NoEndslefttoSplit (sp?) makes many excellent points.
What are just some of the wonderful features of the Nordic social democracies? Secure economic property rights for one. A willingness to use price mechanisms to solve market failures as liberal economists would see them.
It really bugs the shit out of me how many North American, well, mostly American political leaders will design incentive structures that are oblivious to how the burden of risk is shared and distributed. They also seem oblivious to the notion that systems can be designed to provide incentives to conserve without invoking/imposing massive windfall gains or losses.
The USA really should put this national cheap energy entitlement obsession behind it. For the benefit of all Americans.
"U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, who was forced to cut short a holiday jaunt with his family to the Mexican beach resort of Cancun after public outrage, also distanced himself from the free-market system he had previously praised."
âThis is WRONG,â Cruz wrote on Twitter. âNo power company should get a windfall because of a natural disaster, and Texans shouldnât get hammered by ridiculous rate increases for last weekâs energy debacle. State and local regulators should act swiftly to prevent this injustice.â
What's astonishing from a European perspective is the constant peddling of a false dichotomy within the US that there is EITHER capitalism OR socialism, yet there is hardly any country in the entire world that doesn't practice some kind of mixed form economy and the US is no exception. Were the dichotomy between unfettered capitalism and a mixed market social welfare economy as clear cut as the CATO pundits constantly preach, you would see it clearly in measures of economic performance, but this is not the case. Not only do a huge number of countries outperform the US on other metrics of social well-being but their GDP is also comparable to the US, or at least in the same ball park. Seriously, the Nordic model works. Try it some time. As Rasmussen states, it is all founded on a market economy. It is not a soviet style command economy that seems to spook you all out so much.
What is frequently overlooked, and far more important than the relative share of government activity in the overall economy, are other cultural factors: both negative ones, such as corruption, nepotism, but also positive factors, such as respect for the rule of law, etc. You can see that cultural factors play a more decisive role than the actual form of an economy when countries go to war. The Soviet command economy (admittedly with a lot of transfers of material from the Allies) nevertheless managed to organise and push back the Nazi highly industrialised war machine. That is a hell of a feat for an agrarian command economy. In other words, when push comes to shove, even a command economy can work fine if the people want it to.
On the other hand, any system will collapse when it is run by a bunch of crooks. Even free market libertarianism is predicated on the assumption that everyone in a free market is going to respect your rights, but that is far from given. A far better approach in my mind is to invest heavily in free top quality education across the board and teach people about civic duty and what makes society tick. You need to get people to buy in to society if you want it to work.
Society - it is a team sport and a functioning society offers individuals a massive amount of freedom and opportunity. A dysfunctional society doesn't and the US is in grave danger of becoming one.
coffee thoughts
it's all about distortions of definitions/language and framing to advance literally a theological political and/or religious agenda
the current situation is nothing new, balkanize into two tribes and paint the other tribe as the problem/enemy until they actually begin to believe it
conquer by any means (especially implied force and violence) justifies the ends
tribalism is always an easier sell if one doesn't use critical thought
imagine two circles, one has a p(roblem) in the center, the other an s(olution)
notice which one gets the most attention or sell
if we identify a problem and put the proper label on it then we should turn to a solution
we shouldn't fear problems, they are always going to be with us, so the focus and incentive should be on the solution
if you are signaling or employing violent intentions as a solution that destroys and credibility and trust
harming a peaceful person who disagrees with your belief or philosophy is wrong regardless of who tells you it is necessary
do politicians know what they are doing? has the solution building process become ineffective due to stoking/selling polarization and violence?
compliance through violence against peaceful peeps is a set up for conflict/war and ultimately failure
there are people right now selling elon musk and his paper wealth as a problem
bill gates too, regardless of the solutions they have built based on voluntary participation
sirdroseph wrote: What's astonishing from a European perspective is the constant peddling of a false dichotomy within the US that there is EITHER capitalism OR socialism, yet there is hardly any country in the entire world that doesn't practice some kind of mixed form economy and the US is no exception. Were the dichotomy between unfettered capitalism and a mixed market social welfare economy as clear cut as the CATO pundits constantly preach, you would see it clearly in measures of economic performance, but this is not the case. Not only do a huge number of countries outperform the US on other metrics of social well-being but their GDP is also comparable to the US, or at least in the same ball park. Seriously, the Nordic model works. Try it some time. As Rasmussen states, it is all founded on a market economy. It is not a soviet style command economy that seems to spook you all out so much.
What is frequently overlooked, and far more important than the relative share of government activity in the overall economy, are other cultural factors: both negative ones, such as corruption, nepotism, but also positive factors, such as respect for the rule of law, etc. You can see that cultural factors play a more decisive role than the actual form of an economy when countries go to war. The Soviet command economy (admittedly with a lot of transfers of material from the Allies) nevertheless managed to organise and push back the Nazi highly industrialised war machine. That is a hell of a feat for an agrarian command economy. In other words, when push comes to shove, even a command economy can work fine if the people want it to.
On the other hand, any system will collapse when it is run by a bunch of crooks. Even free market libertarianism is predicated on the assumption that everyone in a free market is going to respect your rights, but that is far from given. A far better approach in my mind is to invest heavily in free top quality education across the board and teach people about civic duty and what makes society tick. You need to get people to buy in to society if you want it to work.
Society - it is a team sport and a functioning society offers individuals a massive amount of freedom and opportunity. A dysfunctional society doesn't and the US is in grave danger of becoming one.
