Capitalism at its finest

[sstype]

sstype,

My asssertation is that the more .gov you have, the more corruption that goes with it.

My real bone is that you tend to blame plutocracy and oligarchy on the profit motive which I say is inherently false.

I included profit as one way oligarchies can form. Money equals power regardless of its derived source. People that profit immensely can use those excess profits to influence government officials. Not all wealthy people do this....but enough do which taints the whole system.

Size of government is less important than transparency and accountability. You can have "big government" that respects property rights, and is transparent and accountable to the people. Look at Switzerland, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, all first world countries with relatively low corruption and strong government involvement in social welfare and key enterprises.

On the other hand, there are many "small governments" that are way more corrupt and less transparent like Latin America and most African countries.

Remove the power that .gov has for sale, and you reduce the "corporatism" that everyone mentions.


My assertation is that creating more .gov only makes the problem worse since it does not address the root cause, which is, .gov being for sale.

Again corruption will occur regardless of the size of government. Look up Warren G. Harding.

My additional assertation is that the more social safety nets you have (whether corporate or for individuals), the more moral hazard and the less accountability you have.

Moral hazard with respect to individuals should not mean, "you failed, now you must starve/die/live in abject poverty." Have some compassion man.....

Social insurance is supposed to help people in unfortunate circumstances get back on their feet. I agree we need to reform the system so it does not get abused or disincentivizes work, but we don't need to throw the baby out of the bath water because of a few bad apples.

If you insist otherwise, you may want to examine the possibility that one day you may be broke and unable to work due to a debilitating injury/sickness.....how will you support yourself? Will you burden your kids/family? What if no private charities are available? Will you stick to your ideological guns and starve rather than take a government handout?

 

[Alle_Gory]

Today I finished building a product that enables my company to make decisions within minutes, that used to take months.

The results of faster decisions means lower costs, more profit, better cash flow or a stronger Balance sheet.

That simply means your company operates more efficiently to your competitor. You also need less employees. Someone is losing in this equation for the company and the remaining employees to gain.

This isn't creating wealth. It's taking more of the available wealth by means of smart business practices.

I would like an example that creates wealth, not improves it.

Or a more precise example would be Michael Dell.

He started a Computer company in his dorm-room, providing a lower cost PC to everyone and creating jobs at the same time.

Offset jobs. What used to take people now took a few computers. He provided a low cost alternative to high cost computers thereby taking some of the other guy's business.

Another redistribution by smart business practices instead of creation from nothing. This is like saying that robots replacing workers creates wealth. It does not. The overall effect is 0. It's always a zero sum system.


I'll tell you what creates wealth, manufacturing and mining. Someone mines the ground, takes out the ore, some other guy shapes the ore into a widget, some other guy provides accessories for the widget, some other guy provides technical support for the widget, some other guy provides market data for the company making the widget. Now people have more money, have more kids and the kids consume so they buy widgets and sell themselves out for labour at an hourly rate or salary rate. Other resources are consumed to grow more humans. Plants and animals are consumed for their food properties and areas of the planet are cleared because we need space for all this. We consume the earth to make ourselves "wealthy". It's still a zero sum game. Why? Because we can't leave the playroom. We're converting the planet's resources into something else, we're not adding. Really though, you can't add anything. Law of conservation of mass/energy. The entire universe is a massive closed system.

Wealth is consumption.

I think I see now why the bailouts happened. The money we use is bull**** anyways and has no value only what we give it. Governments were attempting to start another cycle of consumption and keep this cycle running.

Disagree?

 

[n00bPimp]

I'll tell you what creates wealth, manufacturing and mining. Someone mines the ground, takes out the ore, some other guy shapes the ore into a widget, some other guy provides accessories for the widget, some other guy provides technical support for the widget, some other guy provides market data for the company making the widget. Now people have more money, have more kids and the kids consume so they buy widgets and sell themselves out for labour at an hourly rate or salary rate. Other resources are consumed to grow more humans. Plants and animals are consumed for their food properties and areas of the planet are cleared because we need space for all this. We consume the earth to make ourselves "wealthy". It's still a zero sum game. Why? Because we can't leave the playroom. We're converting the planet's resources into something else, we're not adding. Really though, you can't add anything. Law of conservation of mass/energy. The entire universe is a massive closed system.

Interesting. I'm really curious as to where illegal drug manufacturers fit into this. Do they create wealth or cause no change?