into the Pentagon, ruined a good part of our economy and changed the way of life for all of us.

Could you be just as effective with an annual expenditure of, say, 200 billion dollars and use the rest to fund socialist security reform.

In places where I teach about half drop out of class or make F's each semester in math. Almost all have financial aid. My community college accepts students who have an ACT score of 13. These do not predict to graduate with the required C average. Here maybe 1/3 will pass the math courses that I teach and I do everything possible to get them through the course. The government grants and support are around $100 Billion per year. I would rather teach just those students who are capable of passing. I would limit aid and grants to those scoring a minimum of 19 on the ACT. This would fund maybe 50 billion of socialist security reforms as well.

I see that ethanol subsidies are due to run out, The 10% ethanol mandate still exists for use in gasoline. This will add another 5 cents per gallon to the cost of wholesale gasoline and who knows how much at the pump. There goes more of consumer capital down the drain(or into your fuel tank).

In places where I teach about half drop out of class or make F's each semester in math. Almost all have financial aid. My community college accepts students who have an ACT score of 13. These do not predict to graduate with the required C average. Here maybe 1/3 will pass the math courses that I teach and I do everything possible to get them through the course. The government grants and support are around $100 Billion per year. I would rather teach just those students who are capable of passing. I would limit aid and grants to those scoring a minimum of 19 on the ACT. This would fund maybe 50 billion of socialist security reforms as well.

Are you familiar with the term "ghost student"? I ask this in all seriousness.

[quote]In places where I teach about half drop out of class or make F's each semester in math. Almost all have financial aid. My community college accepts students who have an ACT score of 13. These do not predict to graduate with the required C average. Here maybe 1/3 will pass the math courses that I teach and I do everything possible to get them through the course. The government grants and support are around $100 Billion per year. I would rather teach just those students who are capable of passing. I would limit aid and grants to those scoring a minimum of 19 on the ACT. This would fund maybe 50 billion of socialist security reforms as well.

Are you familiar with the term "ghost student"? I ask this in all seriousness.[/qu
Are you implicating that a certain POTUS is one? Id like to see his collage transcrits along with Mitts tax returns. lets see who has what to hide.

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[/quote]

Old James

Ghost student used to refer to fake or non existent students. It can also mean Athletes that sign up for classes but never show and still get a C.

I am familiar with For Profit/institutes/Colleges/online colleges, which are a current topic in Doonesbury this week, that enroll every person they can find on the street including homeless people and get them signed up for financial aid. The schools take a better part of the aid and the homeless person being homeless never pays it back, not that they recieved anything more than a few bucks for their time.

As I recall the for profits are being forced to enroll viable students if they want their students to get financial aid. They have to keep failure rates below a specific margin(10-20% the last I checked)to keep their schools on the gov't dole.

We've all seen the commercials for ITT, DeVry, Southern New Hampshire U.(I didn't know NH was big enough to have a southern anything),kapler, UofPhoenix etc. all are pretty much a money pit for students. Sadly, they are allowed to continue bilking the gov't for megabucks while real colleges suffer from financial cutbacks.

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

I don't belong to the Tea Party.