She's absolutely right. Small biz is getting hammered, mostly locked out of tge cares act, bank lending, don't have access to bond markets...meanwhile the s&p 500 is at record levels. K shaped recovery. Tax their excess profits.
Big business will screw you in a cold, impersonal way, but small buz can screw you as bad or worse, because the owner sees a direct, personal, link between that and money in their pocket
I'm not sure what that means? I'm not blaming large cos, just pointing out the obvious re this K shape economic recovery. those on the upper arm are in a huge economic expansion, those on the lower a deep depression. My point was many large cos are getting a huge windfall of profit and cash flow, from both sales lift and margin lift because they don't need to be promotional. Some employees have gotten hero pay, but majority of windfall is going to shareholders...see the equity index at record levels. Im not much of an advocate for income redistribution, But in this case....
I take it then you are probably not a fan of de Blasio
but majority of windfall is going to shareholders...see the equity index at record levels. Im not much of an advocate for income redistribution, But in this case....
Nor am I. Back in the 70's IIRC, we had a windfall profits tax on oil production that addressed some of this.
It worked and did sunset after a period of time. I don't know how you address it now.
Most likely it is time for trust busting and break up these Megaliths.
How goods and services are traded has forever changed now with the pandemic.
JIT or Just In Time inventory management has stopped working, too. Certain aspects of hospitality, travel and dining are done, gone the way of the buggy whip.
A very large segment of the population is going to have to find new kinds of employment in jobs and areas that do not yet exist.
A new supply chain will be designed with more automation and more AI calling the shots. Humans become less necessary, especially in production of goods.
The same old problem comes around again. How do we provide meaningful employment for consumers so they can keep buying goods and services to keep this whole thing working ?
You got me.
If nothing else this pandemic has gotten in the way of those used to instant gratification. Now people are going to have to learn how to plan things out and deal with turnaround times and medium term cyclical things.
Tulsi Gabbard introduces bill to tax big tech and big box stores, help small businesses during Covid Crisis
She's absolutely right. Small biz is getting hammered, mostly locked out of tge cares act, bank lending, don't have access to bond markets...meanwhile the s&p 500 is at record levels. K shaped recovery. Tax their excess profits.
Big business will screw you in a cold, impersonal way, but small buz can screw you as bad or worse, because the owner sees a direct, personal, link between that and money in their pocket
I'm not sure what that means? I'm not blaming large cos, just pointing out the obvious re this K shape economic recovery. those on the upper arm are in a huge economic expansion, those on the lower a deep depression. My point was many large cos are getting a huge windfall of profit and cash flow, from both sales lift and margin lift because they don't need to be promotional. Some employees have gotten hero pay, but majority of windfall is going to shareholders...see the equity index at record levels. Im not much of an advocate for income redistribution, But in this case....
Tulsi Gabbard introduces bill to tax big tech and big box stores, help small businesses during Covid Crisis
She's absolutely right. Small biz is getting hammered, mostly locked out of tge cares act, bank lending, don't have access to bond markets...meanwhile the s&p 500 is at record levels. K shaped recovery. Tax their excess profits.
Big business will screw you in a cold, impersonal way, but small buz can screw you as bad or worse, because the owner sees a direct, personal, link between that and money in their pocket
Tulsi Gabbard introduces bill to tax big tech and big box stores, help small businesses during Covid Crisis
She's absolutely right. Small biz is getting hammered, mostly locked out of tge cares act, bank lending, don't have access to bond markets...meanwhile the s&p 500 is at record levels. K shaped recovery. Tax their excess profits.
"Goldman Sachs chief economist, Jan Hatzius, said his team investigated the link between face masks and COVID-19 health and economic outcomes and found a national mask mandate could save the country from a huge economic hit â a point that may grab Trump's attention. "These calculations imply that a face mask mandate could potentially substitute for lockdowns that would otherwise subtract nearly 5% from GDP," the economist wrote in a note to clients." -ABC News, June 30, 2020
We don't have a mask mandate or recommendations. Getting hot spot resurgence and rapid increases in number of cases in the Melbourne suburbs. Today's local paper had articles calling for easing restrictions on tourism and the hospitality industries. You aren't going to get a tourism industry recovery if you become the next hotspot.
"Goldman Sachs chief economist, Jan Hatzius, said his team investigated the link between face masks and COVID-19 health and economic outcomes and found a national mask mandate could save the country from a huge economic hit — a point that may grab Trump's attention. "These calculations imply that a face mask mandate could potentially substitute for lockdowns that would otherwise subtract nearly 5% from GDP," the economist wrote in a note to clients." -ABC News, June 30, 2020
capitalism is one of those words that people have multiple (or at least a couple of) definitions
sort of like the free market
and there are others
i'm looking for a word
sophistry?
the abuse and misuse seems especially bad in higher ed and acolytes
whatever
if there's violence being threatened or initiated against peaceful peeps, i'm not interested
because human/property rights
hey look! there's the ring of power! we must get control at all costs!
I don't think capitalism is actually obtainable. instead, i'm leaning towards a cooperative version of capitalism. many's coops already exist, and thrive...but are threatened by larger cos, with unorganized, and compromised labor. edit, and the consumer, more interested in cheap, than actual value
This, a thousand times. I know Amazon is convenient, but at what cost? I spent 4 hours with a guy last week designing a system and when I followed up, he said he purchased it online, but still wanted me to install it. I told him we would be happy to do that, but we couldn't provide warranty coverage on the gear. He got pissed and is shopping for another installer. We are fortunate to have many customers who aren't like this, but the ones that are make it really hard.
